What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Flyleds Seven Stars landing light

Paul from Flyleds

Well Known Member
Advertiser
Hi all

We know there's a bunch of you out there who subscribe to the theory that having too much light is barely enough... :)

Please say Hi to the Flyleds Seven Stars landing light. 8400 lumens of lighting goodness.


(Clicking the picture takes you to our product page.)

We're using the same well proven Cree XHP35 LEDs and collimating lenses* as used in our Works kit and the Combo lights. Except we added a few more this time! We had a 100mm diameter heatsink custom made for us for this spotlight. Flight testing the light tells us we went a little overkill on the heatsink sizing, which can only mean that the LEDs are always kept in their comfort zone.

The Seven Stars landing light is designed to go into a Duckworks or Van's round PAR36 light bracket. The mounting holes for the light are at the same 5" centers as the Duckworks setup.
Due to the size of the heatsink, getting the light into the wing may be a small challenge however! We removed the wingtips on the RV-10 (a ten minute exercise) to fit the light through the lightening holes in the ribs. If you have an RV-14 with the larger light window on the leading edge it will drop straight in.

Ashley (Dustyone) fitted the light to his RV-10 first (link here) and then chose to upgrade the window size afterwards to increase his off-axis visibility to others.
We haven't felt the need to modify ours yet, as shown here:


The distances marked were measured using Google Earth. You can tell that the lights are angled downwards a little by how bright the foreground is, so we have no doubt you'd easily see the plane in the distance (or the deer/moose/kangaroo) if you were at approach height.

We've had a few 3D printers working overtime to create some bracketry that will make assembly of the lights a simple task. One phillips head screwdriver and about 20 minutes of your time is all that is required.

We'll have these available at Oshkosh 2019. We're camping at the booth this year, so night time demonstrations are also welcome! We're looking forward to getting complaints from other campers already.



*(A collimating lens gathers all of the light from the LED and throws all of it forwards. A simple reflector does this also but lots of light escapes out to the sides as well.)

 
Awesome new product

Hi Paul,

Thanks for another outstanding quality product.

Great design, easy install.

I especially like how visible my aircraft is during the day . With the new LEDs on Wig Wag ,you can easily pick out my aircraft from miles away.
A great safety upgrade.

Thanks again.
 
Meanwhile at the HBC pavilion on Sunday night:
We thought we'd do some product testing. That's one Seven Stars light held at arms length above my head.
2019-07-21-21.48.21.jpg

Our apologies to anyone down near the trees that we might have woken up!
We did assist a few campers returning from the loos by turning night into day for them ...and then ungraciously plunging them back into darkness!

We're at Oshkosh diagonally across the way from Van's. Come over and say G'day!
Booth-644-map-Small.jpeg


 
OMG

I accidently saw Dusty Millers RV10 last week as I drove into my aerodrome. I was in my SUV with headlights on high beam and the driving lights going full blast. I was embarrassed by my poor show compared to the RV10. These new lights are impressive and compared to the $630 USD per light I purchased, they are miles in front. Do your homework and I think these are a no brainer purchase.


Alan RV14 VH-XIV
 
Slightly off topic, I received Paul?s Wigwag module for my landing lights and had a easy time installing it. Hardest part was finding the power wires in the fuselage to make the connection. I only have a single landing light switch and used the setup to go wigwag or steady. Simple solution.
 
Today,s demo

I was at Osh today 1 block down from Paul’s booth during the bright noon time hour. Paul had his display version of the wingtip lights on wig wag mode. Even from about a hundred feet during the day, the wig wag of the tip lights (tip strobes) was annoyingly bright.
 
Yes they will, with a little bit of effort...

It's a big light, and unfortunately the circuit board size is just a bit taller than the 'standard' (quite possibly a dangerous word to use!) leading edge window size, so the light itself may need a little bit of trimming with the dremel and some fiddling to get it to squeeze in.
Instructions are available on the product webpage.

 
Yes they will, with a little bit of effort...

