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#1
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Landing light options
My 1976 Cessna 172M uses a PAR 46 size GE4537 lamp for
the landing light (12V, 100W). It is mounted in the lower cowling under the prop and does not last very long. I suppose the vibration of the engine kills the life of the bulb. I sure wished Cessna had designed this landing light installation to allow for replacing the lamp without having to remove the cowling. What a pain to replace a light. I've tried the "rotate it 90 degrees in the holder" trick, but could not tell that this helped any. Many people recommend the Quartz Q4509 as a longer life replacement for the GE 4509 PAR36 size lamp. A best as I can determine, there is no Quartz version of the 4537. If you have seen these, please let me know where. Any other suggestions for a replacement lamp for a GE4537 lamp that might prove to have a longer life? Ronnie |
#2
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Landing light options
If you hold a 4509 light against your ear and hit it with your finger
tip, you can hear the high frequency lightly damped resonance of the filiament supports. Thinking this resonance was somehow being excited by the engine vibration and fatiguing the bulb filament, some years ago I tried two fixes to get around the short life problem of cowl mounted landing lights. Unfortunately I did both at the same time so I don't know which one worked. 1) I sprayed silicon on the baffling seals whereever they touch the cowl to minimize stick-slip engine vibration inputs to the cowl. I also put some teflon faced tape on the cowl surface whereever the baffles touched. 2) I removed the 8-32 mounting screws and added some 8-32 male ended shockmounts and nuts to the landing light frame. This spaced it back about 1/2 inch from its original position, but it still fit for my cowling. I found the mounts in a surplus store although they look very much like the $$ mounts that are used in the gyro instrument panel. The purpose of the mounts was to add further vibration isolation from the cowl and engine. Obviously this is not an approved fix, but I suspect it is more effective than 1) above. I'm still using the 4509 lites (2), but have not put in a new one for at least 6 or more years. |
#3
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Landing light options
Thanks for the input. I think I'll take a look
at the mounting space a little closer and see if it can accomodate some isolation hardware. Ronnie "nrp" wrote in message oups.com... If you hold a 4509 light against your ear and hit it with your finger tip, you can hear the high frequency lightly damped resonance of the filiament supports. Thinking this resonance was somehow being excited by the engine vibration and fatiguing the bulb filament, some years ago I tried two fixes to get around the short life problem of cowl mounted landing lights. Unfortunately I did both at the same time so I don't know which one worked. 1) I sprayed silicon on the baffling seals whereever they touch the cowl to minimize stick-slip engine vibration inputs to the cowl. I also put some teflon faced tape on the cowl surface whereever the baffles touched. 2) I removed the 8-32 mounting screws and added some 8-32 male ended shockmounts and nuts to the landing light frame. This spaced it back about 1/2 inch from its original position, but it still fit for my cowling. I found the mounts in a surplus store although they look very much like the $$ mounts that are used in the gyro instrument panel. The purpose of the mounts was to add further vibration isolation from the cowl and engine. Obviously this is not an approved fix, but I suspect it is more effective than 1) above. I'm still using the 4509 lites (2), but have not put in a new one for at least 6 or more years. |
#4
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Landing light options
Just FYI, found several sources for these type of vibration mounts:
http://www.richco-inc.com/browseframes.asp http://www.richco-inc.com/browseframes.asp http://www.smallparts.com/products/descriptions/pm.cfm http://literature.lord.com/root/other/flexbolt.pdf http://www.gelmec.co.uk/GelmecElasto...hMountPage.htm "nrp" wrote in message oups.com... If you hold a 4509 light against your ear and hit it with your finger tip, you can hear the high frequency lightly damped resonance of the filiament supports. Thinking this resonance was somehow being excited by the engine vibration and fatiguing the bulb filament, some years ago I tried two fixes to get around the short life problem of cowl mounted landing lights. Unfortunately I did both at the same time so I don't know which one worked. 1) I sprayed silicon on the baffling seals whereever they touch the cowl to minimize stick-slip engine vibration inputs to the cowl. I also put some teflon faced tape on the cowl surface whereever the baffles touched. 2) I removed the 8-32 mounting screws and added some 8-32 male ended shockmounts and nuts to the landing light frame. This spaced it back about 1/2 inch from its original position, but it still fit for my cowling. I found the mounts in a surplus store although they look very much like the $$ mounts that are used in the gyro instrument panel. The purpose of the mounts was to add further vibration isolation from the cowl and engine. Obviously this is not an approved fix, but I suspect it is more effective than 1) above. I'm still using the 4509 lites (2), but have not put in a new one for at least 6 or more years. |
#5
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Landing light options
FWIW - My a/c is a 172M also (1975).
