REFLECTOR: LED Light Project Finished

[Brian Michalk]

I like lights.  A lot of lights.  I like efficiency too.
I believe that eventually, LED's will replace all halogen applications, 
but for now, nothing can beat HID lights, in my opinion.
I think Andy Millin was the one that turned me on to the cheap source of 
HID modules on Ebay, so I bought some.  Then, everyone else got the idea 
and that cheap source of HID is now not so cheap anymore.

I bought a nice reflector from duckworks aviation, and installed the 
Ebay module in that to use for my taxi light.  I'm still in phase I 
flight, so haven't used it for landing at night.
I liked it so much, I bought two more off Ebay, and installed them in 
the tips of the canard.  The tips are hollow and make a nice place to 
install the ballast module.  A set of cheap fog light lenses were used 
and highly modified to hold the lamp, and were glassed in to the leading 
edge.  I'll see if I can send pics tonight.  With the doors closed on 
the hangar, they cast a very narrow (vertical) and wide (to the side) 
beam.  One of these days I should do some night taxiing to see how well 
they do.

I also added logo lights in the winglets that illuminate the fuselage.  
They are embedded above the structural layups, and are halogens at the 
moment.  The size is a bigger problem in this area.  I might replace 
them with LED's instead.  I have used these before at night, and they 
really are nice to use for inspecting and loading the airplane at night.

On 7/19/2013 10:46 AM, William Walker wrote:
> Hi All,
>
>  From the lack of response to my exterior mounted lights, I reconsidered the idea and decided to mount them inside the nose wheel well. Everything works just fine, and the nose gear tube clears them by about 1/4" on each side. They make a dramatic difference to the night landing and night taxi experience. I am in the process of uploading some videos to YouTube. I'll post the specifics when they finish uploading. Please forgive my carrier landings...suffering from some near-in focus.
>
> Unexpectedly, they make the plane much more visible during the day. I had some fun working with a local contract tower controller by flying directly at the tower from various unknown (to him) directions first with just the landing light, then with the landing light and Darlas all on. With just the landing light, and him actively looking, I was able to get as close as 4-5 miles before he acquired me visually. With the Darlas added, and starting at 10 miles, I never got closer than 8 miles before he saw me. Pretty cool stuff.
>
> Anyway, they added 2 pounds and draw 2 amps. I can accept that for the benefits.
>
> Here are some pics. Sorry for the graininess, but it was dusk and I had the camera set to iso3200.
>
> Bill Walker
>