It's a big light, and unfortunately the circuit board size is just a bit taller than the 'standard' (quite possibly a dangerous word to use!) leading edge window size, so the light itself may need a little bit of trimming with the dremel and some fiddling to get it to squeeze in.
Instructions are available on the product webpage.


Okay, thanks Paul.
 
It was good to see you again at OSH Paul. I looked at this light and as always I am impressed. As you know I already have the Baja Designs in my plane which are 8400 lumens TOTAL IIRC. Just ONE of yours is that bright. To me brightness increases safety from other aircraft and birds as well. Any brighter and tower controllers might start complaining. :)
 
Seven stars

Just a quick question on the seven star lights. What is the actual current draw? I read that it was a maximum of 8 amps...so is it normally less or is it always 8?
 
Just a quick question on the seven star lights. What is the actual current draw? I read that it was a maximum of 8 amps...so is it normally less or is it always 8?

From elsewhere on the website "Each Cree XHP35 LED draws 1 amp of current" so 7 amps running for this setup.
 
yes

I read that too, hence my question...I would think that it would be 7 all the time and wasn't sure where the 8 came from...
 
Hi Bob.

It turns out that the heatsink I had made for the Seven Stars light is more efficient than I'd thought. This means that each LED and its power supply is running a little cooler than I expected, so the current drawn by the LED has increased a little in comparison to our other lights.
We see 8 and 8.1 amps on the VP-X for the two Seven Stars lights in the RV-10 (and on the bench), rather than the ~7.4 amps I was expecting.

The batch of Cree LEDs that I bought for the production run of these lights was also from the next higher lumens 'bin', so that's why I now also quote an increased minimum of 9000 lumens for this light.

Even more lighting goodness!

 
Thanks

Thanks for the reply.

I am really considering these lights but I am trying to figure how much margin I have in the aircraft...
 
Ha!

In this case, electrical...

Fairly sure I’m not gonna be the lightest (story of my life) and I’m definitely sure I’ve exceeded my cost margin...��
 
Last edited:
Aerosport cowl landing light

Would this light fit in the Aerosport cowl landing light?

I like light in the middle.
 
Would this light fit in the Aerosport cowl landing light?
I like light in the middle.
Hi Eric (and welcome to the forum!)
No they won't. 4+ inches of light won't fit into a 3 inch hole!

We will be releasing a two spotlight option to suit the Aerosport cowl light fitting in the near future. Two spots (or flood/taxi lights with the diffusers attached) will be lots of light from the nose, especially when paired with a Seven Stars light or two sitting in your leading edges. :)

 
RV-6

Hello, I'm considering a new installation in an RV-6A. From what I've read, it might work, but the problem is getting the light itself through the wing rib or going through the front. This RV has never had landing lights, so I'd be installing a new duckworks leading edge light kit, so Im not sure if that'd help getting it mounted in in some way (maybe using a slightly larger hole?) I'm just wondering if it's even possible to get this light mounted in there. I saw on flyboyaccessories that it won't make it due to the smaller wing rib, but I wanted to check here first before I made up my mind.
 
RV6A installation Six Pack

I installed a Six Pack in my RV-6A wing. The builder had built a simple cover plate and bracket between two ribs. Here are before and after pics of my upgrade to the FlyLEDs 6 pack. This was a huge lighting upgrade, and I now have a clear view of the runway on descent. My metal work leaves a lot to be desired...
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6076.jpg
    IMG_6076.jpg
    124.1 KB · Views: 155
  • IMG_8471.jpg
    IMG_8471.jpg
    219.9 KB · Views: 179
Thanks! I was wondering if that'd work if I couldn't fit the Seven Stars. I may end up going with that in the end if the Seven Stars wont fit. Thank you!
 
I put them in my seven, I had new duct works kits and there was plenty of lens to make a bigger opening. They fit in no problem. I waited to do the cuts till I had the lights in hand. I don't know if the nine is similar to the seven structurally though, your results may vary ;o)
 
Back
Top