Van's Air Force
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Lighting recommendations
- Thread starter msturgis
- Start date
Drop by our place for a look at all three planes Matt. The -6 has standard Duckworks all the way around. The -8 has the in-tip mounts with HID's. The -3 has AeroLED 1600's in Duckworks mounts. The -3 blows everything away in terms of lighting and visibility. And you don't worry about killing the battery or needing large circuit protection - they draw nothing....
Roy Thoma
Well Known Member
Watt's and Lumen's
Matt,
The Duckworks leading edge HID's with PAR36 form factor get LOTs of light on the runway / taxiway in front of the plane. If illumination in front of the plane is your primary concern, I'd recommend these. I think the small lens for the wing tip mounted HID's don't work as well as the PAR36 type lens. The geometry of the wing tip also blocks some of the light from the front of the plane.
Interesting article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp which includes "HID headlamp burners produce between 2,800 and 3,500 lumens from between 35 and 38 watts of electrical power". The Aero-LED 1600 consumes 28 watts to produce 1600 lumens. That means the HID's are more efficient in terms of lumen / watt than the Aero-LED 1600. The Aero-LED SunSpot delivers 2800 lumens at 36 watts. The wikipedia article supports HIDs being more efficient. I would expect the small lenses in the Aero LED would not be as effective at focusing the beam(s) as the PAR 36 with an HID. Be sure that when you do comparison's of the effectiveness of lights that you stand behind the light at night and see how far and how wide the beams project.
The Aero LED incorporate a WIG-WAG. My personal experience with low cost HID's is they do not have long lives if WIG-WAG'ed. I used an Xe-Pulse 1 with HID's in my Zodiac, flashing the HID's during all daylight hours flown and the HID's would slowly loose their brightness after about 500 flying hours they would not be effective. Brian "Brantel" Chesteen sounds like he is happy with HID's and an automotive flasher. (Search is your friend.)
I have a pair of Duckworks PAR36 leading edge HID's that are used at night. I have LED's in my wing tips that I WIG-WAG during the day and are on steady when the HID's are on.
Note: Don of Duckworks is a personal friend and tech counselor for both of my planes.
Matt,
The Duckworks leading edge HID's with PAR36 form factor get LOTs of light on the runway / taxiway in front of the plane. If illumination in front of the plane is your primary concern, I'd recommend these. I think the small lens for the wing tip mounted HID's don't work as well as the PAR36 type lens. The geometry of the wing tip also blocks some of the light from the front of the plane.
Interesting article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp which includes "HID headlamp burners produce between 2,800 and 3,500 lumens from between 35 and 38 watts of electrical power". The Aero-LED 1600 consumes 28 watts to produce 1600 lumens. That means the HID's are more efficient in terms of lumen / watt than the Aero-LED 1600. The Aero-LED SunSpot delivers 2800 lumens at 36 watts. The wikipedia article supports HIDs being more efficient. I would expect the small lenses in the Aero LED would not be as effective at focusing the beam(s) as the PAR 36 with an HID. Be sure that when you do comparison's of the effectiveness of lights that you stand behind the light at night and see how far and how wide the beams project.
The Aero LED incorporate a WIG-WAG. My personal experience with low cost HID's is they do not have long lives if WIG-WAG'ed. I used an Xe-Pulse 1 with HID's in my Zodiac, flashing the HID's during all daylight hours flown and the HID's would slowly loose their brightness after about 500 flying hours they would not be effective. Brian "Brantel" Chesteen sounds like he is happy with HID's and an automotive flasher. (Search is your friend.)
I have a pair of Duckworks PAR36 leading edge HID's that are used at night. I have LED's in my wing tips that I WIG-WAG during the day and are on steady when the HID's are on.
Note: Don of Duckworks is a personal friend and tech counselor for both of my planes.
