For those who have tip mounted lights I've got a couple of questions.
Darwin, this is in an RV7 tail dragger. I have tried multiple aiming arrangements including aiming all 4 lights straight ahead parallel to the wing chord.
1) Do you have the angle set up parallel to the inside cut of the tip? This would be the horizontal adjustment.
No
2) How do you have the vertical component adjusted?
Currently I have set my outside lights up to be taxi lights. They are on their own switch. I reasoned that the further outboard pair could be directed further toward the runway centerline without as much shadow impact from the cut out.
3) If parallel to the chord line is the light adequate on a landing approach?
Adequate but not much more.
3.1
Do you have this adjusted down or up?
Taxi lights are adjusted down and inward as much as possible. Landing lights are adjusted parallel to the cord.
4) Finally, do you have the right and left adjusted differently?
If you mean each wingtip pair as adjusted similar to the other wingtip, then they are the same.
I've had people say on more than one occasion that my airplane looks like an airliner when in the pattern, yet in my opinion, light available for taxi / landing is just adequate. I'm still using the stock MR16 bulbs. They make good recognition lights but are not so good for landing and taxi.
I do quite a bit of night flight. I had a close call at an airport where a King Air ran off a taxiway that was under construction. There was a ledge with a 1 1/2 foot drop and he drove off and damaged the landing gear. The tail was sticking almost over the taxiway. Between a fogged up windshield and dark night with taxiway lights on only one side of the taxiway and being in an s turning tail dragger I came close to hitting him. Well not that close... but it did get my attention! I've since added a defroster and have gone to this aiming arrangements with the lights.
If you come up with something better that can be easily retrofited to the standard wing cutout, I'd be interested in hearing about it.
