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Wingtip Lighting?

amaris

Well Known Member
After seeing all the great planes at Osh this week, it got me thinking about the lighting. I like the idea of the nav, strobe, position all in one on the OUTSIDE wing tip, similar to the 12's set up for complete visibility, even from the rear.

Has anyone done that on a non-12?

I saw these on an LSA and they looked good and were quite bright even in full sun.

http://www.aveoengineering.com/lsa-experimental-ul-kits-and-gliders/powerburst-daylite/

Of course, there's Whelen and AeroLED that have similar.

Aveo has the nice looking all in one wingtip and lighting piece but those are not in the budget!
 
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My plan

My plan for the -9 is FlyLEDs strobe and position lights with baja design lights for landing and taxi illumination, all in the wing tips. No more cutting into wing skins.
 
FlyLeds

I put together the FlyLeD Nav and Strobes. It was a fun weekend project and the cost very reasonable. Paul McVitty was very quick to respond also.

I put together the skinny boards because my landing lights are also in the tips
 
I have the aveo wingtip lights and love them. I think mine are the lsa model and i dont see them on the website anymore. They look like the ultra daylight ones they have on the site now. I installed them last year and get so many compliments about how bright they are. I know the ones that i installed have a lifetime warranty as well.
 
Pictures?

Extrakatana, your setup seems to be what i am contemplating, can you post a picture? Or email me a pic and i will host and post. Thanks
 
After seeing all the great planes at Osh this week, it got me thinking about the lighting. I like the idea of the nav, strobe, position all in one on the OUTSIDE wing tip, similar to the 12's set up for complete visibility, even from the rear.

Has anyone done that on a non-12?

I saw these on an LSA and they looked good and were quite bright even in full sun.

http://www.aveoengineering.com/lsa-experimental-ul-kits-and-gliders/powerburst-daylite/

Of course, there's Whelen and AeroLED that have similar.

Aveo has the nice looking all in one wingtip and lighting piece but those are not in the budget!

I don't see prices or places to buy?
 
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Mine are on the outside of the tips like you posted on my 6. I got it that way, but it does seem the easiest and is visible from front or rear. Landing lights are mounted in the leading edge of the wings
 
I don't see prices or places to buy?

Neal, they sell them through some retailers.

I have landing lights more inboard cut into the skin. So if I did tip lights on the exterior, I wouldn't need the van's tips with the plexi lens.

Does anyone sell replacement tips that don't have that cut out for the lighting?
 
After seeing all the great planes at Osh this week, it got me thinking about the lighting. I like the idea of the nav, strobe, position all in one on the OUTSIDE wing tip, similar to the 12's set up for complete visibility, even from the rear.

Has anyone done that on a non-12?

I saw these on an LSA and they looked good and were quite bright even in full sun.

http://www.aveoengineering.com/lsa-experimental-ul-kits-and-gliders/powerburst-daylite/

Of course, there's Whelen and AeroLED that have similar.

Aveo has the nice looking all in one wingtip and lighting piece but those are not in the budget!

On an EXPERIMENTAL aircraft, you can use anything you want.

Your Operating Limitations (part of the 8130-7 Airworthiness Certificate) will require that you meet 91.205 IF you want to operate Night or IFR. 91.205 REQUIRES Approved position lights and approved anticollision light system.

IF you want to be legal for NIGHT or VFR operation, it is best to stick with TSO'ed light systems.
 
Extrakatana, your setup seems to be what i am contemplating, can you post a picture? Or email me a pic and i will host and post. Thanks

Mine is the pic on the site with the single halogen.
Not sure why he has $1 next to. Email Paul.

I purchased one of those stop lights with the printed circuit boards made for kids since I don't normally solder printed circuit boards to practice. Wasn't hard. The kit comes with an additional 4" board that has to be installed somewhere in the plane that controls what you want the strobes to do. has switches and sample LED's to show you what the lights on the tips are doing. The only drawback was the negative has to run back to this board from the lights. You can't terminate on a wing tip like a whelen pack. If it's a new build, no problem. If existing, you probably will need to run an extra wire through the wing for the ground. Other than that, seems like it was around $200 for the kit.

I also have controller boards and light heads from lED flash lights in my wing tips for landing lights from Amazon. I went through a couple but at $18 ea I could replace them each year. My Position lights, strobes and landing lights were $240ish in total, Gotta love Experimental!
 
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On an EXPERIMENTAL aircraft, you can use anything you want.

Your Operating Limitations (part of the 8130-7 Airworthiness Certificate) will require that you meet 91.205 IF you want to operate Night or IFR. 91.205 REQUIRES Approved position lights and approved anticollision light system.

IF you want to be legal for NIGHT or VFR operation, it is best to stick with TSO'ed light systems.

Does it say ( TSO'ed ) in the FARs, or meet the requirements of all that technical data listed, color, intensity ect?
 
The bold type is COPY / PASTE from the linked 91.205 and it says APPROVED.

Agree, although it's shame, a requirement from the days of too-dim 10 amp incandescent fireflies. Most (if not all) of the current unapproved lighting exceeds the standards.

