I tend to use a little flashlight that Rayovac makes. (I don't remember
their part number, but you can buy them at Wal-Mart for less than $10..
they're green with a clip, swivel head, and both a red and white lens, and
they run on a couple of AA batteries). When you clip it to your headset, it
gives you straight-ahead lighting, which is somewhat adjustable and perfect
for helping you see the panel. I use it as a backup source of panel light,
and supplemental lighting when flying night IFR in poorly lit airplanes.
They are, howver a bit too bright and too red (if you use the red lens) for
map reading.

Just my two cents.

-Rob
-Rob

"Josef Burger" wrote in message
.. .
What do you use for extra and backup lighting in the cockpit for IFR
flights at night? Some airplanes have pretty decent lighting built in.
Others can have decent cockpit lighting and poor panel lighting.
Others have shadows in poor locations, or areas of the panel/cockpit
you'd really like to have illuminated, but aren't.

Myself, I keep a LED flashlight around my neck, and other flashlights
nearby and handy. I keep on trying other items and discarding them.
Perhaps .. I've just never found the right item.

Things I've been thinking about ...
A yoke/yoke-board mounted light, such as a flex-lite or some LED
bar might work well for lighting the panel either in normal flight
or when the lights go out. Some velcro on adhesive strips, stick it
to the cockpit ceiling, and put something like a pelican VersaBrite
II up there to provide some area illumination.

Some better lighting for a yoke/knee board would be nice, maybe a
flexlite,
or same flood light on velcro mentioned earlier. Of course, some
sort of backlit timer/counter/stopwatch would really be great, but I
haven't found a good one in many years of looking.

That's some of the considerations I have, was wondering what other people
use.

Thanks
Bolo -- Josef T. Burger
--
| Josef Burger U of WI-Madison Computer Sciences | "No matter where you
go,
| "Bolo" uwvax!bolo | There you are"
| http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~bolo/ | -- Buckaroo Banzai