Landing light help please

[AndyRV7]

Hi,

I am a new plane owner and picking through my first couple of issues. I could use a lighting education please.

These are the lights in the tips.



They are MR-16 style halogen bulbs. I thought the landing light had burned out but upon inspection, the plug had come off the back of the light. It is the bi-pin plug. The plug itself had melted from the heat of the bulb. The bulb in the tip was a 50W, but it may have been swapped down to 50W after a larger wattage bulb actually did the plug melting. Either way, I would like to fix the problem while using the brightest bulbs I can without causing any other heat damage.

Has anyone had any similar experience? What wattage bulbs are you using? And the $64 thousand dollar question, is it possible to do a direct swap for some MR-16 style LED bulbs? Or is this more involved in terms of the wiring or any other electronic in the loop?

Thanks! Andy

[Dave11]

Hi Andy, I have the same wing tips (the smaller light cove area). I think I am going to install leading edge LEDs (42watts) and possibly keep a set of SORAA leds in the tips. The MR16 LED replacement in about 11watts. I currently still have 75W MR16s in my wing tips.

http://www.soraa.com/public/docs/Spe...-12W-3000K.pdf

[kinger]

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...&highlight=led

[BillFear]

Be careful if you upgrade your halogens to LEDs in the wingtips. If you use the commericial grade MR16 LEDs, the controller will probably be noisy for your radios. Better to go with LEDs from an aircraft supplier (many advertise on this site) to make sure they are quiet.

Or you can replace the controller in the MR16 with resistors like I did. Requires some research but it does work great.

In my opinion, the MR16 lights are NOT adequate as landing lights, but they are good as recognition lights. I think you need leading edge lights for adequate at night. Go with LEDs if you can, HID is OK if on a budget.

Lots of info on the site about this, just use the search tool.

[AndyRV7]

Good info guys. It sounds like I CAN get drop-in LED replacements, but they might be noisey and there is no guaranty they will run cooler (e.g., CRE's run hot). The beauty is that they are reasonably inexpensive, so I may buy a bulb or two and try them.

I am also going to buy some new bi-pin connectors and fix the melted one. I hope to get some ceramic ones, wich might hold up better.

I like some of the options in the other thread but at this point I like my plane and just want to fix the immediate problem, not do a full swap.

Thanks! Andy

[bkthomps]

MR16 lights are junk for landing, i don't know why people keep using them

the beam spread options and LED offerings out there are not targeted at the aircraft market, but rather on accent lighting a plant in a house

[Scott Hersha]

I had the MR16 bulbs in my wingtips, but have since changed to Whelan Prometheus in the leading edges. I had 75W MR16 bulbs I had ordered inline and used a female plug I bought at a lighting store that looked like it was made from something similar to asbestos. It worked fine and never got close to melting, but the lights weren't very bright. I could see to land, but if there was a deer on the runway 200 yards down, I don't think I would have seen it. The Whelan bulbs are much better, especially mounted in the wing leading edge.

[Neal@F14]

Originally Posted by bkthomps

MR16 lights are junk for landing, i don't know why people keep using them

the beam spread options and LED offerings out there are not targeted at the aircraft market, but rather on accent lighting a plant in a house

What Brian said.

MR16s are baby "pin spots". We put them in the wingtips of my friend's RV-8 back when the plane was built because they looked cool and it was a popular item at that time, but they do not perform at all well as landing lights, especially if your home airport turns into a "black hole" at night like mine does.

[az_gila]

Originally Posted by bkthomps

MR16 lights are junk for landing, i don't know why people keep using them

the beam spread options and LED offerings out there are not targeted at the aircraft market, but rather on accent lighting a plant in a house

Actually no, MR-16s are commonly available with a 10 degree beam angle which mimics that of a "standard" 4509 landing light bulb that would be in a Cessna.

The "super-duper" LED replacements make up for their lack of total light output by reducing this 10 degree beam spread into a narrow pin-prick of light.

The technology is just about getting there for LED landing lights with a useful beam spread and light output, but in general there is presently a beam width vs. light out put trade-off.

The MR-16 bulbs can meet the preferred beam angle, but are way low on the total light output.

[Dean_aeroleds]

Have you looked at this solution for your RV-7 wingtip? If you want lots of light (Lumens) combined with high enough candela to give you good distance performance, while still filling the dark spot in front of your nose, this is a good option to consider:


Aerosun Vx:
http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...light=aeroleds