Instrument Training at night? Good Idea or not?

Stan Gosnell wrote:
: I have a minimag that uses AAA batteries, and put a green LED in it. The
: T3 is the right size. I got it from Mouser. I haven't seen the need for
: a resistor - it just plugs into the holes for the regular bulb. I wear
: it on a lanyard around my neck so I can always find it. But I seldom use
: this. I normally use a cheap headlight, which has 2 bright white bulbs
: and a single green LED. It came with red, but I changed it out for
: green. The white is very useful for preflights and startup, and the
: green works well for flying. It always points where I'm looking, and
: doesn't blind my FO when I need to read charts and do the company
: paperwork. I also carry a regular AA minimag, with a 2 Amp LED bulb and
: a diffusion lens, for when I really need light, especially for preflight
: walkarounds. White LEDs are great for preflights, because the synthetic
: turbine oil in the sightglasses can be hard to see using a weak yellow
: incandescent lens. The white LED light makes it show up very well.

I've run LEDs directly from AA's and found that without a bit of current
limiting they tend to damage themselves. Perhaps the AAA has a bit more internal
resistance or the LEDs you chose are a little more resilient or slightly different
material and operating voltage.

In any event, I agree that a headlamp would be nice... haven't rigged one up
yet. Trouble with all the commercial LED lights I've seen is that they're set up to
be like regular flashlights. You know... flood the area with as much light as
possible. That'll wreck any night vision in a heartbeat. The single LED works great
(as you've also found out).

-Cory

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* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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