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LED Position Lights

Tankerpilot75

Well Known Member
I was walking through the exhibit barns at AirVenture and several lighting exhibits got me to thinking about replacement position light bulbs.

I have the standard old Whelen A650 position/strobe light setup on my RV in the wing tip. I?m not yet interested in changing out completely to an LED position/strobe setup due to cost BUT I am thinking about changing the position light bulbs out from incandescent to LED.

Has anyone done this? If so what LED bulb did you use? Where did you source them? Were the replacement LED bulbs as bright and did you see any reduction in amperage draw?

I've already changed my wingtip landing lights to Whelen 71685 LED lights and really love the brightness of these lights over the old 50w halogen lights. The amperage draw for these lights was significantly less than the halogen lights.
 
4 years ago I bought LED replacement bulbs at S-n-F. Still shining thousands hours later I will dig the vendor info Jim. I hope they are still in business. Long lasting bulbs. Before that I went through several sets of expensive Whelen types.
 
I tried the PSA original "navstrobes". The were a white shade, not colored.
Under the Grimes colored hemis-
Red was orangeish
Green was blueish
No way they were "right".
They needed the biggest ferrite choke/clamps to muffle their RFI.

The above ones I posted that are colored lamps, under colored Grimes globes look dandy. YMMV, but they look just like the jets at work.

Why would any OEM tell you what works at 10% price and 5 minute install?

If you like paying the big bucks, don't google, "MSTRB red 360 degree". $40 for an anticollision light will really upset you.
 
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I bought the strobing nav lights. Turn them one once, they light up. Recycle the switch and the strobe colors.

I love them. They work really well. Bright, low draw, increase visibility.

All my exterior lights ate now LED. Love them.

Tinker
 
I talked to the Pilotlights people at Oshkosh. Their lights are meant to be used with the stock Whelen red and green lenses. The color is then correct. For those of us that have the Whelen A600 (Nav-Strobe-Tail) on each wingtip, they are working on a tail light lamp to fit those.
 
Ordered

I called the people at Pilotlights.net and talked to them about their LED replacement bulbs. They recommended using their colored LED lights under the Whelen colored lens covers. Said the brightness increase would be ?dramatic.? It?s worth a chance and the price was $39 plus shipping.

Will give a pirep once received and installed.
 
Spruce sells one of the whelen replacement bulbs for $49.75. I wonder if I can swap my my never used overpriced bulbs for LED replacements.
 
Spruce sells one of the whelen replacement bulbs for $49.75. I wonder if I can swap my my never used overpriced bulbs for LED replacements.

The bulbs I purchased from Pilotlights.net clearly state theirs are for ?experimental use only.? However they are supposed to exceed the brightness of the Whelen bulbs and have a significantly longer service life (50,000 hours) with less amperage draw. Whelen clearly does not recommend these bulbs because their not STC?d and takes a STC?d system like theirs into the experimental arena.

A lot of experimental items are improvements over certified systems so I?m going to give these bulbs a try. As I said earlier, a pirep update will be provided after I install them and have used them a bit.
 
Jim, I originally had white PSA navstrobes, they were RFI noisey. Big ferrite chokes helped. I did not like the color, so went with and like the pilotlights kit.

Please report any RFI in the comm radio, I never tried them without the chokes.
 
Jim, I originally had white PSA navstrobes, they were RFI noisey. Big ferrite chokes helped. I did not like the color, so went with and like the pilotlights kit.

Please report any RFI in the comm radio, I never tried them without the chokes.

Will do. RFI in the comm radios will be a deal breaker! I have ferrite chokes on my magnetometers because of previous electro-magnetic interference affecting heading inputs. I had to move my magnetometers to the wing tips to get away from the comm. interference. If I get any RFI from these position light bulbs it would probably impact my heading again which is a game killer.

Thanks for the heads up.
 
PIREP LED Position Light bulbs

I promised a Pirep on the LED light bulbs I purchased from Pilotlights.net and will only say I was disappointed.

The diameter of the base is just slightly smaller than the original Whelen bulbs that were in the sockets. This prevented a tight fit in the socket which resulted in the lights acting intermittently. Had to remove the bulbs and reinstall the Whelen bulbs.

When contact was made by the bulbs in the sockets the result was a brighter position light but unfortunately I could not get the bulbs to maintain contact.
 
Weird, let us know what the seller says, maybe an out spec batch or a common complaint? My Grimes sockets were definitely not "new" condition and they fit snugly. Could you pull the sockets and give them a squeeze so the lock channels grab the tabs?
 
Can?t complain about customer service

I originally was going to chalk this experience to ?lesson learned? but moosepileit got me thinking I should probably call the vendor and let him know of my problem with the bulbs. The vendor said, ?this was a first? and quickly volunteered to send me two replacement ?different series? bulbs to try out.

Hopefully this will address my problem. He?s ask that I take pictures of the bulbs and sockets when the replacement bulbs arrive - which I will do. Can?t complain about vendor response!

I will keep you posted.
 
Psa trimcraft from Spruce

Installed in wingtips under lenses into fixtures. Plenty bright but didn?t seem to fit perfectly into socket, had to jam them in. But they have worked ok, no noise. But I think if I ever remove them they will be ruined.

Just for fun I ordered from Crazed Pilot red and green bullet lights for $8 a piece and mounted them under lenses facing forward. Plenty bright.

For tail light I ordered from Amazon 2 for $6 white led, 15s?, same problem with jamming them in fixture but installed tight and very bright.

I guess point is you don?t have to break the piggy bank to get led solutions that work well.
 
Final PIREP

I originally was going to chalk this experience to ?lesson learned? but moosepileit got me thinking I should probably call the vendor and let him know of my problem with the bulbs. The vendor said, ?this was a first? and quickly volunteered to send me two replacement ?different series? bulbs to try out.

Hopefully this will address my problem. He?s ask that I take pictures of the bulbs and sockets when the replacement bulbs arrive - which I will do. Can?t complain about vendor response!

I will keep you posted.

Well my replacement LED bulbs arrived about two weeks ago and I installed them. This installation went much better (he sent a different series of LED bulbs). I sent the first set back for analysis of the problem. I discovered the original green LED position light was loose at the base which I?m sure contributed to my initial ?loose bulb? installation issue.

Unfortunately I couldn?t immediately go fly and had to wait for better weather and time. Flew this weekend some YE flights and will say there were no IRF/comm issues and the new bulbs were brighter than my old incandescent Whelen bulbs with the current draw significantly reduced.

I recommend others consider this position light bulb change out but remember you?re taking a certified position light system (Whelen) and modifying it to experimental status by these LED bulbs. However, this is an inexpensive way (under $50 including shipping) to convert from a high, old tech position light system to modern, long lasting, bright LED position lights.
 
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