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Wing Tip Landing Lights

RV8TOR

Well Known Member
Anyone out there installed the CreativAir halogen lights in the sheared tips? Also any other options that might be installed out there? I am looking for alternatives to cutting the leading edge.

Thanks
Charlie Kearns
RV-8
N113JK
 
I just installed the first one the other day, combination nav (LED array) and landing/taxi light. Have not fired up the landing light yet but the nav is very impressive. Have spent more time than I should have fitting the clear lense that covers them, maybe I will finish the first one tomorrow.

Larry
N200LL
RV7A slowbuild
just started working on the canopy frame
 
Charlie,
I recently switched my RV-4 tips from Hoerner to Sheared. Previously I had Bob DeBorde landing and taxi lights in my wingtips with triple lights (Nav/tail/strobe) on the outside.
With the sheared tips, I used the Creative Air landing and taxi lights along with the triple lights all located under the lens (as opposed to hanging out in the air stream like before) The aft (tail) light portion of the triple light is useless in the forward tip, but I didn't want to cut a perfectly good light, so I cut a clearance hole in the aft fiberglass bulkhead of the wingtip and slid the triple light back into the hole. The nav and strobe portion of the triple light are now all that shows. It turns out that it was possible to locate the triple light high enough and the landing light low enough to eliminate almost all blockage. Since I now did not have aft white lighting, I decided to try something different and embedded 10 white LEDs in the trailing edge of each wing tip just for fun. To be legal, I will still have to add a strobe to the tail since the strobes under the lenses do not provide enough coverage.
As far as performance, the creative-air lights are 75 watts as opposed to my old 100 watt units. The light they produce is adequate, but certainly not overpowering. I believe the design driver on these units was more in keeping the units compact than powerful. Still, I am satisfied with them.
 
creative air

I have installed them in my rv9a tips, I tested the led and tried to angle/point
the landing lights but they are not installed (my wings are not installed yet) still working on the slider .. I think they will be fine , I prefer more light though, so I can't say for sure yet if they will light enough of the runway,
I didn't plan on flying at night (new low time student pilot) but wanted to have them if needed for special needs.. I didn't want to cut my leading edge either, but it might be a better solution.. ymmv..

Danny..
 
Just installed the starboard Creative nav/landing lite combo yesterday. It takes a little jiggery pokery but works out pretty well. We have installed a strobe in each wing tip also, located slightly off centerline to leave clearance for the landing light and to remain clear of the LEDs which beam forward.

The fitting of the cover lenses has taken almost 2/3rds of today. I did not want to install nutplates here so I drilled and tapped for 6-32 machine screws. I will install nylon bolts initially and then daub thickened epoxy over the screws protruding into the tip cavity. When the epoxy has hardened, adhering to the interior glass, I will remove the nylon screws and install the aircraft standard machine screws. The epoxy will provide lots of holding power for the screws.

When I finished with the port LED board installation with the landing lite, I soldered the control board onto the LED board so that the control board is hidden inside the tip cavity. After soldering the control board, I tested the unit and found a few dead or feeble LEDs. I carefully resoldered the boards together again and then went over the whole control board and freshened the component solder unions. VOILA! They all worked. Goodness! The red LEDS shone like the fires of HELL! Extremely bright.

The strobes are also very bright and the wing tips strobes alternate with the tail light/strobe combo with each group producing around 60 quad flashes per minute.

All in all, I think it's a pretty cool installation and very effective also.

Cheers, Pete
 
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