Team AeroDynamix launches Whelen LED lights and RV light Kits

Today we are off on a new venture bringing high quality LED products to RV'ers at the most competitive prices. Our team has had Whelen as a partner for several years and we have come to know the products and the people of Whelen. Many of your have seen our night show with the variety of Whelen Lights on board. Whelen is of course the mainstay of aviation lighting. You may not know this but aviation is actually a small part of what they do. The largest segment of their revenue is in commercial products. Nearly every police car, fire truck, ambulance (name your emergency vehicle) is equipped with their stuff. Over the past years they have focused on that portion of their business with LED?s. They let the aviation business suffer. But the wait is OVER. Now they bring that experience to general aviation and home builts.

We are offering a number of LED lighting solutions to include leading edge landing lights, wingtip landing lights, in-lens nav/strobes with rudder lights, and external nav/strobes. We even have a great drop in replacement for you ?square light? landing light folks. ALL LED, all certified lights. Our kits are complete. All the mounting hardware, wiring etc. Everything you need. We even include molex connectors with the light kits to ease the removal of your wingtip.

We are RV?ers, builders, flyers, and entertainers. Today we are also growing into the product business with Whelen. Simply, we bring you the highest quality, American made, LED lights there are, at a price your used to paying for substitutes. You can see our press release here, and can shop our products here. An FAQ on LED lighting here. We even have some Team AeroDynamix apparel like hats, shirts and coffee mugs for sale that many of you have requested over the years. We have been with you here for a very long time at VAF. We very much respect that relationship we have with you. We hope as you consider your lighting choices, you will consider us as a solution. Its not often you get to buy product from folks who not only know you, but are you. We bring our reputation, professionalism, and commitment to the table with Whelen as we grow our business with you and VAF.
Now lets talk about light kits!

It may be that I'll let you have some of my avgas money but first We need to know if the PAR36 round replacement landing light will work with a flasher system. Good job BTW. Larry

Hi Kahuna,

I see from your site the Ahelen 71685 LED has the following specs:

Current Draw 0.43 amps (28VDC) 1.0 amps (14VDC)
Candela: 13,000

Click to expand...

Do you happen to know how many lumens these LED's emit?

Thanks!

LARCO said:

It may be that I'll let you have some of my avgas money but first We need to know if the PAR36 round replacement landing light will work with a flasher system. Good job BTW. Larry

Click to expand...

Larry,
Wig-Wag flashers are load dependent. Im sure you have seen here on VAF various discussions on guys trying to get their flasher to work on their LED's. The short answer is YES, the PAR36 round Whelen LED lights work great with a flasher, but you need a flasher designed for its very low amp draw. And you should have a flasher that does not make noise on the wire. This flasher from Whelen is solid state, quiet, and designed for low draw LED lights from Whelen. I HAVE EM!. Link here.

bullojm1 said:

Hi Kahuna,
I see from your site the Whelen 71685 LED has the following specs:
Do you happen to know how many lumens these LED's emit?
Thanks!

Click to expand...

Please see FAQ on Lumens vs Candela. Light people fight over lumens and candela measurements much like our 'primer wars.' Its an endless academic discussion. Below is an excerpt from the FAQ.

Lumens ? The measure of the total amount of light from a given source. Not the actual brightness since the total light output is unfocused. Candela ? The power emitted by a light source in a particular direction. Candela (formerly candlepower) is more important than lumens in a landing lights, strobes etc. because candela is the actual measure of brightness in a focused beam. The lumen is a more general term referring to total light output, and is not a measure of the light focused in one direction. Candela and lumens measure different qualities of a light--they are not interchangeable. If you want a light to illuminate a large area, or are concerned with electricity or energy efficiency, then look at the lumen rating. If you want a landing light, flashlight or a spotlight or any other lamp that requires a focused beam, then look at the candela rating. For our aircraft use, candela is the only measurement that matters. You will notice that cancela is the measurement used by the FAA for certification. There is a reason for that.

Kahuna said:

Please see FAQ on Lumens vs Candela. Light people fight over lumens and candela measurements much like our 'primer wars.' Its an endless academic discussion. Below is an excerpt from the FAQ.

Click to expand...

Hi Kahuna,

I do understand the differences, I just was curious how bright these were compared to other LED's out there since most other manufacturers represent their brightness by Lumens. In a world without marketing spin, LED's should be represented by both their brightness in Lumens and Candela.

Do you happen to have an Isolux plot of the output of these LED's, or something similar to the image below for light output and distribution?



