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Wingtip Landing Lights... Are they enough?

danielhv

danielhv

Well Known Member
Curious if the landing lights in the newer style wingtips are enough to light up the runway etc on landing/takeoff. I do a fair amount of night flying, and would like to avoid putting lights into the leading edge if I can... Would anyone happen to have a pic of the light pattern projected from the wingtips?
 
leading edge

i too had some hesitation about cutting into my nice pristine leading edge and contemplated some sort of tip lighting. in the end, the leading edge is a much better spot for casting light, cooling, access, and keeping a clean look in the tip. after the first cut into the leading edge i got over the hesitation and the finished look of the duckworth lights is very nice; they look like they belong while many of the wingtip lighting alternatives look like a kludge.
 
Landing lights

I felt the same way about the LE and initially installed wingtip lights... after my first night landing I bought the DW HID.
 
LE better than WT

I have the wing tip kit from Van's. I would say they are adequate. (Just try turning them off briefly during taxi and you will see they do provide fairly good lighting), however one of my hanger neighbor's has the LE lights and they are noticeably better.
 
I have rated the wingtip landing lights as "Adequate" for a person who doesn't need a lot of light on the runway for night operations. Good enough to taxi, and as long as the runway itself has edge lights, you can arrive safely. If you really depend on your landing lights to light up the runway for night landings, then I'd go with leading edge lights - that's probably what we'll do with the -3 we're building. The -8 started out with Halogen tip lights, and I upgraded them to HID's - still "adequate" - and just barely. Probably wouldn't show me a deer on the runway a hundred yards ahead....

Paul
 
Lights

I fly a lot at night going to/from work. I have Duckworks and they are only adequate. For my new 7 I wanted more lighting and decided to go all LED. After lots of investigation, I chose the Aveo Engineering lights. I've provided a link to the 6 in 1 lighting system.

http://www.aveoengineering.com/Avia...ts/landing_LED_lights/AveoMaxx_6in1/index.php

As you can see it is a very neat all in one package. The landing/taxi light will be released soon. I will be doing some beta testing for the mounting system for RV wing tips. I can tell you lights are extremely bright and exceed the FAA requirements.

Up until now, I haven't been very impressed with the tip lighting options.
 
That looks like apretty neat package Darwin - I will be intrested in hearing a flight report. I am still a little leery of the wingtip light position becaaue quite frankly, you just can't get light to the extended centerline of the airplane - the geometry is against you, and the inside edge of the wingtip cut-out is the limiting factor. However, this design looks like it extends the light pretty far forward, so it might well be a solution.

Keep us in the loop!

Paul
 
I have both the factory tip lights, and homebrewed HID lights in the LE via Duckworks mounting kit.

The tip lights are hooked up to the wigwag switch.

BTW, just hooked up all the lights for the first time on Fri evening-------wigwags going in a closed/dark hanger takes me back to the disco era:eek:
 
RV7Guy said:
I fly a lot at night going to/from work. I have Duckworks and they are only adequate. For my new 7 I wanted more lighting and decided to go all LED. After lots of investigation, I chose the Aveo Engineering lights. I've provided a link to the 6 in 1 lighting system.

http://www.aveoengineering.com/Avia...ts/landing_LED_lights/AveoMaxx_6in1/index.php

As you can see it is a very neat all in one package. The landing/taxi light will be released soon. I will be doing some beta testing for the mounting system for RV wing tips. I can tell you lights are extremely bright and exceed the FAA requirements.

Up until now, I haven't been very impressed with the tip lighting options.
Click to expand...

Those look very interesting... can you provide a PIREP when you get them please?? :)
 
Anyone know if somebody is making wingtip landing lights for RV-9's? Van's has them, but only for the 7's and 8's. It's time for me to do wiring schtuff.
 
RV7Guy said:
I fly a lot at night going to/from work. I have Duckworks and they are only adequate. For my new 7 I wanted more lighting and decided to go all LED. After lots of investigation, I chose the Aveo Engineering lights. I've provided a link to the 6 in 1 lighting system.

http://www.aveoengineering.com/Avia...ts/landing_LED_lights/AveoMaxx_6in1/index.php

As you can see it is a very neat all in one package. The landing/taxi light will be released soon. I will be doing some beta testing for the mounting system for RV wing tips. I can tell you lights are extremely bright and exceed the FAA requirements.

Up until now, I haven't been very impressed with the tip lighting options.
Click to expand...

what'd that run? i'm very interested
 
Here are some photos by Kelley Kokemiller showing how our AeroLEDs Sunray lights can be mounted in the RV wingtips. We will be introducing a higher output version of the Sunray called the Sunray Plus this summer that puts out a beam with over 25,000 candela and 1000 lumens per light:

Note this is on a 9A:

27xja4i.jpg


whjokh.jpg


Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC
 
Those look familiar!

