As an off shoot to this (and a work around, although I wasn't looking for one haha!)I did a little more research and managed to get this working.
In a script, I create a chopper, crew it, set its behaviour, give it some waypoints then pass it into the below:
null=[_searchChop] spawn {
while {true} do { player action ["lightOn", _this select 0]; sleep 0.01; };
};
main light/searchlight/reflector is on, however, method has couple of probs which I haven't thought out yet.
Trouble with this method,
a) endless loop (no, no, never)
b) the sleep 0.01, wasted CPU cycles.
Changing the sleep period, even by .4, causes the search light to flicker and is NOT to be tested by those who suffer from flashing images (this is not a joke!)
Without this however, the AI turns the light off, regardless of combat mode/behaviour