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Lighting Choices - RV14

R

rdt7

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I'm at the point where I need to make my lighting choices. I will have the QB wings soon so my first question is will there be landing light leading edge cutouts? If not, I could choose an option with everything in the wingtip. One panel maker advised me to stay away from the AeroLED Vxi lights due to wiring complications and said the Aveo Zip tips would be a better choice for wingtip lighting.

On the other hand, with a taildragger, the FlyLED option of a landing light that's adjusted for a taildragger mounted in the wing would be nice.

Any advice is welcome.
 
rdt7 said:
I'm at the point where I need to make my lighting choices. I will have the QB wings soon so my first question is will there be landing light leading edge cutouts?
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Yes, the only way there wouldn’t be is if you specifically ordered them without. I think they charge extra to leave them out, if there is even that option anymore. I went with AeroLed Sunspot, no taxi light. Lots of options but I took one of the easiest and most practical for my type of flying, which doesn’t include night flying at this point. I don’t even like driving at night.
You can go on Vans site and open an account in the store, then you’ll be able to have access to all your planes KAI. I use it before I start every section to download and print any revisions.
IMG_0210.jpeg
 
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rdt7 said:
I'm at the point where I need to make my lighting choices. I will have the QB wings soon so my first question is will there be landing light leading edge cutouts? If not, I could choose an option with everything in the wingtip. One panel maker advised me to stay away from the AeroLED Vxi lights due to wiring complications and said the Aveo Zip tips would be a better choice for wingtip lighting.

On the other hand, with a taildragger, the FlyLED option of a landing light that's adjusted for a taildragger mounted in the wing would be nice.

Any advice is welcome.
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I’m curious about why you were told to stay away from the AeroLED VXi lighting. Can you provide more information. I believe wiring should be very similar to the Zip-Tips.
 
stigaro said:
I’m curious about why you were told to stay away from the AeroLED VXi lighting. Can you provide more information. I believe wiring should be very similar to the Zip-Tips.
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Here's what I was told (I prefer not to mention the company or person): "The Vegas zip tips and the aeroled VXi lights have some cumbersome wiring that has yet to be figured out by the manufacturers." There is an earlier thread that seems to support this.
 
rdt7 said:
Here's what I was told (I prefer not to mention the company or person): "The Vegas zip tips and the aeroled VXi lights have some cumbersome wiring that has yet to be figured out by the manufacturers." There is an earlier thread that seems to support this.
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Ok, thanks for this information. I committed a couple years ago to the VXi when they were announced. I’m a little way out from needing them, and will hope they get the bugs ironed out in the next few months.
 
I went with the Aeroleds as I was a first time builder and wanted to stay as close to stock as possible. They are great but knowing what I know now I would go with FlyLEDs. Much more light at a more reasonable price.
 
I just changed out all my lights for the FlyLED Works kit...my thoughts (y)
  • Very happy with the performance. Strobes and navs are exceptionally bright, landing/taxi are also good.
  • Totally interference free. My old strobes had some RMI, but they were on unshielded cable. I decided to move that wiring to separate taxi lights and ran new shielded 2-conductor for strobes
  • Wiring is simple and instructions clear
  • They look pretty good stock, but boards can be painted
  • Small LED "lens" on landing light boards are extremely fragile. When I was mounting to wing and adjusting, the large main lens bound up on board opening and popped out sideways damaging the LED on the board. It still worked but the color was different. These can be repaired, but I just ended up buying a replacement.
  • The forward facing strobes on the RV-9 kit are a different size LED and have a little rubber silicon lens on them...those pop off easy. I had two come off. I just glued them back on with a little dab of 737
  • The 3-D printed beveled washers do the job, but do not hold up. I may end up fabricating my own.
  • The tail nav/strobe I've had for a couple years now. It's clear epoxy(?) lens is somewhat discolored from UV, even though my aircraft spends most of its time hangared.
Overall pretty happy with FlyLEDs
 
FlyLED and the seven star is so bright and zero noise. I have had many different landing lights in the three RV but the FlyLED is the best of all of them.
 
Bavafa said:
FlyLED and the seven star is so bright and zero noise. I have had many different landing lights in the three RV but the FlyLED is the best of all of them.
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This mirrors my experience. I’ve had all sorts of lights over the years across 2 RVs.
The FlyLeds have been by far the best for a few reasons.
Nowadays most times I land somewhere I’ll get somebody saying how visible I was from XX miles away.
Surprisingly I also really enjoyed building them too.

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Hi Bob
Flyleds has two unique landing lights specifically designed for tail dragger aircraft, the Combo and the Tail Dragger Max light. With two of these you get a whole lot of light aimed correctly for landing on each wing, and then when the tail is on the ground the tilted lights continue to light the way down both sides of the runway and taxiways.
Which one you choose depends on whether you want Excellent or Outrageous light!

TDMax4 400.jpg

No other lights on the market are like this. The others mentioned above will point towards the sky with the tail on the ground.

We have our The Works and The Essentials kit for your wingtip nav/position and strobe lights, and we sell a kit of matching plugs and sockets that mate with Van's wiring harness. Easy!
I'd recommend The Essentials kit and your choice of landing lights, but there's nothing stopping you from using The Works kit and the leading edges for lights as well...
Don't delete the leading edge light bays, if indeed this is still possible. It's the best place for landing lights to go. More room for more light!
 
Paul from Flyleds said:
Hi Bob
Flyleds has two unique landing lights specifically designed for tail dragger aircraft, the Combo and the Tail Dragger Max light. With two of these you get a whole lot of light aimed correctly for landing on each wing, and then when the tail is on the ground the tilted lights continue to light the way down both sides of the runway and taxiways.
Which one you choose depends on whether you want Excellent or Outrageous light!

View attachment 60082

No other lights on the market are like this. The others mentioned above will point towards the sky with the tail on the ground.
Click to expand...

I just bought two Taildragger Max lights to replace the rectangular 55w halogen Duckworks landing lights in our -6. I cannot believe what an easy upgrade this is.

I was really worried as to whether they’d fit - they do. I had to leave the Duckworks bracket loose in the wing so I could push it back towards the spar so I could fit the Taildragger Max into the wing before doing up the screws that hold the TD Max in the Duckworks bracket. Then position and screw the bracket to the ribs.

I think to date it’s the easiest upgrade to our late ’90’s build RV-6

Don H
 
Pretty sure I'll get the Tail Dragger Max lights for the wing landing lights. Still mulling over the wingtips but I'm leaning towards FlyLed's based on all the positive feedback here.
 
Derek.plough said:
Can anyone comment if the works and seven stars are worth the extra lumens on a 14A over the essentials and the quad?
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This doesn’t answer the question, but: IMHO just about any landing light is adequate for night landings, assuming you’re using a lit runway. Remember, the FARs have no (part 91) requirement for a landing light. If you’re using a landing light for increased visibility during the day, I think ‘wig-wag’ is more important than gross lumens. Finally, where you really need the light is for night operations on unlit taxiways/ramp areas. There, having good coverage to the side, and just in front of the nose, is desirable. And, especially in a taildragger, having lights that project horizontally (not up). It’s these considerations where ‘the more the better’ comes into play.
 
We went with the full Aeroled setup from Vans to keep things stock. Haven't flow them yet, but man they seem more that bright enough.
 
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