I haven't done any night landings yet but have taxied at night and was pleased with the light output.

I have had quite a few people comment on the wigwag lights catching their eye even in bright daylight.

I have the Aeroled strobes and position lights as well and have had a lot of people say they can see the strobes in bright daylight for quite a distance. An RV8 builder was flying his 140 the other day and took a video of me flying beside him and you can really see the strobe flashing. Look up "RV9A over Iowa" on youtube.

Dean, Can I upgrade to the brighter light?
 
N4744Z said:
I haven't done any night landings yet but have taxied at night and was pleased with the light output.

I have had quite a few people comment on the wigwag lights catching their eye even in bright daylight.

I have the Aeroled strobes and position lights as well and have had a lot of people say they can see the strobes in bright daylight for quite a distance. An RV8 builder was flying his 140 the other day and took a video of me flying beside him and you can really see the strobe flashing. Look up "RV9A over Iowa" on youtube.

Dean, Can I upgrade to the brighter light?
Click to expand...

Hi Kelley,

I'll check on what we can do for you and contact you by PM.

Dean
 
Van's/Sunray swap

Dean -

Is the conversion to the Sunray lights from Van's stock wingtip landing lights a pretty easy process? I have the Van's stock wing tip landing lights and the Duckworks leading edge HIDs, but if it is a simple change, I might be interested in putting the Sunray lights in the wingtips as well. Can't have too much lighting.

As for the wigwag, do the LED Sunray/Sunray plus require any warmup time like HIDs or can you use a standard wigwag unit?
 
Just a FYI......

douglassmt said:
As for the wigwag, do the LED Sunray/Sunray plus require any warmup time like HIDs or can you use a standard wigwag unit?
Click to expand...

I used a WigWag from B and C, and IIRC, it needs a certain minimum current flow to activate it. Led lights may not use enough wattage to make it work, they may take a special unit.

I am pretty sure Dean will have the needed info.
 
douglassmt said:
Dean -

Is the conversion to the Sunray lights from Van's stock wingtip landing lights a pretty easy process? I have the Van's stock wing tip landing lights and the Duckworks leading edge HIDs, but if it is a simple change, I might be interested in putting the Sunray lights in the wingtips as well. Can't have too much lighting.

As for the wigwag, do the LED Sunray/Sunray plus require any warmup time like HIDs or can you use a standard wigwag unit?
Click to expand...

Bryan,

The Sunray Plus units are fairly easy to mount, I think that Kelley used a Van's spring screw kit, but he can answer that better than I can. The Sunray has two threaded holes in the bezel that can be used to mount the light to a swash plate that can then be aimed by adjusting the spring screws.

The wig-wag is instantaneous, and does not require any warmup. LEDs are instant-on devices, and when in wig-wag mode, you won't see the ammeter twitch when they alternate.

Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC
 
The wigwag is built into the unit, no separate unit is needed. I have a switch for landing lights and a switch for wigwag.
 
RV7Guy said:
I fly a lot at night going to/from work. I have Duckworks and they are only adequate. For my new 7 I wanted more lighting and decided to go all LED. After lots of investigation, I chose the Aveo Engineering lights. I've provided a link to the 6 in 1 lighting system.

http://www.aveoengineering.com/Avia...ts/landing_LED_lights/AveoMaxx_6in1/index.php

As you can see it is a very neat all in one package. The landing/taxi light will be released soon. I will be doing some beta testing for the mounting system for RV wing tips. I can tell you lights are extremely bright and exceed the FAA requirements.

Up until now, I haven't been very impressed with the tip lighting options.
Click to expand...

how much do these run? very interested
 
AveoMaxx 6-in-1

RV7Guy said:
I fly a lot at night going to/from work. I have Duckworks and they are only adequate. For my new 7 I wanted more lighting and decided to go all LED. After lots of investigation, I chose the Aveo Engineering lights. I've provided a link to the 6 in 1 lighting system.

http://www.aveoengineering.com/Avia...ts/landing_LED_lights/AveoMaxx_6in1/index.php

As you can see it is a very neat all in one package. The landing/taxi light will be released soon. I will be doing some beta testing for the mounting system for RV wing tips. I can tell you lights are extremely bright and exceed the FAA requirements.

Up until now, I haven't been very impressed with the tip lighting options.
Click to expand...

Since it's post-Oshkosh I thought I'd reopen this tread. Is there anything new to report on this product?
 
