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Aircraft lighting

Hooker47

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I would like to re-open a discussion from 2008-2010 on exterior lighting and add interior lighting to the mix since there have been a lot of upgrades on products available over the years. I'm leaning towards LED's for everything and thought the Ziptips would be a great option until talking with a vendor that strongly suggested I rethink my decision. I like very bright, crisp white lights for taxi and landing. I am looking for reliable lighting as I will be flying during the night on a regular basis. Bringing the conversation inside I am looking for suggestions on overhead map lights and general cabin lights to mount in the Aerosport overhead console. My end goal is to have both red and white LED's to preserve night adaptation until it's time to unload the plane. Sorry for the long thread just wanted to give my thoughts to get some good direction. Thanks,
Chris
 
I’m curious now as to what changed your mind on the zip tips? I have them currently but they havnt been installed yet.
 
Lots of lighting

I have all LED lighting both inside and out. I used the FlyLED for position and strobe, and the Baja off road lights outside for landing. I made a set of small, but powerful (2000 lumen each) set of taxi lights set in the lower cowl.

For inside I have lights that come on when the doors are opened shinning down on the wings and baggage compartment. I have footwell lights, overhead reading lights for each seating position, under glare shield lights, red and white spots that shine on the overall instrument panel, back lights on all of my switch plates, and lighted switch tips that change from red to green based on the position of the switches. All of these are LED, and dimmable. All of the back lighting, footwells and glare shield lights are color adjustable to any color with RGBW LEDs.

Is this way overkill! Yes!
Is it nice to fly when the sun goes down? Yes?
Would I do it all again? Probably not all of it, but most. You can see the details in my build thread in my signature line if interested.

LEDs are great fun to work with. If you are willing to play around the possibilities are amazing.
 
I’m curious now as to what changed your mind on the zip tips? I have them currently but they havnt been installed yet.

I was talking with someone from a company most of us would consider the experts in avionics and electrical systems and he said that they look cool but if you ever need support or have ANY issues with their products their customer service is a pain at best and basically non-existent. He said "It is for this reason any reputable shop has either stopped carrying their product or are phasing them out." To me those where some very strong comments to make about a company but if there are any testimonies to the contrary...I still love the look and simplicity of them.
 
Was considering the zip tips as well. How much do they cost? Is there any one else that has them and how do you like them?
Thanks, Mark
 
Here's the vendor where I got all my interior lights.

https://www.pilotlights.net/

Here's a pic of my overhead lights... 2 dome lights & 2 pivoting map lights. Also have LED strip under glare shield and LED strip under panel for each footwell. Lights are wired to 4 dimmer switches. Pretty simple, but very effective.
 

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Source for great Eyball lights with Switch

Limited time only.

I was recently looking for good lighting for my overhead lighting the RV-10 I am building. I bought a bunch of stuff off Amazon. Most of it will be going back. I disliked most of it, or it was bad quality. They eyball lights did not hold a position or the light spread was too wide and would impact the pilot. My wife thought I was being too picky.

I found the prima eyeball light with switch pictured in the previous post on ebay for $20.00 and bought the last one. It arrived last week and I showed it to my wife and her comment was " now I know why you did not like the other ones". The Prima eyeball light with or without the switch are really nice lights. The eyeball swivel is smooth and stays where you put it. The materials and design are very well done.

I then found someone on eBay selling the light with switch, minus the lamp and lamp socket for a great price. I found lamp sockets on eBay for 1.00 each and any type of 12v LED lamp (BA9s). The lamp sockets fit the bulb but need to be beefed up by the base so the friction mount on the lamp holder catches well. I accomplished this via wrapping several layers of electrical tape around the bottom of the base. The OEM lamp socet has a mettal bulge inthis location to perform the same task.

You can buy the full assembly from PilotLights.net, who offer great service, or roll your own off eBay. Very happy with this light. And my wife is happy. She dictates the inside environment.:)
 
Thank you for the sources and information on the lighting. I must say my heart was pretty set on the Zip tips and would like to hear from anyone that has had experience with them. Please PM me if you don't mind. I am also pondering the Baja Sport or Pro lights with Duckworks install kit if anyone has experience with these as well. This rookie really appreciates the help.
 
For exterior lighting I have an Aerosport Cowl Landing Light with a Baja Squadron Pro Led bulb and FlyLeds single spot in each wing tip.

