Tip: Mounting the tail light
 

Hi,

found a convenient way to mount the whelen combination taillight/strobe to the bottom rudder fairing...
space is pretty limited and installation of nutplates almost impossible. also, i did not intend to remove the complete fairing, should there be a wire/bulb change eventually required...

looking around the shop for ideas, i found that piano hinge eyelets can be tapped for #4 machine screws, which come with the taillight. so instead of glassing/gluing the default nut, i cut 2 eyelets from a piano hinge, tapped them and cut the "vane" side of the eyelet to fit in the narrow space in the rudder fairing. made the large hole for the light and matchdrilled the position for the screws. then removed the light, reinstalled the screw with the eyelet as a "nutplate" on the backside, the "vane" being caught in the narrow ridge above and below where the taillight will sit. used some hot glue to hold the eyelets in place, then removed the screws, slid in the taillight and reattached the screws. el-cheapo nutplate so to speak ;-)

enjoy building,

regards, bernie
www.flyvans.com

Sounds pretty inventive!
 

A thinking experimenting group we have here on the forum.

I cheated, I used the mini one legger nutplates MS21071L04 for the rudder bottom. Although I have not mounted the acual light itself yet.

Innovative. Do you have any pictures you can post?

I just mounted mine a few days ago. Didn't have the nut plates that would fit, so this is what I did, seems to be quite strong.

Drilled the big hole for the light and to have better access to the inside of the fairing. Used the light ring to mark for the screw holes and drilled them slightly oversize. Mixed 5 minute epoxy and spread a light coat on the fairing to hold the nuts in place temporarily. Using the light ring, for a template put the screws in and snug them down. (before installing the screws, put a little WD-40 on the threads). Now thouroughly cover the nuts and surrounding area with epoxy. They are there to stay.

After about 10 minutes I removed the screws, and after thourough cureing I chased the nut threads with a tap to clear out any remaining epoxy. Done deal...

Larry

Here is another idea. I riveted two mini #6 nutplates to an aluminum doubler I created. Then I blind riveted the doubler to the bottom rudder fairing. A little micro/epoxy mix to smooth it out and viola!

I like this way a lot.

tail strobe
 

I screwed around trying to find a good method to mount the tail strobe, but finally just roughly followed the vans directions and filled the fairing up with small wet fiberglass strands where the screws hold. At the time I really didn't like the idea but just couldn't figure out another way to do it. I finally drilled and tapped the epoxy thinking it was not going to work. When I screwed it all together it worked great! Way stronger than I thought it would be and no hint of the threads pulling out, probably works so good b/c the little screws are so long.

On another note, I found this same strobe/light broken after about only 60 hours. The strobe tube glass was literally broken out, ouch. I attribute this to not having a rudder lock in place, which also can't be good for the rudder structure. I really couldn't find a rudder lock I liked, didn't want something that you could inadvertently take off with, much prefered a fool-(pilot)-proof design. In the end I found a compromise, but I would just warn people of this danger since the A500 is something like $130+ snaps you would rather spend on something else.

managed to find a picture (although it's kind of hard to see the hinge piece):



regards, bernie

Different technique
 

This seems to be the definitive thread on installing the Whelen rear navlight/strobe in the lower rudder tip so I would like to add a slightly different technique for those who might look this up in the archives down the track. I get so much from the archives that I feel motivated to give something back.

When they get to this little project many builders simply fix the light fitting by drilling and tapping into the fibreglass rudder tip....but sooner or later they tend to find the threads strip. Others try to epoxy the nut inside the tip but that can present its own alignment and security problems.

My approach was to fabricate an interface plate from 1/8" aluminium bar. It's a couple of hours work but then you can be assured it will work flawlessly forever.

I used the Whelen light as a template to fabricate the plate. I drilled and tapped 2 threads into the 1/8" plate to accomodate the Whelan #4 stainless screws. The 1/8" plate is thick enough to accomodate the threads without needing a platenut on the rear. I then fixed the plate to the composite rudder tip using 1/8" countersunk pop rivets. The attached pix show the technique. You can left click on the pix to enlarge them. You can see that I have etched and alodined the plate ready for final painting.







For archive: rudder tip whelen nav light navlight strobe strobelight

No, no, no! You are all wrong. ;)

Just kiding there.

I simply epoxied (w/ flox) the nuts that came with the light into the rudder bottom. No problems at all.