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#6
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Landing light options
The condition of your engine mounts are okay, I mean the rubber parts.
Ronnie wrote: Just FYI, found several sources for these type of vibration mounts: http://www.richco-inc.com/browseframes.asp http://www.richco-inc.com/browseframes.asp http://www.smallparts.com/products/descriptions/pm.cfm http://literature.lord.com/root/other/flexbolt.pdf http://www.gelmec.co.uk/GelmecElasto...hMountPage.htm |
#7
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Landing light options
It's rated life is 25 hrs (200,000 cp). And it's probably shorter with
more on and off cycles. Plus vibration. A 4522 at 250w and 290,000 cp would really suck the current, still only 25 hrs. Have you thought of new wingtips and put in a quartz on on each side? http://www.rmdaircraft.com/cessna.htm Great guy to deal with, no connection, just a satisfied customer. This was discussed before, see my other posts. John Ronnie wrote: My 1976 Cessna 172M uses a PAR 46 size GE4537 lamp for the landing light (12V, 100W). It is mounted in the lower cowling under the prop and does not last very long. I suppose the vibration of the engine kills the life of the bulb. I sure wished Cessna had designed this landing light installation to allow for replacing the lamp without having to remove the cowling. What a pain to replace a light. I've tried the "rotate it 90 degrees in the holder" trick, but could not tell that this helped any. Many people recommend the Quartz Q4509 as a longer life replacement for the GE 4509 PAR36 size lamp. A best as I can determine, there is no Quartz version of the 4537. If you have seen these, please let me know where. Any other suggestions for a replacement lamp for a GE4537 lamp that might prove to have a longer life? Ronnie |
#8
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Landing light options
The rmd wingtip lights look nice. I didn't see any pricing
info on their web site. I wonder how expensive these are. In searching and reading you prior posts, I see that the GE H7635 is a halogen 12V, 50W PAR 46 lamp that should fits into the GE 4537 mount. Looks like bulbs.com has them for $14.95. I think I'll try one of these. "The Visitor" wrote in message ... It's rated life is 25 hrs (200,000 cp). And it's probably shorter with more on and off cycles. Plus vibration. A 4522 at 250w and 290,000 cp would really suck the current, still only 25 hrs. Have you thought of new wingtips and put in a quartz on on each side? http://www.rmdaircraft.com/cessna.htm Great guy to deal with, no connection, just a satisfied customer. This was discussed before, see my other posts. John Ronnie wrote: My 1976 Cessna 172M uses a PAR 46 size GE4537 lamp for the landing light (12V, 100W). It is mounted in the lower cowling under the prop and does not last very long. I suppose the vibration of the engine kills the life of the bulb. I sure wished Cessna had designed this landing light installation to allow for replacing the lamp without having to remove the cowling. What a pain to replace a light. I've tried the "rotate it 90 degrees in the holder" trick, but could not tell that this helped any. Many people recommend the Quartz Q4509 as a longer life replacement for the GE 4509 PAR36 size lamp. A best as I can determine, there is no Quartz version of the 4537. If you have seen these, please let me know where. Any other suggestions for a replacement lamp for a GE4537 lamp that might prove to have a longer life? Ronnie |
#9
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Landing light options
IMHO, the LoPresti Boom Beams are much better. They are warranted for 5
years or 5000 hours and deliver 5-7x the light of a standard aircraft bulb. These lights are standard on every Cirrus Design and Lancair aircraft so LoPresti must be doing something right... |
#10
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Landing light options
That is the standard warranty of all hid lights, including RMD and knots
2 you. The Lopresti tips, for my seneca at least place the strope in front of the light, as well as my aft faceing white nav light. Strobe, nav and aft white are all one unit on my plane. PAR 46 hid lights are comming down the pipe and are twice the brightness of the 36. That would be the thing to get if your going to go hid. with hid you get very little current drain. Three amps on the par 36 size. Guessing about 6 amps for the 46? I am putting two quarts lights on my nose strut. They are used very little and probably better. John wrote: IMHO, the LoPresti Boom Beams are much better. They are warranted for 5 years or 5000 hours and deliver 5-7x the light of a standard aircraft bulb. These lights are standard on every Cirrus Design and Lancair aircraft so LoPresti must be doing something right... |
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