Nathan Young wrote:
On Sat, 6 May 2006 20:56:54 -0600, "Robert Barker"
wrote:

We seem to be going thru landing lights more frequently than we should in
our 172's. Are there any STCd alternatives to the standard Cessna part?
Maybe a LED lamp or at least something more durable? I realize it's only a
$40 part, but we're a new club and every little bit helps...

A few suggestions.

1. Make sure that pilots are not turning the lights on/off/on in a
short timespan. I have accidentally toggled the light switch on my
Cherokee, and it blew the light very quickly.

2. I orientate my bulbs so that the filament is vertical. This is
supposed to help with the vibration issue, but who knows.

3. If you have wingtip lights and nose bowl lights, use only the
wingtip lights when possible. There is less vibration in the wingtips
than in the nose bowl.


A maint. volunteer in my club told me that landing lights have limited
life, like 400 hours or so. So if people are flying around with them
on all the time to improve their visibility (not necessarily a bad idea
in the pattern) you would expect them to be burning out frequently.

He also suggested not checking them during preflight because it's not
required and every time you turn one on and off, you're shortening its
lifetime. He came to this conclusion after he checked a landing light
in preflight, then it burned out when he turned it on during the
subsquent flight. So the preflight check was useless anyway and it
probably helped hasten the bulb's demise.

Just grist for the mill...