OK, I'll chime in here. I've been running a set of home-grown LED landing lights for about a year now. They're based on 12V MR-16 bulbs. Each of the two MR-16's contains 3 x 3W LED's - can't recall the details but memory seems to indicate they're Luxeons, but please don't hold my feet to the fire on that one.
The aircraft is not an RV but rather a 30-year old plans-built tricycle-geared airplane running a C-85 engine and original Delco generator. This being the case there's little to no spare electrical power, so halogens or HID's are out of the question. The two MR-16 bulbs are mounted between the prop spinner and the intake air filter, one above the other, behind a Lexan cover. They're oriented so their beams vary slightly in the vertical plane, that is to say, one points slightly more upward than the other.
As for operation, I leave them on all the time I'm flying. I have confirmation that these lights are visible from a distance in excess of 8 miles in evening light (a fellow EAA chapter member was flying toward me as we approached our home airport from opposite directions, both landing within the last 15 minutes of legal light). With respect to "on runway" operation, they are definitely not capable of producing a bright enough central beam to prevent me from hitting a deer on an unlit runway while accellerating to takeoff speed. But for most other purposes they're adequate. As a taxi light they're just about perfect, especially with one aimed downward to show local terrain deviations and the other aimed more upward to allow reading of signage, etc.
The one area where the LED lights really shine (ok, ok, lame pun...) is in providing guidance in the flare. Because they don't have a "hot" centre beam to both erode night vision and entice one to stare down the centre of the beam, they really do help one use peripheral and far-horizon cues to judge the flare. My aircraft requires very gentle handling in the flare and I've found it much easier to land with runway lights dimmed to minimum intensity and the LED landing lights operating.
In summation, it would be nice if these things made more light, but at a measured current draw of just under 1.5 amps they provide adequate lighting without placing undue stress on an electrical system that's already operating at capacity. My net investment was about CAD$80. If I lived in a perfect world I'd likely have a HID landing light and a pair of wig-wagging wingtip LED taxi lights. The HID would be used for landing/takeoff only, while the LED's would stay on all the time and be set to wig-wag any time I'm not taxiing.
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