Nothing

I went expecting to buy.

Aveo 6 in 1 still, for three years in a row arent available to buy. That is frustrating as I have played with them at osh for 3 full years and expected to take them home with me.

Aeroled looks pretty good but after getting their best super duper show pricing big discount off the special sheet....found vans sells them at regular price cheaper. That Just annoyed me. Not sure what to do at this point. Neither firm offers a complete great solution with landing taxi lights, and neither firm have come down in price over the last few years much.

:mad:
 
Rick,

We really weren't trying to annoy you. We were telling people that Van's was less than our booth, and actually prefer to have you buy from them because we are trying to support our resellers and get out of the direct sales business. I also promise that we aren't building a $10 part and selling it for $300. There is a lot of cost in LEDs, heatsink material, circuit boards, and optics that goes into our products. We have put a lot of engineering time into developing these products to handle the tough environmental requirements found in aircraft, and have to put a lot of quality features into them to ensure that they will hold up for a long time.

We expect that the costs of the LEDs themselves will go down over time, and are also working on getting other cost factors down. We need to make a reasonable margin on the products just to stay in business, but our margins are probably much smaller than those of a big established player we compete with.

Best Regards,

Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC
 
bkthomps said:
has anyone heard when the 6 in 1's will be available?
Click to expand...

Long and short. I spoke with a rep a few months ago about the 6 in 1. It seems that the owner, Nielsen, who is a very inteligent individual when it comes to design has some issues when it comes to marketing. He had no clue if or when the landing/taxi combo would ever be available. I currently own the "posi-strobe XP" and am seriously considering ditching it and going all AeroLED's if they don't have a good showing at Sun-N-Fun. We'll see what happen's.
 
I am in the process of installing AeroLeds lighting system in my RV-9A and was planning on putting the Sunlite landing lights in each wing tip. After looking at them in person I've decided to use the Duckworth kits I already have and put the sunlite led landing lights in them instead of in the wing tips. With the Pulsar 90 position and strobe lights in the wing tips there is not a lot of room for the landing lights. I really think I will get a better pattern and they will be easier to adjust in the leading edges. I will say the AeroLeds are awesome. We lit them up on the bench and nearly blinded us. The really cool thing about them is the strobe action and wig wag feature is already built in to the lights with no external power supply. They are first class in quality. No connection with the company just a very satisfied customer.
 
Aveo 6 in 1's

I've had the 6 in 1's for a few months. Really, really nice. Getting ready to install them soon.
So I'm confused with the other posts.
 
I had the same concerns about the wingtips when I built my plane. I ended up with the DW lights, but with the standard bulbs. Last year I put in the upgrade kits from DW(HID) and WOW! what a difference. My wife says that when I'm on final, during the day, she can see me come in from way out. When in the pattern I always have my lights on, I have them in each wing.

Yesterday I went into a small field, a place I always get my fuel. I turned my lights on from 5 miles out, I got on short final and noticed a guy was on the side of the runway with a plow. I landed, half the runway done, completed down the distance, I waved at him as I was landing. I taxied up to the fuel and he came over and said, those lights of yours was really cool, I could see you from way out. I didn't see the airplane, but saw the lights. I smiled and was very happy for the upgrade.
 
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geoffwhatnot said:
I've had the 6 in 1's for a few months. Really, really nice. Getting ready to install them soon.
So I'm confused with the other posts.
Click to expand...

Geoffrey,

This must be really new. I spoke with their rep about 3 or 4 months ago. Do you mind if I ask where you bought them.

Thank's
 
Aveo 6 in 1s

My 6 in 1s were shipped on Tuesday of last week. I should have them in the next day or so. I bought them from the Canadian Distrubutor. AveoCanada
Russel Koch
RV9A
C-GKOC reserved
 
I have some old Creative Air tip lights and was looking to possibly upgrade. While at the Northwest Aviation Conference I did check out the AveoMaxx tip lights (don't need the 6 in 1 since I have whelan nav/strobes) and they seemed to be really nice, however, when the Kestral distributor droped the price on me, it was "cough! thanks, nice lights", now let's move along. Yes, nice, but with a serious "you gotta be kidding me" price tag!:eek:
 
Regarding the aveo 6 in 1's

Mark,
I bought my lights directly from Aveo in November.I know there are a few choices, but I am very pleased with them.
 
6in1

Ok so does anyone actually know how much these lights cost and are they really available? I like the design.

bird
 
bird said:
Ok so does anyone actually know how much these lights cost and are they really available? I like the design.

bird
Click to expand...

About a dollar a lumen from what I understand :D. I plan on calling the south central rep Monday
 
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