We were playing around with a FlyLEDS demo system one night at HBC. In terms of color and brightness, side-by-side operation embarrassed an approved Whelen LED system by a huge margin. I suspect the major difference is simply the LED development timeline.

At high brightness levels, viewing angle is dictated by the wingtip cutout, not the lights themselves.

Still....

§1.1 General definitions.
As used in Subchapters A through K of this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:

Approved, unless used with reference to another person, means approved by the FAA or any person to whom the FAA has delegated its authority in the matter concerned, or approved under the provisions of a bilateral agreement between the United States and a foreign country or jurisdiction.
 
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The bold type is COPY / PASTE from the linked 91.205 and it says APPROVED.

Just trying to understand this, so we are to follow the rules for standard AW aircraft when we are Experimental? (91.205 Powered civil aircraft with standard category U.S. airworthiness certificates)
 
Just trying to understand this, so we are to follow the rules for standard AW aircraft when we are Experimental? (91.205 Powered civil aircraft with standard category U.S. airworthiness certificates)

ONLY need to comply with 91.205 when you want to operate at NIGHT and IFR.

The Operating Limitations REQUIRE that you comply with 91.205 for NIGHT and IFR operations only.

This is from latest version of FAA Order 8130.2.
 
We were playing around with a FlyLEDS demo system one night at HBC. In terms of color and brightness, side-by-side operation embarrassed an approved Whelen LED system by a huge margin.

Dan, this test surprised me more than you...

2017-07-23-21.28.09-Small.jpg


For context, the Flyleds demo kit is shown sitting on the ground below Steve's plane. (Thanks Steve for providing the comparison subject!)

On initial review of this picture I thought I'd caught the strobe LEDs operating as well, but the lens flare shows a ghost of the red and green led pattern from the Flyleds demo board floating near the wing root; note there's no white strobe LEDs showing.
Yes, both the red and green lights are on, so the demo box is 'twice' as bright as you'd normally see from one side of the plane. Either way, I struggle to take meaningful pictures of the operating product as the camera just can't cope. It was pretty much pitch black otherwise.

The demo box was powered from an 11 volt LiPo battery that I normally use in an RC quadcopter.

 
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Update

My plan for the -9 is FlyLEDs strobe and position lights with baja design lights for landing and taxi illumination, all in the wing tips. No more cutting into wing skins.

After talking with Paul of FlyLEDs I need to possibly rethink this. I am conerned the 9 tip is too small.

Does anybody have the FlyLEDs and baja design lights in a 9 tip? I found pictures of a 7 on the web.
 
AeroLed option

Visited the AeroLeds booth at OSH and checked out the new AeroSunMX puck lights demo. I currently have a stock Van's halogen taxi/landing light in each wingtip on my -7. My plan is to replace the 2 halogen landing bulbs with 6 of the MX pucks, 3 on each wing, and keep the wig-wag fired through Perihelion Designs module. Will post the install if anyone is interested.

For a size reference, here's a pic I took at OSH of the prototype MX's installed in a razor thin Lancair Mako wingtip. I'd say the install options are limitless in the wingtip area we have to work with.

2r2674o.jpg
 
After seeing all the great planes at Osh this week, it got me thinking about the lighting. I like the idea of the nav, strobe, position all in one on the OUTSIDE wing tip, similar to the 12's set up for complete visibility, even from the rear.

Has anyone done that on a non-12?

I saw these on an LSA and they looked good and were quite bright even in full sun.

http://www.aveoengineering.com/lsa-experimental-ul-kits-and-gliders/powerburst-daylite/

Of course, there's Whelen and AeroLED that have similar.

Aveo has the nice looking all in one wingtip and lighting piece but those are not in the budget!

Just to offer a data point. I saw these lights at the Wick's booth at OSH. I asked the salesman to compare and contrast them with AeroLEDs, which were about twice the price. He said the Avero lights seem bright but tend to disappear at 350 yds even though you wouldn't think so. I don't have any experience with either light, but thought I'd pass along what he told me.
 
Question on Approval?

I understand that the FAA has approved...

"Approved, unless used with reference to another person, means approved by the FAA or any person to whom the FAA has delegated its authority in the matter concerned, or approved under the provisions of a bilateral agreement between the United States and a foreign country or jurisdiction."

I asked this before but have not as yet got an answer as yet....

Why would a sign-off on the aircraft for CofA not represent an "Approval" as covered under the definition. It covers all items on the aircraft. And as such lights are now approved by FAA delegated authority...

Just curious if anyone can point to documentation regulatory that shows this is not the case.

Separately however, in Australia, because of the approaches used in Navigation lights, experimental lights can be used. Not sure if this is covered under the "bilateral agreement".

Taking all that aside, the FLYLEDS are extremely bright.... Brighter than anything I have seen so far..
 
Funny thing is the thread veered course a bit from the original intent of my question. Great to see all the suggestions and tests though, so much appreciated!

The original post was more along the lines of "has anyone replaced the stock tip for a non-recessed one so a light can be placed on the outside of the tip similar to the way the 12s do."
 
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