Van's Air Force
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Best lighting options, cost?
- Thread starter RNB
- Start date
D-Dubya
Well Known Member
I'm a big fan of the FLYLEDS brand, which is an advertiser here on the VAF Forum. There are many options to choose from: it just depends on how far you want to go. You can look at what they offer on their website and they're easily purchased in the States through FlyBoyAccessories.com . If you want to go all out and replace landing lights, taxi lights, nav lights and strobes for the wings and tail, a ballpark figure would be just south of a grand. That includes some room for connectors and additional wiring that you may or may not need.
FLYLEDS landing lights are much, much brighter than the old style halogens and a step change better than the MR16 bulbs some RV's have in their wingtips. There are other options as well--a search on the Forum will yield many results.
FLYLEDS landing lights are much, much brighter than the old style halogens and a step change better than the MR16 bulbs some RV's have in their wingtips. There are other options as well--a search on the Forum will yield many results.
D Weisgerber
Well Known Member
I'm using Flyleds The Works, it is all LED and puts everything in the wingtip, plus you'll need a light on the tail. This is a setup for the newer wingtips with the light cutout. I think I had $699 into mine, this is landing lights, Nav lights, Strobes and tail light. If you have the landing light in the leading edge of the wing they have options for that too.
steve murray
Well Known Member
I have done two home brew leading edge light setups for an RV8 & RV10. Used Duckworks leading edge mounting kit and bought some LED lights off EBay for about $50 each. They are setup for Wig\wag and landing light operations. On the RV8, the aiming of the lights from landing position to taxi position was a bit fiddly but brightness was not an issue.
Majorpayne317641
Well Known Member
I use flyled they are so bright I get comments from Towers and airliners can spot me from 10+ miles out at night
Sam Buchanan
been here awhile
Just for clarification, aircraft with an experimental airworthiness certificate can not be "IFR certified". It is up to the operator of the aircraft to make sure it is equipped in accordance with FAR 91.205 for flight under IMC conditions. Transponder, instrumentation, lighting and navigation need to be able to meet requirements for IFR operation but there is no log book entry in regard to IFR certification.
Best wishes for a successful search for your RV!
Dugaru
Well Known Member
I’ve been very happy with Squadron Pro flush mount “spot” lights for both landing and taxi lights.
For each of these ideas, how much work is involved?
I might be able To get shared hangar space, but the guys working might not like stuff laying around everywhere.
i’m trying to get an idea of hiring out the work at brokers Shop vs diy back home
im not interested in jumping right into cutting in the plane…
I might be able To get shared hangar space, but the guys working might not like stuff laying around everywhere.
i’m trying to get an idea of hiring out the work at brokers Shop vs diy back home
im not interested in jumping right into cutting in the plane…
Dugaru
Well Known Member
Good question. The Squadron Pros were easy to switch out through the opening for the existing lights, but I had brackets that I obtained from someone here.
If you’ve got working & legal (albeit dated) lights, and no easy place to work on the plane, I’d just keep what you have for now and tackle lighting when your own shop is set up. Getting it set up for IFR (presumably including installation of a certified GPS navigator) could prove to be a PITA.
the plane has ifr navigator.
no shop for maybe a year
Dad's RV-10
Well Known Member
What is your current setup? Do you already have landing lights? Taxi lights? If you have to pull additional wires, there will be some additional work.
If desired, you can fairly easily add cut-ins to the leading edge using Van's Part # LL LENS KIT RV-10 (contains parts for both wings). You can then mount two of the FlyLED's Seven Stars landing/taxi lights. An example of installing the cut-ins is shown in this post.
If you're trying to keep everything in the wing tips, the aforementioned FlyLed's "The Works" kit is an effective solution, but leading edge mounted landing lights will put more light ahead of the aircraft.
I also had a simple enclosure for the FlyLED's control board 3D printed by a gentleman in one of the RV social media groups. Some of the 3D enclosure files are located here.
The FlyLED's links above are to the manufacturer's site in Australia. You can order directly and have them shipped from Australia or order domestically in the US from FlyBoy Accessories.
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Dugaru
Well Known Member
Ah so it’s good to go for IFR already? That’s a major boon.
I’d still wait on the lights, if your space isn’t ready and the existing ones are functional. Wrenching in someone else’s/shared space is a pain, and might violate their lease’s rules. Meanwhile, lights are a great DIY project.
Sportquattro
Well Known Member
By far the best value for money lighting solution is FlyLEDs, the kit is awesome and the support from Paul second to none.
A couple of pictures of my neighbor's RV-10. All exterior lighting is AeroLED's. Wingtips are the new carbon fiber AeroSun Vxi's, leading edge lights SunSpots. Very high quality components and as Walt said - excellent customer service and support.
Dugaru
Well Known Member
Love the paint scheme on that 10!
To the OP:
Check the airplane paperwork, was the last biennial pitot-static/transponder certification done to vfr or ifr standards? Also, you don’t say what instruments there are. ‘Steam gauge’ or EFIS? What backups are in place? Legally a single EFIS (plus ‘navigation suitable for the route’) is all you need, but I would never depart into IMC without a backup (in fact I have two). Deciding what ‘a safe ifr panel’ looks like can eat up a lot of money.
Check the airplane paperwork, was the last biennial pitot-static/transponder certification done to vfr or ifr standards? Also, you don’t say what instruments there are. ‘Steam gauge’ or EFIS? What backups are in place? Legally a single EFIS (plus ‘navigation suitable for the route’) is all you need, but I would never depart into IMC without a backup (in fact I have two). Deciding what ‘a safe ifr panel’ looks like can eat up a lot of money.
