An airbus captain flying a morning; daylight VMC approach below an overcast; reported the lax runway...

Attributes
ACN	1194834
Time
Date	201408
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	LAX.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Airbus 318/319/320/321 Undifferentiated
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 230 Flight Crew Total 14500 Flight Crew Type 4500
Events
Anomaly	No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types

Narrative:

When we broke out below the overcast [and] the recently installed PAPI on the right side of runway 25L was not visible but the PAPI for 25R was shining like the sun. As we got closer we could see that the runway 25L PAPI was very dimly lit. Tower tried to adjust the brightness for both the left and right PAPI without success. It was not a problem for us as we were VMC well above the ground but in an environment of very low ceilings[in] the proximity of the runways and the papis might lead a crew to attempt to land on the incorrect runway. Also; I am not sure why the PAPI is on for a runway (25R) which is used almost exclusively for takeoff and only rarely is used for landing.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Airbus Captain flying a morning; daylight VMC approach below an overcast; reported the LAX Runway 25L PAPI dimly lit while the 25R PAPI was very bright. Tower was unable to adjust either PAPI's illumination level.

Narrative: When we broke out below the overcast [and] the recently installed PAPI on the right side of Runway 25L was not visible but the PAPI for 25R was shining like the sun. As we got closer we could see that the Runway 25L PAPI was very dimly lit. Tower tried to adjust the brightness for both the left and right PAPI without success. It was not a problem for us as we were VMC well above the ground but in an environment of very low ceilings[in] the proximity of the runways and the PAPIs might lead a crew to attempt to land on the incorrect runway. Also; I am not sure why the PAPI is on for a runway (25R) which is used almost exclusively for takeoff and only rarely is used for landing.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

An airbus captain flying a morning; daylight VMC approach below an overcast; reported the lax runway 25L PAPI dimly lit while the 25R PAPI was very bright. Tower was unable to adjust either PAPI's illumination level.