What's new
Van's Air Force

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

landing and nav lights ..... Pictures??

J

JoeB

Active Member
Time for some opinions, and pictures if you have them.

I am looking at installing Duck works lights in my -10 I see they have a LED model in addition to the HID, has anyone gone with the LED yet? comparison?

Also thinking about installing Either standard Vans light in the wingtips OR the cowling light from aerosport. for added illumination for those dark nights. not sure if it is needed, but I am all for a bright runway on a dark night.

~what has everyone else done, results? I have some time to work on side projects while until my fuselage arrives so I figured landing lights is a perfect side venture. ~also looking at the AEROLEDs for the wing tips that Vans sells, but I am also open to other ideas, haven't found too many different options out there, and they all look like lights on a computer screen so its hard to tell what is good and what could be better.





Joe
 
There are plenty of opinions. And it is hard to tell from the 'mines brighter than yours' comments. But there is also data. Id love to support you with some Whelens.
Here is some data on the leading edge lights.

par36performancedata.jpg



And for some strobe data....

lightgraph.jpg
 
Joe - do a search on "Baja Squadron" for an excellent installation write-up accompanied by some of the better "in operation" photos. These are based on installation of Baja Squadron off-road LED lights. The do seem to be plenty bright. I'm planning on a pair of these Baja Squadron or Rigid Dually D2's in the wingtips plus a taxi light, likely an LED tractor light, in the engine cowl. Wingtips will wig-wag via a Perihelion Designs wig-wag controller, while the cowl light will not be part of the wig-wag circuit.
 
Joe,
I used the aveo aurora nav/ strobe light combination and just recently completed installing the Baja squadron LED lights. They light up the runway great on final.
See if I can find a picture
Jack
 
I just bought a pair of the Whelen LED lights from Team Aerodynamix for a Duckworks leading edge installation. I had the standard 55 watt halogen bulbs. But I haven't installed them yet. Maybe I can do a side by side trial one night and take a pic, as I've been curious how much of a difference there is. I'll see if I can do it this weekend.

Now I'll just have to figure out how to post a pic. :rolleyes:
 
Joe, send me a email and I will send you a couple pic of the install, I am on the road and unable to get Tiny Pic copied to the site with my IPAD

I basically copied Mike Bullock install
You can find his post and pictures on his post NEw(October 2013) LED wingtip landing lights discovered.dated 10-10-2013


Thanks
Jack
[email protected]
 
Not sure this is accurate:
par36performancedata.jpg


I just pulled a PMA'd Sunspot 36LX landing light off the shelf and measured it and the peak candela was 53,000, higher than what you are showing in your graph. Of course, candela alone isn't the only parameter that determines effectiveness of the light. Beam angle is important as well, and our wider beam angle provides a larger field of view.

For anyone interested in an objective third party comparison of PAR36 size LED landing lights, you should read the article on page 4 of the May 2015 issue of Aviation Consumer magazine...

Dean Wilkinson, CTO AeroLEDs LLC
 
Nice to "see"

Thanks for the link, Dean. It's nice to "see" some of the various brands and types represented in this visual test. IMHO, some of the "data" is subjectively presented and/or received at times in the lighting world. What I will actually "see" is refreshing. I'm looking forward to flying with my Aerosun Vx lights. My neighbors will probably be thankful for that time, because I light up a house once in awhile to see how well these work.:cool:
 
Very impressive tests, glad I chose Aeroleds. However, I chose to have two of their rectangle lights, how do they compare? (not yet flying)
 
DonFromTX said:
Very impressive tests, glad I chose Aeroleds. However, I chose to have two of their rectangle lights, how do they compare? (not yet flying)
Click to expand...

Hi Don,

The Aerosun has 12 LEDs while the Sunspot 36 has 16 LEDs. The Aerosun is thus about 75% of a Sunspot 36, which is still pretty good. You won't see much of a difference in the peformance between the two.

Dean
 
Dean_aeroleds said:
Hi Don,

The Aerosun has 12 LEDs while the Sunspot 36 has 16 LEDs. The Aerosun is thus about 75% of a Sunspot 36, which is still pretty good. You won't see much of a difference in the peformance between the two.

Dean
Click to expand...

Dean,

Regarding lights that fit in a standard PAR 36 mounting, how does the Sunspot 36, with its 16 LEDs, compare with Aveo Engineering's AveoMaxx Hercules 30, which has 30 LEDs? I would think more is better, but perhaps there are other differences I'm not aware of. This whole candela/lumens/delivered light output, etc, is very confusing...
 
ppilotmike said:
Dean,

Regarding lights that fit in a standard PAR 36 mounting, how does the Sunspot 36, with its 16 LEDs, compare with Aveo Engineering's AveoMaxx Hercules 30, which has 30 LEDs? I would think more is better, but perhaps there are other differences I'm not aware of. This whole candela/lumens/delivered light output, etc, is very confusing...
Click to expand...

The number of LEDs is not the only difference to consider. The total power consumption is also important.

As an example, the Whelen Parmetheus draws 19 Watts and has 12 LEDs, which puts it at about 1.6 Watts per LED.

The Sunspot 36 draws 45 Watts and has 16 LEDs, which puts it at about 2.8 Watts per LED.

The light output from each LED is dependent on how much power it receives.

The Aveo 30 has 30 LEDs, but what is the total power consumption and power per LED? There is a landing mode that draws 57W and a taxi mode that draws 38W. That adds up to 95W total if both modes are on at the same time. The power per LED is thus 1.6 Watts. The landing mode isn't much higher in power than the Sunspot. I'm not sure if you would want to run both modes at the same time as that is a lot of power to dissipate in that size of a heatsink.

The AveoMaxx Hercules 30 sells for $1014 on Aircraft Spruce. I hear lots of people complaining about the Sunspot 36LX which sells for $330 on Aircraft Spruce, so I would be amazed if homebuilders would want to go for the Aveo light at 3 times the price. You would be better off going with a Sunspot 36 Landing and a Sunspot 36 taxi, which would give you similar total LED wattage and cost less than the single Hercules 30.
 
Last edited:
Dean,

Firstly, thanks for answering my question (and all our questions) in an objective manner. It sounds like, "bang for buck" your lights have much to offer.

So my takeaway is that the Aveos cost a ton, but also put out a ton of light per unit (12 LEDs in taxi mode, 18 LEDs in landing mode and 30 LEDs in landing + taxi mode). Would the heat be a problem if they are ony used intermittently?

I figure, you are only going to want that much light in the pattern and during landing and takeoffs. How quickly do these things get hot?

Thanks for breaking out down for us simpletons.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top