Can I fly it at night?

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

How long is a "short" flight? Have you determined what the power
requirements are for the anticollision, position, and instrument lights for
a flight of that length? Have you done any calculations on the weight?

My original post was intended to start the process of
looking at the problems I would encounter, so I had not done
a lot of work on the practicality of the project.
Nonetheless, since the plane originally had lights, it seems
reasonable to expect that this is possible to do.

As to your questions, I've thought a bit about power
requirements. There are three position lights. I've seen
LED systems that draw less than 1.5 amps total for the three
lights. The strobe LED system I looked at had specs of .4
amps at 24 volts, so it's probably close to twice that at 12
volts, say 2.5 amps for the whole system if I spend lots of
cash for an LED based system. I currently use a single 8 AH
sealed lead acid, and could afford the weight of two more of
those, so an hour flight seems possible with some margin and
that still leaves a fully charged backup battery and my comm
battery.

Does anyone here have current draw specs for standard lights
and strobes?

When I first considered this, I hoped I could just replace
the bulbs, and substitute a sealed lead acid for original
dry cells. It didn't take much work to confirm I'd need to
install at least a strobe, and it looks like a wind
generator is probably also needed to get it back to its
original certified condition. Does anyone know of any
aircraft flying at night using only batteries?