For interior lighting installed in my overhead, I have 4 Dave Hoffman Products MOD-1 Cockpit Lights (1 for each seat). These are for use while flying. I also have 3 PilotLights 3.5" Recessed Lighting Fixture - Flip Activation - Lights with LED bulbs. (I was able to find these fixtures on ebay, and LED bulbs on Amazon for a $ savings). These are primarily used on the ground to light up the cockpit. They would be way too bright to use during night flight.

I had to seal up the flip activation fixtures so they don't leak air from the overhead. The cockpit lights are activated by a switch near each light in the overhead. The flip activation lights can turn on/off individually by pivoting the lens or they all come on by a switch on the panel. I also have 4 LED strip lights to light the floor, 2 mounted to the subpanel pointing down and 2 under the back of the front seats to light the rear passenger floor. The strip lights are activated by a switch on the panel.

I also have a round recessed led light in the overhead in the rear to light the baggage compartment. This light is activated by a switch in the small panel on the side rear of the baggage door. It is tied to the battery bus so it can be turned on without having to turn on the master. (Fortunately I have not yet left it on to drain my battery)
 
What i will tell you based on my experience with wingtip lights - and landing light in the stock vans wing tip, will not put the light directly in front of the prop. I have FlyLEDS in my wingtips and love them. Very bright and work well. The only downside is that they dont throw light into the center of the runway - however the light will spill giving me enough to see. Is not a function of the lighting, but the design of the tips themselves.
 
What i will tell you based on my experience with wingtip lights - and landing light in the stock vans wing tip, will not put the light directly in front of the prop. I have FlyLEDS in my wingtips and love them. Very bright and work well. The only downside is that they dont throw light into the center of the runway - however the light will spill giving me enough to see. Is not a function of the lighting, but the design of the tips themselves.

I've been seriously considering the FlyLEDs works kit. If you were to do it again, what would you choose? I don't know if I want to do the leading edge light or not.
 
I've been seriously considering the FlyLEDs works kit. If you were to do it again, what would you choose? I don't know if I want to do the leading edge light or not.

I did mine just as he was coming out with that spot lighting kit. I used a baja Pro in each wing tip. I feel they do a very nice job lighting up the runway on landing, just like my 6A with the same lights in the leading edge. IMO, they light up the center of the runway fine, just not close to the plane. I also got a special version of the EEPROM fom FlyLeds that lets me turn on the strobes constantly, via a taxi switch, and they help enhance illumination during taxi. They help me see the sides of the taxiway near my plane. They really help at smaller, darker airports, usually with more narrow taxiways.

To make these landing lights work, you need to get them way out to the outer edge of the triangular plate area of the lighting pocket. Also my Baja's are the version with 2 spot / 2 flood lens.

Larr
 
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I did mine just as he was coming out with that spot lighting kit. I used a baja Pro in each wing tip. I feel they do a very nice job lighting up the runway on landing, just like my 6A with the same lights in the leading edge. IMO, they light up the center of the runway fine, just not close to the plane. I also got a special version of the EEPROM fom FlyLeds that lets me turn on the strobes constantly, via a taxi switch, and they help enhance illumination during taxi. They help me see the sides of the taxiway near my plane. They really help at smaller, darker airports, usually with more narrow taxiways.

To make these landing lights work, you need to get them way out to the outer edge of the triangular plate area of the lighting pocket. Also my Baja's are the version with 2 spot / 2 flood lens.

Larr

The works kit puts them about as far out as possible:

851685867.jpg


I'd assume you'd point one or two of the outermost lights inward to be taxi lights and the remaining forward for landing? I have to say having everything contained in the tips is really appealing. But if there is a dead spot where you need to look for taxiing I'll look at adding the leading edge light as well.
 
I've been seriously considering the FlyLEDs works kit. If you were to do it again, what would you choose? I don't know if I want to do the leading edge light or not.
Hi Jacob
The RV7/8 wingtips have a very large light bay so the Works kit works very well with these, however with the RV10 you may end up with a shadow cast directly in front of the nose as mentioned above.

For a plane as capable as the RV10 we recommend installing leading edge light bays from Duckworks or with RV14 parts, which then enables you install either our Combo or Seven Stars landing lights. Lots more light, and it gets to spread more evenly in front of the plane with these as well.

 
I plan to put a taxi light in the wing root fairing. Simple, easy cheap.

I was thinking about doing that myself. Maybe putting a set of 7stars in the leading edge, then using my aeroleds Sunray plus in the wing root for taxi and additional center lighting. The Sunray plus lights have a small footprint that would work well there I think.
 
I’m going with ‘the works’ package from flyleds for my 10, Pauls service in his quick replies to any question sent has been incredible
 
I've been seriously considering the FlyLEDs works kit. If you were to do it again, what would you choose? I don't know if I want to do the leading edge light or not.

