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Uavionics TailbeaconX

Paurol

I'm New Here
Hello fellow RVaitors. Has anyone installed above mentioned tail/rudder beacon in Rv9 rudder, with success? Any known issues? Flutter? Looking to cover both US and out of US ADSB requirements, Paurol 😊
 
I've got one

I installed tailbeaconX with an AV-30 in my RV-4. I'm happy with it and my cruise is about 165 to 168kts TAS. VNE is 182kts. No flutter issues up to 182.

One thing that is user interface related that I wasn't fond of in my plane is when I had the single AV30 I didn't have additional altimeter in my plane and when you need to flip transponder codes you must go to the page with strictly attitude indicator and I'm in busy airspace with low class B ceilings that I don't want to blow. In January I added a second AV30 so I no longer have this issue as I keep my data open on one AV30 and the other is where I set codes.

Only issue I've had is when using molex plug in the tail a wire came loose and there is no indication on the unit (showed good signal strength and all functionality still worked on unit interface) but ATC lost all contact with my aircraft other than "primary target". I was notified by tower when I came to land and connected with UavioniX who told me to check for loose connection. Their customer service has been excellent when I had any question about anything related to install or debugging.
 
Hi Paurol, and welcome to VAF!

Note that the Tailbeacon is a position light only, and not a strobe. If you want to be night flight legal it won't fit the bill.
A solution to that is to mount the beacon inside a wingtip instead. This leaves room for a combined position/strobe light on the rudder, and it does the same job in the wingtip as it would on the tail.

 
I must be missing something. I have only a position light in my tail and I am night legal. So how would one be suddenly illegal by replacing a position light with a TailBeaconX?
 
I must be missing something. I have only a position light in my tail and I am night legal. So how would one be suddenly illegal by replacing a position light with a TailBeaconX?

Not sure about Canada, but in the US you must have an approved anti-collision lighting system, with angular coverage as required by the FAA. Most builders do this via strobes. But the stock wingtip installation has no aft coverage, necessitating a third strobe facing aft, usually co-installed with the tail nav light. But of course there are other options.
 
I must be missing something. I have only a position light in my tail and I am night legal. So how would one be suddenly illegal by replacing a position light with a TailBeaconX?

Bob beat me to it.
Two conventional xenon strobes placed out in the breeze on the ends of the wingtips would indeed give you strobe coverage 360 degrees around your plane.

 
I do have strobes in my wing tips that meet the regs. So replacing my aft marker light with TailBeaconX doesn’t make my craft illegal for night flight which is what I thought you were implying?? When I eventually put one on my plane (I run 2 AV30’s already) it will be inside my wing tip.
 
Additional comments to my last statement. I could be wrong! My airplane was imported from United States and according to the builder it was approved for day/night vfr flight. I do not fly at night and am unfamiliar with the actual regs. Imagine that!! Just pulled out my Canadian certificate of airworthiness and in the operating conditions section it lists vfr only as one of the conditions. It says nothing of night vfr so maybe I would need an extra strobe in the tail to be legal
 
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