Wig-Wag worth the cost & complexity?

[flyeyes]

(snip) I look at strobes as essential, and wig-wagging the landing lights as a bonus - you already have the landing lights, you can turn them on in traffic areas - and if you wig-wag them, that's bonus visibility. So if you already have strobes, and landing lights, why add yet another system? (snip)Paul

LOL

Paul, I think exactly the opposite ;-). Strobes are required, but during bright daylight they are almost worthless--watch airplanes in the pattern to see what I mean. Strobes are, more or less, the same color as blue sky and aren't easily visible against it. During WWII, IIRC, the Navy actually experimented with arc lights along the leading edge of aircraft to render them less visible so they could sneak up on submarines on the surface. HID landing lights have the same issue.

Wig-wag halogen landing lights, OTOH are yellower, and stand out better against a blue sky, and remain visible against clouds or at night. The "motion" of the wig-wag plays to a strength of the human visual system--we are hard-wired to pick up this type of stimulus. A bonus is the fact that they are a fraction of the cost of strobes, and can light the runway at night.

I'm probably a little biased because of this accident, which involved a close friend, and an airplane I'd spent many hours in.

My Duckworks lights and wig-wag have generated a lot of comments about their visibilty, and at least six other local pilots have installed them after seeing my airplane.

 

[svanarts]

I have a set of Duckworth landing lights and used Bob Knuckoll's flasher sold by B & C. It's cheap and very visible. I've received several comments that I wasn't even visible until I turned on the LL flashers even though my strobes are on all the time. In my opinion it's very much worth it.