In article . net,
Mike Rapoport wrote:
My upper rotating beacon has stopped rotating and I am debating whether to
overhaul it or replace it with one of the new Whelen flashing beacons.

The Grimes rotating beacon on my plane did not rotate when I bought it.
My understanding is that you can't get parts for them anymore, but some
people have made a single working unit from several dead ones. My wingtip
strobes are visible from the rear, so I don't think it's even required
for night flight, but on the advice of my A&P he replaced it with a
strobe. The new one has no moving parts, just a half red/half white
lens and a strobe that's powered by one of the channels of the strobe
power supply that was already installed.

I haven't noticed any radio noise from this installation. In fact,
when I took apart my wingtip to change my landing light I discovered
that the remote flux gate for my HSI is mounted in the wingtip right
behind the nav and strobe lights. And it seems to work fine.

The main thing I don't like about it is that in ground operations when
you wouldn't want to be blinding people with strobes you can't have a
beacon either. No one has run into me yet, though.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/