REFLECTOR: Canard Landing Lights

[Rich Guerra]

Jorge,

I have a Shaw canard with built in lights.  There are lots of incidental
pictures of the setup throughout my web site.  Alan Shaw made the covers for
the lights with some kind of jig - I don't know if he still makes them or could
do a  custom job still.  I think they do improve visibilty of the plane (or so
my local tower comments) and wig-wags would make them even better but as for
landing lights, not so useful.  Do help in taxi though.

See:
Annual 2006 section for dusk, night shots with lights on final approach and
landing.
The Voyage Home section (under Adventures) for lights on on ground shot (1st
pic)

In Building Velocity XL RG N724X section:
'More details'section for closeup of lights

Hope that helps

Rich Guerra
Velocity XL RG N724X aka RACE 24
http://www.rguerra.com/velocity/

> I am thinking about installing two separate wig-wag halogen landing lights,
> inboard of the
> elevator counterweights area in the canard tips for better visibility.  I
> already have the
> lights and estimate I would have to add about a 1" (H) x 4" (W)  flat fairing
> to the
> bottom of the canard, similar to the one covering the outboard elevator
> counterweights, to
> fit the light inside the canard and leave some clearance for heat
> dissipation.  I was
> planning to insulate the cavity with a box of phenolic material.  Has anyone
> done
> something similar or know of other canard aircraft with a similar setup?
> Could adding
> this semi-bubble negatively affect the characteristics of the canard?  Your
> thoughts,
> experience, references or pictures are all welcome.
>
>
> Regards,
> Jorge Bujanda
> Velocity XL FG
> Palmdale, CA
> Website:  http://members.dslextreme.com/users/jbujanda/
>
> "Make your best case... not the best case."
> "Spare the noise... convince through silence."
>
>