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Landing light decision

T

Terrance Medemblik

Member
Hello folks:
I am in the process of deciding on which type of landing lights to install since we are into the wing kit. I have the "notched" fibreglass tips (W-715-1). Does anyone have any feedback on the Vans Wing tip landing light Kit as opposed to the landing lights which are installed in the leading edge of the wind?
I am thinking in terms of how effective one type is vs the other, ease of installation etc.
Also, on a different track entirely, I am thinking of building a hangar/shop on our farm and am wondering if anyone could point me to an online resource for hangar designs...something that would be large enough for 2 - 3 RV type aircraft.
Thanks for your time and happy building.

Terrance
 
landing lights

Terrance,

I've just installed the wingtips vans option, absolutely easy, I choosed to install only one light for each side and not two to mantain a low electrical load; the kit is easy and well done.

my 2 cents
 
vans wingtip for me

wingtip lights work well. Easy to install. My CFI remarked how bright they were and this was the first experimental he had been in.
 
I've taken a lot of time to ponder this same question. I decided to go with the Duckworks leading edge kits for each wing. It doesn't look like there is a very good way to get the light from the wingtips towards the centerline of the plane for taxiing. I'll keep the tips open for strobes and position lights.

I bought the blank installation kit, with no lights or cutouts. At some point in the future when this thing is ready to fly, I'll worry about getting the actual lighting installed. I'm betting that there will be better LED or HID technologies available and for less cost than there is currently. The 50W HID kits were $250 each from Vans! LED's even more...
 
It depends on what kind of night flying you might do. Lighting requirements for landing at large, well-lit airports are a lot different than landing at private grass strips that have the potential for deer and other wildlife on them. Build it to suit your mission.

Vic
 
Thanks for all your help

Thanks for the replies folks...much to think about. I'm leaning towards the wingtip lights at this stage.

Anyone know of any websites that carry hangar designs?

Terrance
 
I'm taking the same approach as Bruce. Make provisions for leading edge landing lights, but hold off on choosing and purchasing the lights themselves until the last possible moment.

LED-based landing lights are arguably the best available solution technically (most efficient and most reliable), but are still very expensive. However, there's good reason to believe that they will go down in price significantly over the next couple of years as high-intensity LED technology continues to evolve and mature, and other high-volume (non-aviation) applications drive that market forward. Of particular interest, the auto industry is now beginning to migrate toward LED-based headlights, and as that happens we should be able to leverage from it directly rather than buy low-volume "aviation-priced" landing lights.
 
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Aeroled advice

At Oshkosh last summer, while buying some AeroLED recognition/strobe lights, and considering buying their landing lights to replace the basic duckworks leading edge lights I have installed, they told me I should wait because LED's were improving dramatically every year. I went ahead and bought the recognition lights so I could move forward with installing them, but I'm going to wait until I'm flying to upgrade the landing lights.

Just another point of information.
 
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