Wednesday, November 03, 2010

LED Landing Light

The only complaint I have with the Sundowner is the lack of lighting for landing or taxi.  I guess I was spoiled by the Archer's nose light that really did a great job.   The Beech Sundowner does provide for an additional light package for the right wing leading edge but I'm not ready to have someone cut into a perfectly good wing. Instead I'll take advantage of the additional light position in my existing left wing leading edge. I would like to have my lights pulse but that will require a bit more investigation and $$.

LED lighting is the ideal technology for aviation applications. Whelen LED lights are time and field-tested for reliability and long-life performance under the tough conditions required by Fire, Emergency, DOT and Law Enforcement professionals around the world.

Parmetheus PAR36 LED lights are a drop-in replacement for outdated Halogen or HID lamps. Lightweight, low-current and moisture resistant, they provide stable light output for thousands of operating hours and they are STC Approved.

I am going to add the LED lamp for my landing light and move my existing light to my taxi light position in the left wing leading edge location.  I hope to provide some pictures of the taxi light relocation and a few pictures to show the difference in the illumination of each lamp.

7 comments:

Steve said...

Cool - try and get some photo or video with new and old to compare if you have a chance!

Gary said...

I am going to try and document the install,adding the additional light position in the wing tip, and I hope to get some sort of comparison on video.

Rob said...

Comparison?! Take a candle outside Steve and have Gina walk 30 feet infront of you on a moonless dark night in the middle of nowhere. That's about what Gary has now. Takes both our Mk-I eyeballs to taxi after our return to ILG from visiting you and again after WV62. This is a great upgrade for 08R in my opinion. Once aligned, is like to see the difference too.

Gary said...

LOL.......yeah...it's really that bad. Just got my aircraft spruce box from ups. Wooooo hoooooo! As soon as I get all the inspection plates off and get the oil draining I'm working on the lighting.

Steve said...

Ahhh, so you never have to worry about not liking what you see when landing at night? And you want to give that up? Think of all the stress you'll no longer be averting!

Rick said...

Gary - how are you finding the Whelen LED landing light? Am considering purchasing the same for my 172. Read some reports that folks are happier using two of the Parmetheus "taxi" lights vs one landing, one taxi (when you have two bulbs) as the beam from the taxi light is better. Curious if you have gotten comments on visibility during the day (and if you've used it when dark). Thx -

Gary said...

Rick,

See this post...
http://gmflightlog.blogspot.com/2010/12/landing-light-review.html

Also, I will be adding the Whelen taxi LED taxi light, I want to see the difference in the width of the beam, I'll update another round of testing.