What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Landing/Taxi Lights

RV8TOR

Well Known Member
I know this has been disucssed over several years/threads but I am going to ask this again in hopes of getting some simple information and suggestions. I have the retangular 55W halogen leading edge lights in my RV8. I would like to upgrade to LED. I would like LED's because of the simple install with no additional box like the HID's require. Duckworks lists a couple of LED options but lists no information of lumens, etc. which I know is subjective and non-standard. I have seen the Ridgid LED products mentioned a few times also. What I am looking for is real world installed data on LED leading edge lighting options.

Thanks in advance,
 
Charlie,
I had a single Duckworks 55w halogen light in my right wing and upgraded to their new LED and have to say it met all my expectations. It's very bright, brighter than the 55w for sure. It casts a broader beam as well which helped for taxi too. Richard sends a template for cutting your existing mounting plate for the new LED. Or you can purchase the mounting plate and not have to do any cutting at all. If I had one on the left side, one could be used for taxi and one for landing, they can also be wired to a flasher for recognition lights.
I think they're great units, high quality and a simple installation.
 
Good luck in your search..

..IMHO, there is a lot to be desired in regards to "real world data" about LED lights. There are a lot of companies out there hocking cheap LEDs at incredible mark-ups, and it's difficult to truly do a cost-benefit analysis. You have to decide whether it's best to pay a lot for the supposed "high quality LEDs," trusting that they provide better long term bang for the buck, or go cheap with the notion of "how much difference can there really be?" All the suppliers spout on about high lumens, candelas, or otherwise. It seems they ALL are "brighter than their competition."

Personally, I paid the piper and went with Aveo Engineering lights. Their pricing is on par with AeroLEDs but a little more expensive. However, I liked their method of encapsulating everything for durability and moisture protection. That being said, I may regret blowing so much money if I come to find they perform only slightly better than cheap LED flashlights (see another thread, where people are using them for landing lights). Only time will tell. I've already received my lights, and they seem to be high-quality, but I'm no expert. Since I'm giving free advice though, I'd say the strobes and position lights are worth paying for, from a company respected by the aviation community. For landing lights, I don't regret my purchase so far, but I haven't fired them up to see exactly what I've got.

I even saw all the suppliers' demo tables at OshKosh. They shine their various lights on the ceiling for your to see, and some of their competitor's lights as well. It's still really hard to tell what's "better." My advice is to ask around, web search for people's install photos and video comparisons, then pull the trigger as late in your build as you can. Good luck.
 
Brightness perception is a funny thing...I saw this demonstration in person once:

http://bencraven.org.uk/gilchrist_demo.html

and it was absolutely amazing. The whole room swore that the first square was white white WHITE, but then as each subsequent square was dropped in place, the previous squares seemed to miraculously dim.

Truly an impressive demonstration...and one that forever highlighted for me the ambiguity of "brightness" and "illumination" as perceived by the human eye...
 
I too have the Duckworth halogen landing lights, one in each leading edge. (The left one pointed down for a taxi light when the tail is down, the right points straight out for a landing light.)

When they burned out I replaced them with 100 W halogen bulbs. (My local auto parts had them and they are around $4 each.) While I?m very pleased with them, I do want to upgrade to LEDs but will probably wait another two years before doing so. The reason is that this technology is growing very fast and while there are some good products out there now, they will be even better in two years.
 
Real world data means different things to different people too. If you are expecting to light up the runway like broad daylight at touchdown, your data needs are different from someone who uses them primarily as a taxi aid or in flight recognition.

Perhaps "ingnorance is bliss", but I've never found a landing light that is really useful in the landing phase, so I generally don't care if it's on or off. But I do like to be seen in the pattern, so that's what I'm mostly concerned about.
 
The AeroLEDs Aerosun fit in the rectangular duckworks leading edge installation:
http://www.aeroleds.com/shop/aerosun/

IMG_0305.jpg
 
Last edited:
Dean,
When are we going to get a peek at the drop in lights for the 7 that we keep hearing so much about. :D :D
 
Very soon, we are getting ready to ship the first sets to our beta testers for installation in their RV's... we want to give them a chance to install them first before we do the reveal.

Dean,
When are we going to get a peek at the drop in lights for the 7 that we keep hearing so much about. :D :D
 
Back
Top