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Nav light covers

S

springcanyon

Member
Hi all,

I am ready to cut and install the plexiglass covers over the wing-tip nav lights. I welcome advice on the best way to attach them.

Thanks in advance,
Don Owens :confused:
 
I'm a rookie but I just wanted to say-- hope you do better than me on cutting them. Every cut, they didn't fit at another point. I'm not kidding. everytime I -- well I'd rather do a mini- rubix cube.
 
Placing of the Navlight!

Hello all!

Be carefully when you placing the Nav/Stoblights, my friend has melted the cover with his Nav/Stroblights! He placed the units as close to the front as possible, that was wrong! During ground and taxi tests, the plexigalss cover melted.

Now he repositioned the Nav/Stroblights as far rear as possible, no problem since then.

Dominik
Wings
 
tiplights3pm.jpg

This is an image of mine during construction. The tips are different I'm sure but some things are applicable. The nav lights only have to be far enough forward to be seen from 20 degrees aft of the mounting point without obstruction by the wing. The lens (cover) fit perfectly on mine but the were purchased from RMD and I had to cut the wing tip hole and glass in the light bulkheads so if there was an error other than the shap of the lens it was my fault. In addition to the placement of the lights to avoid excessive heat on the lens the hole drilling and mounting hardware precission are very important.

1- Use the proper drills for plexiglass (they have a much greater angle on the leading edge which avoids cracking)
2- Drill the mounting holes with a 1/8" drill and cleco the lens to the mounting surface as you go to assure that all holes are in perfect alignment
3- Remove the lens and use the platenuts clecoed to the outside of the mounting base as a drill guide and drill and cleco the platenut mounting holes with a #40 drill
4- Remove the platenuts and enlarge the center hole in the tip lens mounting surface as required to allow the screw to pass through to the platenuts after they are installed
5- Countersink the platenut mounting holes for #3 rivets
6- Install the plate nuts in the wingtip
7- Carefully use a 3/8" plexiglass drill to enlarge the mounting holes in the lens
8- Install the lens with screws and dimple washers (do not try mounting the lens with direct screw to lens contact)
I've been flying mine for a year and a half now and the work perfectly - and that includes no blind spot in the straight ahead ilumination provided by the landing lights that some folks talked about in another thread.

Bob Axsom
 
Two screws (only) per cover in Van's plans

The low-profile strobe is covered by a foam donut at this time. The lights are from Bill VonDane. If it worked, there is a picture attached.
 
Nav lenses

I just replaced my nav light covers. Van's sells a set for about $15.00 if I remember corectly. Maybe only $12.00. Anyway, the blow mold doesn't give any too much extra. My son helped me and he cut them apart with a dremmel tool using a fine wheel. Then we put a sanding drum on and trimmed them to fit with that.

After cutting the two apart we determined which one went where. Then placing them onto the wing tip we marked with a sharpie where we needed to trim. Seemed to work pretty well.

Since these were replacements and the nut plates were already in place I just put a 1/8" drill bit into the dremmel tool while holding the lense in place and drilled them. Then counter sunk them and all seems quite nice. The old ones were a bit yellowed. I'm in the process of having my 4 repainted and so the new lenses seemed appropriate.

Tom McCutcheon
 
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