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Night flying

rzbill

Well Known Member
I have not done much night flying. Nothing against it but the need has not really been there until recently. It will be on the increase.

A few observations from night flying my panel this year:

Holy smokes there are a lot of bright lights and blinky things in the new age cockpit!

For instance, I have USB jump sticks stuck into plugs on the panel for my EFISs. One has a blinky light. That will get changed out.

My Lightspeed Zulu's have a blinky light when in noise cancel mode. Had to flip that over to hide the light.

The 12v cigarette plug/USB charger that powers my EFB has a bright light on it. It will get a piece of electrical tape.

When wiring the panel, I chose to allow the 430W to control its own brightness and it is obvious I need to tune the dimming ramp in the setup screens (WAY too bright).

GTX327 and SL-40 are good to go.

The GRT screens dim down nicely (I set it manually)

The Samsung galaxy dims down nicely (again manually)

As a side note, the HID wingtip landing lights are great.

EDIT * And my master caution light (LED) is very dimly lit. There must be a little current leakage in the sinking switches on the GRT screen and EIS.
 
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I used to have a fuel pump On warning light. When it was on at night you couldn't see out at all. Just a red glow in every direction.

My new panel and wiring omitted that 'feature'.
 
The GRT supplied master caution light is a very bright incandescent bulb. If you switched to an LED you need to make sure it has the proper current limiting resistor, proper polarity, etc. Something is not right.
 
I had planned for most of these and all good only to find out that my skyradar GPS antenna that is mounted on the glare shield has red blinking light. I never knew about the light till I went for a night flight. Although it is rather dim, a piece of black wiring tape is going to go over it as it is right in the front of me.
 
As Jason mentioned dimming a bright light can be as easy as as sharpie or I often use nail polish. Much better than tape.
 
You can dim the Zulu LEDs. I don't remember how but it's in the manual.

Thanks, I will look.

As Jason mentioned dimming a bright light can be as easy as a sharpie or I often use nail polish. Much better than tape.

Good idea from the both of you. The USB charger will get this.

The GRT supplied master caution light is a very bright incandescent bulb. If you switched to an LED you need to make sure it has the proper current limiting resistor, proper polarity, etc. Something is not right.

Hi Bob,
I have an old style NOS push to test light fixture and I replaced the bulb (#330) with an LED replacement T1-3/4 flanged base lamp. It is supposed to be a straight replacement with current limiting resistors included. It is fed with either +12v in the daytime or the variable voltage from my panel dimmer (an LM317T) when I turn on my nav light switch. It is activated via ground switching by the GRT H1 or the EIS which are paralleled so either will activate the light. Everything works as it should with the exception of the dim glow visible at night I mentioned. With the glow, I was assuming that there was enough current leakage through the paired GRT H1 and EIS sinking switches that the LED was barely coming on. It is FAR dimmer than the activated state. Its not a biggie. If I get around to it, I will disconnect them one at a time to see if I can learn something.
 
Memorize the buttonology to increase the intensity of your manually dimmed items. Saves a bit of consternation the morning after. :)
 
Wow I flew my new RV-12 just before civil twilight and the second Skyview Touchscreen, the map on the right was so bright I could hardly see out. I have a mechanical dimmer for the PFD. Those installing dual screens might consider a second dimmer knob for the right screen. Unless there is a fast way to change it in flight.
 
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