Landing Lights

[messydeer]

Hey, guys!

Been flying my Sonex with a sport license the last 3 years. Now I'm going to get my private and am looking for info about landing lights. First, do we have to use two lights? If not, will one be bright enough?

Seems I could get a pretty bright LED light from Mauser or someplace, then just fab the bracket. And if I went with two lights, I suppos I'd want to get a wig wag circuit.

Suggestions?

Dan

[MichaelFarley56]

Good question Dan. If you look at FAR 91.205, you will see there's no requirement at all for any type of landing light for night operations. It's up to you if you want to fly at night with no light, have one, two, etc.; it's your own comfort level. Personally, my opinion is that if you're going to be doing much night flying, the more lights the merrier so at least one bright one is a good idea. If you want to have two bright lights, that's even better. Some of these LED lights that are super bright yet take little power and don't generate heat are an excellent option for our airplanes.

Good luck!

[messydeer]

Right. I'll be looking for a single very bright LED light. Any idea how bright 'bright' is? I see that Duckworks lists their 2nd tier LED light at 320,000 candlepower. I've also seen PAR36 listed, which I believe is the pattern lights shoot. Duckworks also mentions 'no RF interference', which makes me wonder if there'd normally be a problem without some fix.

Dan

[messydeer]

Having good luck with a short search for LED lights. Think this one was from somebody with an RV: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J4HLNC4/ref ... Q5CN&psc=1
I read that 4000 lumens is plenty bright for a motorcycle. The one here is 2500.

there's another http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CPTKWRK/ref ... HVJWQWNNHA
more powerful, but is 4.3" tall. I'm a little concerned this would make me mount it too far back, but not sure how far is too far??

Dan

[Bryan Cotton]

Dan,
I am a fan of my Fresh Aero lights. Pricier than the amazon ones. Still, they may work fine but require more effort. They also sell a Sonex lens kit. You will need a lens. I have scratch built one for a C140 before and it can be done, but it made me appreciate the lens kit. They sell it separately. The Fresh Aero lights are much shorter and fit nicely in the wingtip.

[jjbardell]

As a private pilot and first time builder who will do the unthinkable (night flying in a Sonex (lol)), I would strongly encourage you to put in two lights in separate breaker switches. Separately wired so if one fails you have a second. Even if they are mounted in the same wing.

I used two lights, one aimed down for taxi and one up for landing. Both will be used for landing and takeoff.

You may want to look at the power of the duckworks led as a comparison. I love mine, they are plenty bright.

[messydeer]

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

I have a taildragger. Hadn't thought about different angles for taxi vs landing. At first glance I'd think they could be the same. I suppose also I could get one spot (30 degrees) and the other flood (60).

[messydeer]

I just ordered several 36W rectangular LED lights from amzn. Here's a link to my wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishl ... l_huc_view

Cool thing about the prime feature is free, no hassle returns.

[messydeer]

Any ideas on how to fab a bracket and install the landing lights? It's pretty close quarters.

[messydeer]

For the bracket, I was thinking of doing it similar to one like Duckworks, making a wide vertical panel to span between the ribs. After looking at that for more than I'd like to admit, I came up with what could be a simpler design for my particular light. I'm using this one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J4HAXE8/ref ... 3274&psc=1
If I use the existing bracket, I could rivet it to the bottom skin after first putting a channel 032 doubler across the bottom. This would allow me great access to install and adjust.

I'd add some pics but can't find a stupid file size reducer on the App Store