AndyRV7

AndyRV7

Well Known Member
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.

a4a17aed-583d-470a-88f5-c5d522084528_zpsf8788643.jpg


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
 
LED controllers make noise

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.
 
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
 
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
 
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.
 
bkthomps said:
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
Click to expand...

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.
 
bkthomps said:
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
Click to expand...

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.
 
The Aerosun Vx LED?s look great, but do not fit the older wingtips (w-715) like what Andy has pictured. If there is a modification coming for the smaller wing tips, please let us know as the leading edge appears like to only practical solution for those with the older tips.
 
az_gila said:
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.
Click to expand...

i was always limited to finding the 28v ones, and had no luck at all, the ones i did find, burned out almost within 5hrs of using them (vibration related i guess)
 
Dave11 said:
The Aerosun Vx LED?s look great, but do not fit the older wingtips (w-715) like what Andy has pictured. If there is a modification coming for the smaller wing tips, please let us know as the leading edge appears like to only practical solution for those with the older tips.
Click to expand...

We have conversion kits for making the RV-9 and RV-10/14 wingtip light coves bigger right now, but not for the W-715. The problem is that there really weren't a lot of the W-715 wingtips shipped by Van's before they switched to the W-715-1. Also, the only way for an RV-4 or RV-6 to install the Vx is to put a set of W-715-1 tips on.

I think that if there are enough RV-7/8 builders with the older wingtips that are interested in the Vx, we could look into making a conversion kit similar to the ones for the RV-9 and RV-10/14.
 
Thinking about buying the aero
Sun VX but would like to hear feedback. Anyone complete installation that can give some impressions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.