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Vans RV-7/8 Wing Tip Landing Light Kit

Van's tip lights aren't worth the powder to blow them to kingdom come.

Search for "duckworks"; I'm sure my post "Tested: Duckworks vs. Van's" will show up. There's also been many other threads on tip vs. leading edge lights.

John Siebold
 
Thanks John, I appreciate the response. I understand you like Duckworks but the lights I asked about aren't like those tested and compared. Supposedly they have 4 - 75 watt lights. I was wondering if someone had tried them yet.
 
Bought one

Hi John,

I bought the kit but haven't installed it. I'm waiting 'till the end of the project to do the fiberglass work. I can answer any questions about the materials or send pics if you like.

It does indeed have 4 75W projector bulbs. The hardware looks substantial and not difficult to put together. I'm sure you could roll your own if you wanted to. I bought the kit because I wanted to stop building some day. :eek:

Regards,
 
I just finished installing the 4-bulb kit in my RV-7. As far as the quality of materials and ease of installation are concerned, the kit is a good kit. All totaled it probably took a few hours per wingtip to complete. They realy look good and you can set them up to shoot above and beside your nav/strobes. I do not have my wings on my fuselage yet, so I am not sure how they perform. If you plan to use Bob Archer's wintip antennas, I would suggest installing the lights first, starting with the heat shield material that comes with the light kit. It is easier without trying to work around the antenna.

I hope this helps.

Keith Ward
RV-7
Marietta, GA
 
Thanks Tom and Keith! That's exactly the info I was looking for. I like the idea that you can set them up to shoot around and above the nav lights. I like the looks of the Duckworks lights but I really don't like the idea of cutting the leading edge. I know it's been done hundreds of times with great results, I would just prefer not to do it.

If either of you could post or send a pic I would really appreciate it.
 
I'd really like to see the light pattern from Van's new lights. Common wisdom seems to agree that all the wing-tip lights leave a big black hole in front of the plane but light the runway edge perfectly. I'd like tip lights but I'd like to see too. :)
 
Bulbs....

Scott.... if they are these 75 watt MR-16 bulbs, then each bulb is a 12 degree spot and 17,000 candlepower, and a 3500 hour rating

http://www.lightbulbsdirect.com/page/001/PROD/MR16-75W12V/75W12VSP10H

By comparison, a 100 watt 4509 PAR-36 bulb in most small certified aircraft has a 6 by 12 degree spot. With a 70 hour rating (most owners say less... :) ...) and a 84,000 candlepower rating.

It seems that all 4 of the Vans bulbs will almost equal a "standard" aircraft landing light - with 80 % of the brightness - but 50 times the lifetime, and with redundancy.

As you can now guess... the trade off is brightness for lamp life... the aircraft bulb is bright for a short time, the MR-16 halogen bulbs are nice and white, and last a long time, usually in your kitchen.... :)

If you want more data, a big list is here...

http://www.mts.net/~william5/library/lamps.htm

I've made some assumptions here... can anyone verify that the bulbs in Vans kit are MR-16 (2 inch diameter) and give a part number?

I've also seen the 4905 bulb listed at 110,000 candlepower, 30 % higher than thew assumptions above....

4905 info http://www.donsbulbs.com/cgi-bin/r/b.pl/4509~usa.html
MR-16 pic http://www.buylighting.com/images/inventory/346image.jpg

Can anyone give me the bulb part number from Vans kit??

gil in Tucson
 
Thanks Tom

tomcostanza said:
The Van's bulbs are MR16-EYF

Thanks Tom....

The GE catalog lists these as 71 watt (energy savings?) at 12 volts and 11,000 candlepower. I think other off-shore makers still rate them at 75 watts.

Since they are usually designed for kitchen track lights, etc. ...the transformer would give them a reasonably accurate 12 volts.

We probably give the landing lights nearer 14 volts in operation, so I'll still go with the figures above and the assumption of 17,000 candlepower.

I don't have the time to calculate the extra brightness and loss of lamp life for the extra 2 volts applied.... :)

It's a good application of kitchen lights... aim all 4 at the same spot in the distance, and you get close to a Cessna light but with a 12 by 12 beam instead of a 12 by 6 beam...
Or... aim them in slightly different directions and get less light aimed at a single point, but in the beam pattern you want...

gil in Tucson
 
John,

Here are a few pics of my lights.

Keith

picture001hu2.jpg
picture002cn2.jpg
 
An option....

Keith, and others,

... one option I didn't mention in the previous posts is to sacrifice a little forward light and make one of the 4 bulbs a flood light - a MR-16 bulb with a 40 degree beam is easy to get at 75 watts.... got 'em in my kitchen... :)

This should make a much better taxi light than any of the certified set-ups, illuminating the edges of taxiways quite well.

Might make a nice experiment when you get to night flying....

gil in Tucson
 
Thanks so much Keith, that's exactly what I was looking for. Also helped me make the decision to go with these.

Also, thanks Gil for the analysis on the lights. I will be trying out the different combos, for the price it's a worthwhile effort.
 
Bright!!

mhflyit said:
www.creativair.com has some good info. on landing light systems.

I believe these are 9 degree beams, a compromise on the standard 6 by 12 degree 4509 bulbs, but at 540,000 candlepower vs 110,000 they have the standard certified ones beat hands down!!

gil in Tucson
 
Last edited:
Also ordered and fitted the RV-(7)8 kit...

We built a "tool" to hold the various elements (bulb, holder etc.) in place while you put the screws in, else you need about 5 hands. Bad enough at the building stage - but trying to work on e.g. bulb replacement, in the field, would have been very hard otherwise.

We will "wire" them im as 2 separate circuits i.e. 1 circuit = 1 bulb per wingtip. Gives either redundancy, or as suggested above, a choice in MR16 bulb types i.e. can vary wattage, beam angle etc. and who knows what future bulb types (colours <G> ) will come?

Finally, the cutout allows good access into the wingtip, hence we will rivet the wingtips on, and not use screws / platenuts etc. - another potential advantage...
 
Wing Tip Landing Lights

Since the Van's kit uses MR16 bulbs, there might be a possibility to convert them to HID lights.

TrailTech (www.trailtech.net/mr16_hid.) sells a complete light, SCMR16 HID Light (price $150) with ballast included. Apparently, you can order the lamps (flood or spot), and the ballast separately for $59.95 each.

There is a lot of movement on the HID market so I'll wait till last with the landing lights.
 
Keith,

Thanks for the pics. I think this will help a lot of people make up
their minds on the looks of the lights. I like these better than the ones
that I took a pic of at Oshkosh. It is posted somewhere and I won't look
for it. It is the light pacs from CA. Anyway thanks again.

Bruce Pauley
RV 7A
Rowlett, TX
 
John,

Here are a few pics of my lights.

Keith

picture001hu2.jpg
picture002cn2.jpg

Can someone tell me what the disc-shaped plug part no. is? And whether or not the disc serves any purpose (i.e., is it metal to act as a heat sink?)?

I have plugs with a ceramic base and a clip for positive retention, but obviously if there's some reason to use the disc-shaped dudes, I'd like to know it, procure them, and use them instead (I only have a single light in each wingtip as I have the older-style batwing wingtips with the smaller cutout).

Thanks...want to make sure I don't freaking melt my wingtip when I turn these things on! :)

Steve
 
Steve...

1001698-M.jpg


You can see the Van's part number on the bag. Stamped into the white ceramic part is;

E143571
250V 100W
0-10A
SUN-LITE

The disk is 0.020 aluminum, approx 2" in dia. Not sure of the purpose--not much of a heatsink, in my opinion.

Hope this is helpful to ya :)
 
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