I would absolutely do it again. I really love the FlyLEDS kit. It does exactly what I want. I would probably add a light in the lower cowl versus putting it in the leading edge. Aero sport has a kit for the cowl landing light.

What I love about the FlyLEDS kit is that I have the landing w/ wig wag, nav, strobe AND taxi light all in one. The taxi lights work really well - and like I said, the landing lights work really well too - super bright. But the way those tips are, there is a shadow.

That said, I don’t fly a ton at night, so for me, its sufficient. There is enough spillover into the middle of the runway, that I can still see.
 
Thank you very much for the compliments Mike. Getting traction slowly but surely. It will be marketed and stocked by a US based company within the next few days. I am happy.
 
FlyLEDs recommendation?

So to light up an entire RV10 all around, what FlyLeds packages are recommended (including any tail/beacon, landing/taxi, nav/strobe). Is it the works plus the seven stars, plus a sigle light for the tail?



Hi Jacob
The RV7/8 wingtips have a very large light bay so the Works kit works very well with these, however with the RV10 you may end up with a shadow cast directly in front of the nose as mentioned above.

For a plane as capable as the RV10 we recommend installing leading edge light bays from Duckworks or with RV14 parts, which then enables you install either our Combo or Seven Stars landing lights. Lots more light, and it gets to spread more evenly in front of the plane with these as well.

 
So to light up an entire RV10 all around, what FlyLeds packages are recommended (including any tail/beacon, landing/taxi, nav/strobe). Is it the works plus the seven stars, plus a sigle light for the tail?

A complete lighting package would consist of:
1: The Original Flyleds kit for the wingtips,
2: the $99 standard tail light. That covers off your position and strobe light requirements. No beacon required.

3: We then recommend installing light bays in your leading edges, as this is the best location to put landing lights.
You then have room for our Quad Spots for "Excellent" lights, or for the best of the best, our Seven Stars lights, which tend more towards "Outrageous!".

For those who can't bear the though of cutting into the leading edges, The Works kit plus a tail light offers you a complete lighting package (1, 2 and 3 above) without the mental challenge.
(I helped a friend build his RV-10. It took him three months to work up the courage to cut the leading edge hole in his QB left wing, and about 30 minutes to do the right wing!)

(4) The Works also kit offers built in wigwag (flashing) capability for the landing lights, which should be considered essential in any plane these days. We offer our Wigwag Module or the Wigwag switch to do this for you, however when you choose your avionics system you'll find they will often do this for you as well.
Leave your lights on and flashing for each and every flight you make and you'll be seen coming from miles away.

 
A complete lighting package would consist of:
1: The Original Flyleds kit for the wingtips,
2: the $99 standard tail light. That covers off your position and strobe light requirements. No beacon required.

3: We then recommend installing light bays in your leading edges, as this is the best location to put landing lights.
You then have room for our Quad Spots for "Excellent" lights, or for the best of the best, our Seven Stars lights, which tend more towards "Outrageous!".

For those who can't bear the though of cutting into the leading edges, The Works kit plus a tail light offers you a complete lighting package (1, 2 and 3 above) without the mental challenge.
(I helped a friend build his RV-10. It took him three months to work up the courage to cut the leading edge hole in his QB left wing, and about 30 minutes to do the right wing!)

(4) The Works also kit offers built in wigwag (flashing) capability for the landing lights, which should be considered essential in any plane these days. We offer our Wigwag Module or the Wigwag switch to do this for you, however when you choose your avionics system you'll find they will often do this for you as well.
Leave your lights on and flashing for each and every flight you make and you'll be seen coming from miles away.


Do the seven stars support wigwag (with module or if it's a part of your avionics suit)? Or would they get too hot?
 
extra light?

On your website, there appears to be an RV10 with the seven starts installed on the pilot side wing. This plan also appears to have a light on the passenger side wing. Do you know what was installed there any why?

https://flyleds.com/products/#!/Seven-Stars-landing-light/p/139186915/category=0




A complete lighting package would consist of:
1: The Original Flyleds kit for the wingtips,
2: the $99 standard tail light. That covers off your position and strobe light requirements. No beacon required.

3: We then recommend installing light bays in your leading edges, as this is the best location to put landing lights.
You then have room for our Quad Spots for "Excellent" lights, or for the best of the best, our Seven Stars lights, which tend more towards "Outrageous!".

