Advice on landing lights?

"Cy Galley" wrote

The wattage listed in only an indicator of the current used. HID doesn't
use much current but the light output is awesome.

Yeah, Cy, I know that, but the link the guy gay a few posts back had a
website that had 12 volt sealed bulbs. I read them to be quartz halogen
(filament) lights, commonly used in landscaping, fountains, pools, ect. I
doubt that they have enough output to be used as taxi lights, let alone
landing lights.
--
Jim in NC

Driving lights are great for lighting up the road in front
of you, but it's a landing light.

What ever light source used, shouldn't the light be focused
about a mile from here?

I suspect a deeper reflector may be involved, and that may
require a larger diameter reflector. Just a guess tho.

We are trying to light up the runway - mile? half-mile??
1/4 mile???
in front of the plane?

Advice?

Before installing a lot of hardware on your plane...
Test It

Take whatever lights you want to use for landing lights -
outside some dark scary night, and turn them on.

Look down the block and see how far you can see.
(you see?)

Suggestion?

Get one of those 1,000,000 CP 12v cigarette lighter plug-in
"emergency/boat" light at WallyWorld?

Turn that puppy on...

THEN choose.

On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 17:15:29 +0100, "Rob Turk"
wrote:

We're looking at installing landing lights on our Rans S6S. The ones offered
by Aircraft Spruce are a bit big, about 5" diameter. I'm trying to find
something a bit smaller but equally effective. Does anyone here know what
(if any) requirements a landing light has, such as beam angle, width,
brightness etc??

What are those White, or blue white lights that are showing up in cars
now. Although they claim no glare, for older eyes the things are
worse than meeting regular lights on bright. I'd think they'd make an
excellent landing light in the proper housing.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

The Hella Micro DE Xenon looks like a really interesting option. Less than
3" diameter, low power (35W) but very high light output and resilient to
vibration. See:
http://www.hella.com/produktion/Hell...o_DE_Xenon.jsp

Anyone used this? Good or bad? Any alternatives that are equally small and
effective?

Thanks!
Rob

wrote:

The LoPresti Boom Beams for experimentals are less than $400. I suggest
you give them a call or visit www.boombeam.com...
Just for your instant gratification ;-)
Next time you put an URL in your e-mail put a space between it and anything
following (in this case the '...'). If you don't and someone clicks on it
it includes whatever you had following in this case the '...' .
Thanks
John
PS I still couldn't access the site it timed out!

The LoPresti Boom Beams for experimentals are less than $400. I suggest
you give them a call or visit www.boombeam.com...

("John" wrote)
The LoPresti Boom Beams for experimentals are less than $400. I suggest
you give them a call or visit www.boombeam.com...

Just for your instant gratification ;-)
Next time you put an URL in your e-mail put a space between it and
anything following (in this case the '...'). If you don't and someone
clicks on it it includes whatever you had following in this case the '...'
.


Worked for me ...it linked up only through the underlined .com. Site opened
fine. M$ OE 6.0.


Montblack

Morgans wrote:

"Cy Galley" wrote

The wattage listed in only an indicator of the current used. HID
doesn't use much current but the light output is awesome.


Yeah, Cy, I know that, but the link the guy gay a few posts back had a
website that had 12 volt sealed bulbs. I read them to be quartz halogen
(filament) lights, commonly used in landscaping, fountains, pools, ect.
I doubt that they have enough output to be used as taxi lights, let
alone landing lights.
Cy,

My comment about wattage was in response to the prior post that ignored
exactly the data point you make. He maintained (and apparently does it
again above) that 75 watts isn't enough, based solely on wattage. He
hinted that 600 watts is needed, then advocated a lamp at 35 watts.
Obviously, what counts is adequate light output & proper light pattern,
at reasonable power consumption & for most of us, a tolerable
cost/benefit ratio. This applies to the tractor lights (can you say
'landscaping?') used on most factory planes, just like any other lamp.

The single page of info I sent showed 4 bulbs, from 20 watt to 75 watt.
Again:

http://www.1000bulbs.com/category.php?category=391

If you do a little digging you will find that there are literally dozens
of models available in this form factor. This type lamp is currently
being used in some aftermarket automotive driving lights. Note that 55 &
75 watts are the typical power levels for aftermarket halogen driving
lights.

Here's a link to a landing light kit available for homebuilts at a very
reasonable price. (Complete with LED position lights, it's about 1/2 the
cost of the HID light advocated in earlier posts.)

http://www.creativair.com/cva/

Follow the links on the left side of the page to see the landing light
kits he has available.

I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for using HID's; the company above
even sells a kit of 35W HID landing lights. I was just trying to offer a
much more reasonably priced 'good enough' alternative for those of us
who recognize that the most expensive isn't always the best compromise.
Everything is a compromise in aviation, right?

Charlie
(no financial or personal connection to Creativair)

"Charlie" wrote

I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for using HID's; the company above even
sells a kit of 35W HID landing lights. I was just trying to offer a much
more reasonably priced 'good enough' alternative for those of us who
recognize that the most expensive isn't always the best compromise.
Everything is a compromise in aviation, right?

Charlie, I guess people can use anything they want for a landing light.
Shoot, they can strap a Maglight to the wing, and land, if they want to.
Not only are they weak in candle power, but they have a round lighting
pattern. Not ideal, since half of the already questionable light is not
going where you can see it.

My take on using a light like those, is that the runway they are using had
better be well lit, in known good condition to the pilot, or had better be a
fairly well moonlit night, with no reduced visibility.

These 75 watt halogen lights make a better recognition light, for use in
having others see you, than you seeing the runway. Having the runway
rushing up at you with those peashooters is not my idea of a good time.
YMMV.

End comments, by me. I know I'll use brighter. It may not be a HID, but it
will have more candles than that, and be better focused.
--
Jim in NC

Rob Turk wrote:
We're looking at installing landing lights on our Rans S6S. The ones offered
by Aircraft Spruce are a bit big, about 5" diameter. I'm trying to find
something a bit smaller but equally effective. Does anyone here know what
(if any) requirements a landing light has, such as beam angle, width,
brightness etc??

The Hella Micro DE Xenon looks like a really interesting option. Less than
3" diameter, low power (35W) but very high light output and resilient to
vibration. See:
http://www.hella.com/produktion/Hell...o_DE_Xenon.jsp

Anyone used this? Good or bad? Any alternatives that are equally small and
effective?

Thanks!
Rob



I got some Halogen driving lights from NAPA. They should work fine. I
used a 50W Halogen light on my Piper and it was quite sufficient for
landing. It provided about the same light as the 100w 4506 legal one.
(notice I said sufficient .. not "legal". ;-) )

"Rob Turk" wrote in message
news:AmQxf.3664$zc1.3603@amstwist00...
We're looking at installing landing lights on our Rans S6S. The ones
offered by Aircraft Spruce are a bit big, about 5" diameter. I'm trying to
find something a bit smaller but equally effective. Does anyone here know
what (if any) requirements a landing light has, such as beam angle, width,
brightness etc??


Thanks everyone for the hints, tips and advice. We went ahead and ordered
the Hella Micro DE Xenon, will let the group know how it works out.

Rob