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Effectiveness of Wingtip landing lights on RV-10

A

AaronG

Well Known Member
I have done a number of night flights now with the RV-10, and my wingtip lights just don't seem adequate for landing. I have one HID, and one Van's standard bulb in the two wingtip light locations. I have been flying with an experienced instructor and AB-DAR, and he has told me to add a leading edge landing light, and the wingtip lights are good for taxi only (his opinion). When landing, you can see near the tips, but the centerline can't be seen on a dark night.

For others that fly at night with the wingtip lights, do you find them adequate? I have started to play with position adjustment of the bulbs, but it doesn't seem to help. The lights are back about 6 or 8 inches from the LE, and the wingtip blocks the light pointing towards the centerline.

Has anyone made them work, or should I just go and add a duckworks type light to a leading edge?

Aaron
 
Yeah, I'd call them "adequate" at best.. I do think that HIDs are the minimum requirement in that kind of a setup.. I had wingtip halogens in my -7A and they were barely usable.. Replacing those with HIDs made a huge difference. I've flown an RV-10 at night that had HIDs in wingtips and again it was same as my -7A... sufficient to get the job done.. but that's about it.

Basically, it works.. but would be nicer to have more light towards the centerline. Having HIDs helps tremendously, though.
 
I installed Duck Works light mounting kit in my leading edges, did a home brew HID light setup using late model Corvette headlights.

The factory tip lights are wired up for wig wag operation only.

Not flown yet, but at night it can sure light :cool: up the area in front of the hangar.
 
I have the stock Van's setup and as others have noted, just "adequate" pretty much sums them up. I had a night flight just last week where I had a chance to sit on a very dark taxiway and I did note that the beams did come together in the center at about 50 ft. in front of the aircraft. But the brightness leaves a bit to be desired. I will eventually upgrade to one of the HID options, but I don't fly very much night, and so far, "adequate" is working for me. Is there a good procedure for aiming the beams? Mine seem OK, but it must have been dumb luck, because I don't remember going through any aiming procedure.
 
My thoughts

Aaron, I have the Duckworks HID's in my leading edge and started with the stock halogens in the wingtip. I find the Duckworks are amazing for landing and do a great job at lighting up the runway centerline. After landing they are not as good in taxi as a cowl light might be but I have never needed anything else. Last year I installed the Planelights HID's in the wingtips (35watt). I have landed with each one on at a time and the Duckworks are brighter. I now wigwag the Planelights HID's.
Here is a video I shot of Sean flying my plane and really shows both HID's pretty well.
You would be very happy with the Duckworks.

http://scottandranae.smugmug.com/RV-10-Trips/Oshkosh-2010/13001464_gwhb2#940999582_XcAnT-A-LB
 
Oval opening

Not flying yet, so can't confirm, but no one has mentioned the recommendation to oval the opening in the wing-tip light mount towards the center which is also supposed to help throw more light on the centerline. Hope it does, I made mine with quite a bit of extra cut-out :rolleyes:. I went with the HID from planelights in the wingtips, easy to install but haven't tested yet.

Dwight
 
I have the wing-tip lights on wig-wag and put one HID in each tip. It makes for enough light when landing at a grass strip at night. :)

Vic
 
Whelen Parmetheus lights

Hi all. I for one like to fly my RV8-A at night and have also experienced the "adequate" lighting from the halogens that came standard with the kit. I have RMD wingtips and after a conversation with Bob at RMD, he convinced me to try the new Whelen par 36 Parmetheus LED lamps. I received them and installed them today. They were a direct replacement meaning all I had to do was replace the current lights. I must say that they are significantly brighter than what I had, but I haven't landed with them yet. I will post after a flight test. Adjustment is not too difficult and I first tried that with the stock lights. It helped, but there just isn't a good amount of light to aid in the round out and flare. I typically grease landings during the day, but find that my flare is a bit late at night due to a lack of light. While it is still a good landing, it's a bit more firm than I would like. Like I said, I'll let you know how the new lights work out soon.
The good news is that the LEDs use a LOT less power than the stock lights.

More to come...

Best regards,

Bruce
 
Cowl Centerline taxi light

Anyone have details of mods for a cowl light? Sounds like a perfect application for an LED.
 
The RV-8 in my avatar has the little 75W halogen lamps in each wingtip. They only make pencil-thin beams that are wholly inadequate for night landings.

Way back in a former lifetime when I used to be a soundman for a rock band on weekends, we often had some similar-performing lamps on the stage... called them "pinspots" ;)
 
Posting

rwayne said:
Anyone have details of mods for a cowl light? Sounds like a perfect application for an LED.
Click to expand...

Vlad took this picture of an Argentina based RV-10. Dual cowl mounted PAR36 lights.
brasilian10_.jpg
 
PIREP

The plane lights HID's work really well.

In a high background light environment at Hervey Bay Qld we were picking up the runway and undershoot area being lit at 200' so I would imagine in a "dark hole" they would be even more apparent at lighting the way ahead.

Good on the ground too!

Happy customer :)
 
Leading edge light and HWA tank.

Does the leading edge lights fit with the HWA tanks in? I have been flying plenty at night latey and really have nothing to compare too. Vans stock lights make the runway come out of the black hole and the centre line is clearly visible. Now I am wondering what I am missing out on.

Clearly the best of the best is the leading edge HID. I am wanting to make sure I have all my items that would mess up paint done soon as it will be getting painted in March and this is one of them. I just can't remember how far back the leading edge light goes from when I built the 9. If they don't fit due to the HWA tanks, the wing tip light being upgraded is the next best choice.

Does one find the HID tip lights a 100% improvement over stock or just a bit better not making them worth doing if the leading edge ones will fit. Their web page makes them seem impressive.
 
Does one find the HID tip lights a 100% improvement over stock or just a bit better not making them worth doing if the leading edge ones will fit. Their web page makes them seem impressive.
Click to expand...

I think so :)

The photos of the RV10 and the hangar doors could easily be taken by me .......... They do shed some serious light.

If you watched that video with the sound up, you will hear in the rabble folk commenting on how bright they were. This was a bunch of folk with a higher than average % of RV pilot content, so that says it all.

They are inexpensive and they work!

DB :cool:
 
Whelen Parmetheus LED lights

I pored that I bought these from Bob at RMD and promised a review. They work GREAT!!

I have about 15 night landings on them now and really love them. Low power use. The only issue I've had is that my wig wag setup doesn't work anymore because these units don't draw enough power to engage the blinker module. Will install a standard duty blinker module to correct that.

All in all, really pleased. Nice and bright and good color spectrum. I would recommend to anyone looking to get better landing light/taxi light performance without a difficult or time consuming install. Took me less than an hour total to install and adjust. Good stuff!
 
I fly a ton at night. I want a good landing light and also a good taxi light. I've already bought and started working on the Van's lighting. Should I junk it and substitute better lights or use them (wig-wag or otherwise) in addition to better lights? If cost is not a consideration, what is the BEST solution?
 
Aveo

I had Duckworks in my 7. Later installed the Aveo 6 in 1 in the tips. These are LED and extremely bright. I have about 25 hours of night flight now and 50+ landings. These things really flood the runway with light. Not even in the same league as the Duckworks even with the HID bulbs.

With the position, strobes, landing and taxi lights on the current draw is only 2 amps. Lifetime guarantee.

Also, the lights are completely silent. No EMI at all, silent!!!!
 
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