For those who can't bear the though of cutting into the leading edges, The Works kit plus a tail light offers you a complete lighting package (1, 2 and 3 above) without the mental challenge.
(I helped a friend build his RV-10. It took him three months to work up the courage to cut the leading edge hole in his QB left wing, and about 30 minutes to do the right wing!)

(4) The Works also kit offers built in wigwag (flashing) capability for the landing lights, which should be considered essential in any plane these days. We offer our Wigwag Module or the Wigwag switch to do this for you, however when you choose your avionics system you'll find they will often do this for you as well.
Leave your lights on and flashing for each and every flight you make and you'll be seen coming from miles away.

 
This plane has two Seven Stars lights, along with The Original Flyleds kit in the wingtips.
From a slightly different camera angle:
! Andrews crop 1 Med.jpg


 
RV-14 mounts in the RV-10

On my own RV-10 I used the Duckworks mounts because that is what was originally installed on my RV-10 7 years ago.

On the new build RV-10 I am using the RV-14 mounts that drop straight in.
Simply follow the RV-14 plans to cut and install the mount .

AM-JKLW77V348GvVwFwcLv3As5YKDQ1yTe3mKJYNPhE2Isidu24zyN5rDzw-rQD1sJQFrKjieSAbMl_EQ3Qnaa7-7UWdYWfIHZIEUhcgTs_T3XFMiSVNGxB1UTtRJBll0t7snyS2fh7-zd_O4CIbw_0T7xuFwg=w1204-h903


AM-JKLVeMIZjU39Voot8PNT-mjLD_Gr03fuiiwE3VWnehXYvgfAlWri0_k8tCMCbDycdX_U9zm_isZr4ADY9ynPf4T6QW2c1jM-MWZMsgEWadHX5VT5E-0znoJe2iY4yjGUALtMPQs1CYxWBlGBAvubaisizsQ=w678-h903


AM-JKLUZGnGYnUI3d54arw3zfjxY-EdkYl79WsobpBUg3GBUVjMjsdbxA3LB0r9fFcwuawqX_Uc4wd1FvNL7i0X7mULYOSWbtcHb--GRm6yN8B8HLvaJqSKgApIKUyOMay01XncSBBGqwPGyCDhLhYbswnMmZg=w678-h903


If you have not seen the video that is on Paul's Flyled site please watch it to understand how good these are to fly with at night.
https://youtu.be/OUUr9vxUEI8

During the day, these lights are on all the time, they switch automatically to wigwag once flying. The amount of amazing comments I receive from pilots ,controllers and just general folk at fly-ins, tell me that they are a real safety improvement for day VFR ops.

AM-JKLUCAz2IjL8AEmYUAbnFDR_NDLH51ny5ZB3LP3vGd2ZHXnyljhrWVAqe65QkpOh2svbAJBBqK01wiGlPs0bA4Tp041pISsKbQtM7v_txEcP_ISHeu3Hdz6a5YuSUxv6g9o_HUseYXedLzl6T9ALuoTv9rg=w1205-h903
 
Dustyone,

So you ordered the RV10 lens kit from vans (the RV14 hardware).
What did you order for a mount inside the wing?
Duckwords 36 par Round Lampless install kit?


On my own RV-10 I used the Duckworks mounts because that is what was originally installed on my RV-10 7 years ago.

On the new build RV-10 I am using the RV-14 mounts that drop straight in.
Simply follow the RV-14 plans to cut and install the mount .

AM-JKLW77V348GvVwFwcLv3As5YKDQ1yTe3mKJYNPhE2Isidu24zyN5rDzw-rQD1sJQFrKjieSAbMl_EQ3Qnaa7-7UWdYWfIHZIEUhcgTs_T3XFMiSVNGxB1UTtRJBll0t7snyS2fh7-zd_O4CIbw_0T7xuFwg=w1204-h903


AM-JKLVeMIZjU39Voot8PNT-mjLD_Gr03fuiiwE3VWnehXYvgfAlWri0_k8tCMCbDycdX_U9zm_isZr4ADY9ynPf4T6QW2c1jM-MWZMsgEWadHX5VT5E-0znoJe2iY4yjGUALtMPQs1CYxWBlGBAvubaisizsQ=w678-h903


AM-JKLUZGnGYnUI3d54arw3zfjxY-EdkYl79WsobpBUg3GBUVjMjsdbxA3LB0r9fFcwuawqX_Uc4wd1FvNL7i0X7mULYOSWbtcHb--GRm6yN8B8HLvaJqSKgApIKUyOMay01XncSBBGqwPGyCDhLhYbswnMmZg=w678-h903


If you have not seen the video that is on Paul's Flyled site please watch it to understand how good these are to fly with at night.
https://youtu.be/OUUr9vxUEI8

During the day, these lights are on all the time, they switch automatically to wigwag once flying. The amount of amazing comments I receive from pilots ,controllers and just general folk at fly-ins, tell me that they are a real safety improvement for day VFR ops.

