Reflector: Strake Lights

[Ron Brown]

Randy,

I also mounted my landing lights on my gear - except I used 3"x5" 55 watt 
halogen running lights.  I mounted them on the other side of the main gear 
from yours.  They are mounted between the gear and the landing gear door. 
The illumination pattern is wide when normally installed horizontally on a 
car.  In my case they are mounted vertically, and  the lighting pattern is 
vertical.  THESE WORK GREAT!!!!  I flew my RG at night for the first time 
this week.  The vertical pattern does great as the plane goes into a nose up 
attitude before touch down.  The top of the pattern hits the canard, but not 
enough to matter.  In fact it is nice seeing the glow and knowing the lights 
are indeed on.

I interlocked my lights with the down and locked micro switches through a 
relay.  The lights cannot come on unless the gear is all the way down.

I also incorporated an alternating flasher - inexpensive from the volunteer 
fire department alternating head light flashers.   These flashing halogens 
are very visible in the pattern.

And no, with the vertical pattern, there is not a lot of light for the turns 
on the ramp.  Just follow the yellow lines and you won't hit anything (well 
that is what they are for).  Otherwise, slow down to a crawl when parking, 
etc.

Needless to say, I am very pleased with how these lights turned out.  I have 
no more than $50 in the two lights and the flasher.

Ronnie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randy Wharton" <rwharton at buckeye-express.com>
To: "'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list'" <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 4:44 PM
Subject: RE: Reflector: Strake Lights


>I saw another option on a beee-youuu-teeful XL-RG while I was in Sebastian
> last year and took several photos of it. One shows how he/she added quartz
> halogen lights to the landing gear. Here's a link to the photo page on my
> website where I have it: http://72.240.220.219/photo_pages/misc/misc15.htm 
> .
> I'm thinking of doing this on our plane, and I plan to have these lights 
> on
> a separate switch from the main (front) light with an added safety switch
> that breaks the circuit to the lights unless the gear is fully extended. I
> don't want to run the risk of these things turning on while the gear is
> retracted (into the middle of the fuel tanks).
>
> FWIW
>
> Randy Wharton
>
>
>
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