Thanks,

Strobe

Is there a description available for the strobe pattern?

Weasel said:

Is there a description available for the strobe pattern?

Click to expand...

No exactly sure what you mean by pattern. Strobe rate? From the Orion 650 series.. Flashrate ......................................................... 45 ? 5 FPM

and The anti-collision light is designed with 24 white LEDs..
It meets the min requirements of FAR 23 Sec. 23.1401(c)

(c) Flashing characteristics. The arrangement of the system, that is, the number of light sources, beam width, speed of rotation, and other characteristics, must give an effective flash frequency of not less than 40, nor more than 100, cycles per minute. The effective flash frequency is the frequency at which the airplane's complete anticollision light system is observed from a distance, and applies to each sector of light including any overlaps that exist when the system consists of more than one light source. In overlaps, flash frequencies may exceed 100, but not 180, cycles per minute.

bullojm1 said:

Hi Kahuna,
...
Do you happen to have an Isolux plot of the output of these LED's, or something similar...
Thanks,

Click to expand...

You mean something like this?

Pattern

I may not be using the right terms. I would be interested in knowing if they flash once, twice, 3 times, or 4 times per cycle. Or can the pattern be changed? also how long on and off duration per flash?

Is Team AeroDynamix a new dealer for these lights? It is always good to get more players in the field to help with prices. I have the old Whelen box in back and looking to lower weight so this may be the way to go.

Edit - I was looking on my phone and didnt see the link to the store. Thanks.

Well, it finally warmed up enough, and it wasn't raining, snowing, or blowing 20+ knots tonight, so I was actually able to go outside and play with Kahuna's new PAR36 LED lights and compare them to my Duckwork halogen lamps.

Both are brand new, never before used lights. Both were connected to the battery on my wife's brand new RAV4. The look on her face is always priceless when she suspects that I'm up to mischief, especially when it involves her car, kitchen tools, household appliances, or other materials that occasionally disappear into my shop. (She still whines about how I used her Pampered Chef dough roller on a fiberglass project once. I mean, I cleaned it off when I was done! Sheesh. )

So, back to the lights.. I tried to shine the lights on a stand of trees about 600' away and take some digital photos. Unfortunately, the light on the nearby grass overwhelmed the camera and no useful photos were obtained. The halogen light was visible on the trees, but not nearly as much as the PAR36. In fairness though, the tree bark is gray, the night was misty, and my opinion about this test isn't worth much when I'm fumbling with wires, and trying not to drop anything expensive.

So, I tried to illuminate my neighbors house, which is about 1/4 mile away. However, I didn't want them calling the conservation officer on me, so I gave up on that also.

Next I illuminated my garage, about 200' away and took a couple passable photos, which I combined into one for ease of viewing:



I believe the photos that I chose to show are representative of the differences in light output. I know that digital cameras tend to compensate for low light conditions, but as I said, I think they are reasonably representative of what the eye would see under similar circumstances.

I conclusion, the main thing that I noticed was that the PAR36 lights gave much more "color" perception. You'll notice that the grass is much "greener" under the LED lighting. I have NO scientific data on lumens, amps, candelas, wavelength spectrum, or any other useful, non-subjective data, but I'm assuming that the LED light simply put out a heckuva lot more light.

YMMV.

Disclaimer: Kahuna is a casual friend of mine, but I have no skin in this game. I don't want to over exaggerate the LED capabilities, nor do I mean to imply that the Duckworks halogen lights are in any way deficient. The new LED technology is just different. For many, the cost difference will make the decision for them and they'll be just fine with halogens.

Final thoughts: I like the LEDs and would buy them again, but if I were 25 years younger, on a tight budget, and still had young eyes, I'd probably be perfectly content with the halogens.

Kahuna: After looking at the wingtip landing light installation in my RV-8's left wingtip I decided to go with a leading edge light instead. This is because re-working the old nav-strobe install to clear a path for the landing light would bring the (hot) nav and strobe too close to the plexi cover for comfort. So I'd like to order a leading edge landing light kit for my virgin left wing. I already riveted the nut plates onto the install plate for the wingtip landing light and bent the plate exactly 25 degrees (for left side). Can you use this light kit or should I just advertise and sell on VAF? Thanks for your input. Bill

Bill. We can convert you over to the leading edge. On the road to SnF now. Please call me and we will work it out. I assume your NavStrobes are not LED hence the heat concern?
678-571-9319.