I’ve done a lot of searches and can’t seem to find anything specific to the RV7A on this. Looking for feedback from someone that’s installed the Flyled wing tip lights into the current/newer style wing tip on a flying plane. My concern is that they won’t provide enough lighting directly in front of the plane to be very effective. I saw a really good video of this setup on an RV14A and the sides of the runways were great, not so much straight ahead. I’m hoping the smaller 7 wing span would improve that.
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FlyLed Wing Tip Landing Lights
- Thread starter dwollen89
- Start date
That’s a good idea. What light did you use for the cowling?
If that is a concern, install the leading edge landing lights and the essentials wingtip nav/strobes.
That’s my other option. I really like the wig wag visibility from the wing tip lights which is my hangup. If I don’t do the wing tip lights, then I’ll probably just install the essentials and a single 7 stars light in the leading edge.
You can still have wigwag functionality with leading edge lights. There are several different ways to do this. All are relatively straightforward. FlyLEDs actually sells a wigwag circuit for this purpose. If you are going Garmin, their system can wigwag lights. If you go with VPX for power circuits they can wig wag lights.
The Advanced Flight Systems ACM, has a wigwag function for the landing/taxi lights as well.
The illumination performance of taxi and landing lights is very dependent on what effort was put into adjusting the aim point, so looking at photos online isn’t always representative of what is possible.
I am working on an RV – 7 right now that I installed two of the fly LED individual light modules in each wing tip. I’m confident that the outboard most one will be able to be aimed in board enough to cover a taxi way illumination towards the middle and right hand side. The second light on that side will be aimed more directly forward. Between the two that should cover taxi illumination very well. On the opposite wing, the two lights will be aimed as landing lights.
Fly LED offers a diffuser lens that can also be used to spread the 8° focused beam for wider light distribution on taxi lights.
Splitting the landing and taxi between the two wing tips allows for a simple wiring scheme to be able to wigwag all four elements.
With a Taildragger, it is important to have individually controlled taxi lights and landing lights because with the nose up attitude, you need to be able to separately control landing lights so they can be shut off for ground operations because their aim orientation will typically be shooting up in the sky and just blinding other pilots, but not really Providing much taxi lighting benefit.
Thanks for the info! It’s very much appreciated.
The current RV-7 and -8 wingtip design (W-715-1) has a comparatively huge light bay versus the smaller sizes found on all other models, so the light from The Works kit landing and taxi lights gets to spread in front of the plane nicely. The W-715-1 light bay is about 6" across on the forward facing edge, versus 4.5" inches or less on the -10/-14, RV-9 and the earlier "Batwing" wingtips.
The leading edge is the best place for landing lights to go, as there is no shadowing there and there's room for more/bigger lights as well. We'd advocate putting lights in both wings, so if your budget doesn't stretch to two Seven Stars you'd be better off with two of our Quad Spots instead so that you can see better down both sides of the runway and taxiways.
My usual sales pitch (using words from customer feedback) is that two Quads will give you Excellent light while two Seven Stars will give you Outrageous light. Your choice!
As mentioned above we have two different wigwag products, or if you're thinking about installing a VP-X, a Garmin GAD27 or a Dynon/Advanced Flight Systems ACM, these will wigwag /alternate flash the landing lights for you automatically.
Looks very nice! Care to share some more pictures of how you made this, either here, in a new thread or via email? I get asked about putting our lights in the cowl of lots of aircraft types so your pictures might inspire others.
Thanks for the reply Paul. Will the 7 stars fit into the wing on my 7A without too much problem? Is there much difference in size between the quad light and the seven stars? I found the measurements on your website, but I can't find the depth of the heat sinks on the quad lights to compare.
I have the works kit with tip lights only, there is plenty of light. At about 50-20 ft on approach it doesn't matter because beam width blends lighting together. From 20' down the beam noticeably separates. I have the lights "toed" in as much as possible and it still separates in the flare. Oddly enough it is plenty of lighting straight ahead, especially as your nose comes up to block the view a bit.
Remember, relative motion in the flare is best observed in your peripheral vision, which the works kit lights up well.
Remember, relative motion in the flare is best observed in your peripheral vision, which the works kit lights up well.
The depth of the heatsinks on the Quad Spot is just under 3", and 4" for the Seven Stars lights.
Plenty of room for either light in your RV wing.
Plenty of room for either light in your RV wing.
RV8 Not flying yet but I put a quad spot on each wing and the works in the wingtips. I'll let the works kit wigwag and the quad spots be my aux landing lights. I think this is going to be A LOT of light. FWIW If I had to do it again I'd make a second set of leading edge lens before the screw holes are dimpled. This is probably the easiest time to make a copy with the holes matched up. Not hard but easier than after you're flying. Cost/effort is minimal. Put them on the shelf for spares.
If you do the pair of 7 Stars and Works I think you're gonna look like the Welcome Wagon communicating to the alien ship on Independance Day
If you do the pair of 7 Stars and Works I think you're gonna look like the Welcome Wagon communicating to the alien ship on Independance Day
Yes,
Seven Stars will drop straight in on an RV-7,
See this post at #24
Flyleds 7 Spot HID Replacement
Paul at Flyleds has released a 7 Star LED drop in replacement for my old HID's that are currently in my RV-10. They can only be fitted by removing the wing tip. The old HID's coming out, The new Flyleds mount straight in the old Duckwork mounts, The new heat-sinks are a work of art ...
www.vansairforce.net
Used the fly LEDs “the works” kit for the rest of the plane and bought an extra quad spot for the nose. I’ve seen a mount kit sold for the RV10 but there is not much space in the 7 cowl. I made mine from scratch and had to cut down the lights to fit. Cut a huge hole in the cowling-(terrifying). Then used a plastic butter dish as a mold and laid up 3 layers of fiberglass. Trimmed and mounted the quad spot and made a plexiglass lens. Mine is a taildragger so I tilt d the mount down a bit and with the quad spot- you can adjust the 1 spot for taxi. Whole thing works with the wing wag. LOTS OF LIGHT!
Attachments
Feel free to wire the Quad Spots to the Works kit controller board as well. That way they all operate and wigwag together.
Just a quick note here - I really like to tinker and make my own stuff, and I wanted a custom lighting solution for my RV-9A wingtip. I have a prototype, but it has been a LOT of work and the parts cost me nearly as much as what Paul sells for a much more robust setup. He has also been quite kind to answer my questions along the way.
So unless you really enjoy tinkering, designing, sourcing parts, assembling and testing, then redesigning, reassembling and retesting, just buy some FlyLEDs and use your time for better things!
Great product and a great guy!