AM-JKLUCAz2IjL8AEmYUAbnFDR_NDLH51ny5ZB3LP3vGd2ZHXnyljhrWVAqe65QkpOh2svbAJBBqK01wiGlPs0bA4Tp041pISsKbQtM7v_txEcP_ISHeu3Hdz6a5YuSUxv6g9o_HUseYXedLzl6T9ALuoTv9rg=w1205-h903
 
Dustyone,
So you ordered the RV10 lens kit from vans (the RV14 hardware).
What did you order for a mount inside the wing?
Duckworks 36 par Round Lampless install kit?
Ashley already had the Duckworks kit in his wings. He had a bird strike that took out the lens, so he used the opportunity to fit the Van's lenses which are larger in size, and took care of the dent in the leading edge!

From Van's product page, their kit includes both the brackets and lenses, as does the Duckworks kit.

 
Just found it on the vans site. perfect. I have a lighting plan yeah!!

Ashley already had the Duckworks kit in his wings. He had a bird strike that took out the lens, so he used the opportunity to fit the Van's lenses which are larger in size, and took care of the dent in the leading edge!

From Van's product page, their kit includes both the brackets and lenses, as does the Duckworks kit.

 
I am waiting on my 14 kit and it is giving me lots of time to look around at changes. I really like the Fly LED lights. Is there a place that lists all the extras I would need to use these instead of the ones sold by Vans?
 
Hi Stephanie

Post 27 in this thread gives you the options we have.

While our The Works kit in the wingtips has proven to be very popular, the light bay on the RV-10/14 wingtip is quite small, which leads you to having lots of light from the Flyleds kit but you will have a shadow or dark patch in front of the nose.

We highly recommend putting landing lights in the leading edges. This allows room for bigger lights such as our Combo or Quad Spots, or for the best of the best, our Seven Stars. Lights placed here gives you a much better beam spread in front of the plane.

The RV-10 doesn't come with leading edge light bays by default but the RV-14 does. -10 owners can order the parts to make the bays from Van's.

Please have a look around our website (click the logo below). Lots more information there.

 
Based on your pic, I assume you mean you did the wing tip lights and weren't happy with the lighting directly ahead?

No, the wingtips are NOT installed in the picture; the outboard light you see is the leading edge light by ductworks that I got from vans. I changed the original HID system out for the Baja Designs Squadron Pros. They are bright and provide a lot of light but they leave a dark area directly ahead of the aircraft.

Another issue is that if you use them for taxi lights, other aircraft get annoyed really fast. The wing root lights work great for taxiing...
 
No, the wingtips are NOT installed in the picture; the outboard light you see is the leading edge light by ductworks that I got from vans. I changed the original HID system out for the Baja Designs Squadron Pros. They are bright and provide a lot of light but they leave a dark area directly ahead of the aircraft.

Another issue is that if you use them for taxi lights, other aircraft get annoyed really fast. The wing root lights work great for taxiing...
Thanks for clarifying. In the photo, it looked like your lights were installed in the wingtips.

I'm surprised you experienced a dark area directly ahead of the aircraft with the lighting in the leading edges. I thought that problem was typically the result of lights mounted in the wing tips.
 
Issue

I suppose I could have adjusted the focus more toward the center but the taxi problem would still exist as the lights are very, very bright. Definitely not very nice to other aircraft in the area…
 
Thanks for clarifying. In the photo, it looked like your lights were installed in the wingtips.

I'm surprised you experienced a dark area directly ahead of the aircraft with the lighting in the leading edges. I thought that problem was typically the result of lights mounted in the wing tips.

I have Baja in my -7 tips and don't notice any dark areas, but . . . I used lenses (purchased separately) with 50% diffusers. One horizontal and one vertical. This seems to work but is not a (typical me) scientific report. Maybe it is just dark where I can not see anyway being 18 deg pitch angle on the ground. The lights are outstanding, JMO.
 
I have Baja in my -7 tips and don't notice any dark areas, but . . . I used lenses (purchased separately) with 50% diffusers. One horizontal and one vertical. This seems to work but is not a (typical me) scientific report. Maybe it is just dark where I can not see anyway being 18 deg pitch angle on the ground. The lights are outstanding, JMO.
Bill, we're discussing the RV-10. Looks like you have an RV-7.
 
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