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Puddle lighting

KatanaPilot

Well Known Member
Has anyone come up with a creative installation of "puddle" lamps - possibly in the doors of an RV-10?

I was looking at one of the RV-10's in the hangar today and thought that lighting mounted in the doors that could illuminate the wing walk area might be a nice modification.

Coming up with a reasonable routing method from the cabin cover into the hinged door seems to be the biggest challenge.

Has anyone done this or mounted exterior lighting in another location that would illuminate the wing walk area?
 
Krea,

Yes, this modification has been done by other RV-10 builders. Ed Krantz and Justin Twilbeck are two builders that immediately come to mind. Aveo Engineering also sells lights that mount on the side of the fuselage for lighting the leading edge of the wing for ice detection, but I belive their system could also be employed to light the wing walk without having to put wires through the gull wing doors. Happy building.
 
Has to have the logo as well :D

Like a 'Stang or a Range Rover

Yes, maybe Geoff at Aerosport will add the logo and lights to the carbon fiber door sills he makes ;)

Krea,

Yes, this modification has been done by other RV-10 builders. Ed Krantz and Justin Twilbeck are two builders that immediately come to mind. Aveo Engineering also sells lights that mount on the side of the fuselage for lighting the leading edge of the wing for ice detection, but I belive their system could also be employed to light the wing walk without having to put wires through the gull wing doors. Happy building.

Glad to hear that. I didn't think this was a unique idea, but it was one I would like to include.
 
lighting in door

Krea,
Don't know if you can route wires to hinges on doors, but if you can, you can use an old trick we used on stereos in the seventies. We used the two hinges on the fold out speakers to transfer the signal instead of having exposed wires.
Maybe you can route a channel in the fiberglass and then cover it.

Allen
7A very slow build
 
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Sean at Plane Around has some very nice LED's that I'm using (and others have) in the doors to light the wing walks. I thought about doing some tiedown lights or somehow have an exterior light that comes on to light up the step but the complexity of weather sealing it overrode the requirement. I think the door light will suffice for pax and the Mrs.
 
A friend put white single LED spot lights under his wings, next to the tiedown rings, wired into his position lights.

The master had to be on for the position lights to work. His thought was that if the ground is lit around his plane, then the was unlikely to leave his master on.

I would think there is a remote available, similar to a car remote, that could turn on the flood lights upon command, and would automatically turn them off after X minutes.
 
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Slow tech solution

Guys,

I have added three lights to my RV all battery operated. I bought a 4 pack of adhesive backed floods and mounted one above the baggage area and one above the back seat, two spares for later:). I also have a nice overhead red cockpit panel flood light from spruce again battery operated.
I also keep two little red flashlight I bought on-line, one in the back of each seat, for easy access. I also keep a set of spare batteries for everything.

I don't like to fly at night, so only go enough to remain current and the occasional must trip to visit the kids. But after returning one night from my college sons baseball game and the auto dimmer on my avydine Sh** the bed I created a little night flight check list. A reminder to check batteries, lights and a quick reference on how to dim everything.

Anyway just rambling . . . but the flood in the back, really just behind the front seats does a good job of lighting the top of the wing for exit, hate to use it on entry though since it will kill your night vision.
 
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