On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 22:58:44 -0600, "JH" u wrote:

Personally, I enjoy an evening flight that lasts into twilight and a
little beyond. The air is calmer. Air traffic chatter is less. The lights of
the countryside are beautiful. And the stars and moon seem closer. Realize
it is riskier. But leaving the ground is riskier.

Don't have to use it if installed. If not installed, CAN'T use it. If it
helps you get home once or twice a year, it is well worth it. IMHO

As ever, it depends on the builder's mission. Putting lights (and the
capability to power them) on a typical Fly Baby would add ~40-60 pounds.
That's a 10-20% hit on useful load.

Just illustrates the ever-present danger of mission creep. Most folks
won't be satisfied with just nav lights and a strobe. They want a landing
light, too. Oops, got a taildragger, so I need *two* landing lights (one
to light the taxiway in three-point attitude). What about the panel
lights? Most people probably aren't happy with the cyalume lightstick I
use, so in goes the post lighting for the instrument panel.

So now you're running dozens of feet of wire through the aircraft, plus the
light fixtures, plus the strobe power supply, plus the switches, plus the
fuses, plus the spare fuses, plus the generator, plus the battery, plus the
battery cables, plus the maintenance access for the battery, all the
crimp-on connections, etc. etc. etc. You'll have to add a transponder,
too, if you live within a Class B veil.

I flew a club no-electric Fly Baby for seven years, then bought a Fly Baby
with a very basic electrical system for my very own. Empty weight of
no-radio Fly Baby: 650 pounds. Empty weight of electrical-system'd Fly
Baby with same engine: 812 pounds. Some of that is a starter that I don't
really need and some overbuilding of some aspects of the airframe. Heck, I
saved 6 pounds when I switched to a drycell battery, and was happy to get
it.

Again, I'm not anti-lights. If someone's mission includes night or
twilight flying, go for it. But otherwise, I'd just run the wires through
the wings and tail to the proper locations and install that stuff later, if
it turns out it's needed.

Ron Wanttaja