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Aiming Landing & Taxi Lights in a Taildragger

Jetmart

Well Known Member
Is there an easier method to aim the Landing & Taxi Lights in a RV-14 Taildragger short of lifting the tail in the flying position in the dark and adjusting? I search the forum and didn't find much on the process.
 
My take

So first thing first, if you have a dedicated light for taxi, put it on the left side. Very difficult to even see the ground on the right side while taxiing. The landing light on the right side is not an issue as the inflight/landing visibility is fine on the right. I pointed my taxi light in and down (with plumbing rubber washers) then checked it at night on the ramp. The landing light was just left flush in the mount and seems fine to me for landing. Frankly your gonna have to use your best guess for pointing then once flying go do touch and gos as the sun sets to evaluate.
 
I put the FlyLEDs "Combo" lights in my RV-14 taildragger. I can't remember the angle I picked for the landing lights, but I measured distance and height to get the angle just right. I think that I just aimed them straight forward with the axis of flight on the theory that I would have a good view of the runway before the flare and the taxi lights would fill in the lower angles through the flare and touchdown.

For taxi lights, I have the FlyLEDs diffuser installed and found that my initial guess of the downward offset worked well with, I think, no adjustments needed. I tested those by turning off the hangar lights and sitting in the plane.

I have found both landing and taxi lights to do their jobs very well so far, with all of 2 night takeoffs and 3 night landings in the plane. Taxiing at night is a challenge because directly in front of the plane is not as well lit as off to the sides, combined with it being a taildragger to begin with. But the area in my taxi floodlights is easy to see and I can follow the taxiway centerline by offsetting a little to the right.
 
Hope this helps…worked for me

I guess a Canadian pilot needs more nighttime capability than someone down south. :D

I’m using AeroLED lights for both taxi and landing. They are mounted in the standard wing cutouts using the stock brackets. I set the angle of my taxi light on the ramp just positioning it where I liked it to shine in a 3-point attitude. Pretty simple.

The landing light was a little tougher. I noted the fuselage pitch angle while in level flight, configured at approach speed. Can’t remember exactly what it was but I’m guessing around 4-degrees nose up. So…angling the landing light 4 degrees down should result in it pointing straight forward on my level flight example. Then I assumed a 3-degree ILS glideslope angle and that, combined with the -4 degrees gave me a -7 angle for the light. Then I got my trusty iPhone and set the landing light 7 degrees down from the chord of the wing - a little guesswork there as well. (Again…my level flight reference is just a guess. You would have to check your pitch)

I did my test flight early in the morning so if it didn’t work out I could wait a bit until sunrise and try again. It was still completely dark and the runway had the normal lighting. Two things I noticed. First - AreoLED lights are as bright as the sun. The entire landing environment was lit up like crazy. No worries about flying into a black hole with those things lit-up. Second, my landing light was pointed right at my aimpoint so I somehow calculated and set my angle correctly. Note: I did NOT angle either light in or out. Only down.

I figure my landing light is angled perfectly fine for anywhere from a 2 to 5-degree glideslope at least.
 
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I guess a Canadian pilot needs more nighttime capability than someone down south. :D

I’m using AeroLED lights for both taxi and landing. They are mounted in the standard wing cutouts using the stock brackets. I set the angle of my taxi light on the ramp just positioning it where I liked it to shine in a 3-point attitude. Pretty simple.

The landing light was a little tougher. I noted the fuselage pitch angle while in level flight, configured at approach speed. Can’t remember exactly what it was but I’m guessing around 4-degrees nose up. So…angling the landing light 4 degrees down should result in it pointing straight forward on my level flight example. Then I assumed a 3-degree ILS glideslope angle and that, combined with the -4 degrees gave me a -7 angle for the light. Then I got my trusty iPhone and set the landing light 7 degrees down from the chord of the wing - a little guesswork there as well. (Again…my level flight reference is just a guess. You would have to check your pitch)

I did my test flight early in the morning so if it didn’t work out I could wait a bit until sunrise and try again. It was still completely dark and the runway had the normal lighting. Two things I noticed. First - AreoLED lights are as bright as the sun. The entire landing environment was lit up like crazy. No worries about flying into a black hole with those things lit-up. Second, my landing light was pointed right at my aimpoint so I somehow calculated and set my angle correctly. Note: I did NOT angle either light in or out. Only down.

I figure my landing light is angled perfectly fine for anywhere from a 2 to 5-degree glideslope at least.


Great Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for. I have the identical lights. I was hoping angling them in was not necessary.
 
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