Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steven Ward on January 29, 2012 at 11:57pm

Hi Scott, here is a link to FAA FAR 23, I coudn't find a more direct link for you, but you can scroll down to Lights § 23.1381 and you will find info on aircraft lighting and about the anti-collision lights at § 23.14xx

 

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?type=simple;c=ecfr;cc...

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Permalink Reply by Jim B Belcher on January 31, 2012 at 8:46am

I believe FAR23 is a standard for one class of type certificated aircraft, and does not apply to experimental aircraft. What probably does apply is the operating portion of the FARs. In this case, I think that would be FAR 91.

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FAR 91.209 "Aircraft Lights":

No person may:
(a) During the period from sunset to sunrise (or, in Alaska, during the period a prominent unlighted object cannot be seen from a distance of 3 statute miles or the sun is more than 6 degrees below the horizon)—

(1) Operate an aircraft unless it has lighted position lights;

(2) Park or move an aircraft in, or in dangerous proximity to, a night flight operations area of an airport unless the aircraft—

(i) Is clearly illuminated;

(ii) Has lighted position lights; or

(iii) is in an area that is marked by obstruction lights;

(3) Anchor an aircraft unless the aircraft—

(omitting seaplane stuff)

(b) Operate an aircraft that is equipped with an anticollision light system, unless it has lighted anticollision lights. However, the anticollision lights need not be lighted when the pilot-in-command determines that, because of operating conditions, it would be in the interest of safety to turn the lights off.

.....

If I read this correctly, you must have lighting only for night operations. You aren't required to have anticollision lights (strobes), but if you have them, they must be on at night.

I may have started the battle of the FARS here. :-)

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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on January 30, 2012 at 12:04am

You could use wingtip strobes and/or flashing beacon light(s) on the fuselage. Look at any 70's vintage Cessna, Piper or Grumman and you can see various examples of fuselage (or tip of tail) anti-collision lights. They can be aviation white or aviation red, according to the FAA. The fuselage anti-collision light can be LED, strobe, flashing bulb or the really old style rotating searchlight in a red bubble. Those are listed in the order of power consumption, by the way, from least power hungry to most. For really effective fuselage mounted anti-collision lights, one top of fuselage and one bottom is best, but you can usually make one on the top do the job. Most factory light airplanes use only one, because it is cheaper.

 

The flashing light bulb (it is a high wattage quartz bulb, by the way) type beacon is not really a flashing light, which would be on-off-on-off like a car's turn signal. Those on-off thermal cycles would kill the bulb in fairly short order. The power unit in those installations pulses the voltage, the bulb cycles very bright-dim-very bright-dim instead of on-off. Since the filament is never turned off completely, it stays warm, is not thermally shocked and does not fail for a long time. The power packs that were in the 70's Cessnas and Grummans (I owned a Grumman Tiger) are actually meant to carry two beacon units. Since there is only one beacon on those planes (on the top) there is a resistor across the second set of contacts on the power pack and power is cycled through the resisor as if it was a second light unit, a dummy load. I got a second beacon unit from an aircraft salvage yard and wired it to that second set of connections in place of the resistor. I mounted the second beacon on the bottom and got double the visibility.

 

Years ago, I knew a guy that made his own anti collision stobe with stuff pirated from a junk school bus. This was for a homebuilt aircraft, obviously, would not do that with a certified plane. In NH (and many other states) school busses have a stobe light on the top to attract driver's attention. The light housing is very large, would cost a lot of lost airspeed due to the drag, but all the other stuff works well in an aircraft. He made a small light housing out of a glass jar, as I recall.

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Permalink Reply by Jimmy Young on January 30, 2012 at 9:34am

Scott, you probably should comfirm this with the regs, but I don't think nav/strobe/position lights are required at all on a daytime-only LSA. A good friend of mine recently completed a Rans S-6 with no lights and he passed his A/W certification and flys regularly. That would be a zero cost option, and you could always add wiring now for a future install if you change your mind down the road.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on January 30, 2012 at 10:27pm

You are absolutely right, Jimmy. For day VFR he needs no lights at all. I gave my reply based on the fact that he specified that he had the nav lights, so I assumed he wants night capability. Good suggestion to pre-wire for future light options.

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Permalink Reply by Ronald Steele on February 1, 2012 at 1:59pm

I have two sets of nav/strobes and I'd like to sell both as I've gotten LEDs.

These are wing tip only, no rear or top beacon.

Neither set has ever been turned on to the best of my knowledge.

PM me to make an offer or inquire.  I want them out of the hanger, badly.  If the offer is acceptable I'll insure they work before accepting any money.

Ron

rsteele@rjsit.com

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Permalink Reply by John Austin on February 2, 2012 at 7:36am

I thought the Aero LED's were kind of pricey, so I bought a pair of Aveo "Powerburst" LED nav/position/strobe lights. They were $400 - substantially less expensive than the Aero's - but, they are smaller although they seem pretty bright!

I thought they looked sorta "dinky" on the 750's wingtip (the teardrop shaped area on the fiberglass tip for the light is much bigger (and it is also not perfectly flat - not helpful for mounting!). So, I killed two birds with one stone - I fabricated a polished aluminum plate of .050 that is shaped the same as the light but bigger - this leaves about a 3/8"  flange of shiny, polished clearcoated aluminum running around the edge of the LED light. This makes it look "about the right size" and I figure the shiny aluminum can act as a reflector to further enhance the light's visibility. I made a 3/8" thick neoprene rubber gasket to go under the plate - this compresses enough to absorb the curve of the wingtip mounting area and makes a solid mount. (I put nutplates inside the wingtip and just bolted the light, plate and gasket to the wingtip. These lights are sized for a M3 metric screw, but I reamed the holes slightly so I could use #6 stainless screws and nutplates.)

Just another alternative to save a few hundred bucks!

John

(BTW, these lights require 4 wires - 2 power wires, a sync wire, and a ground if you're centrally grounding everything - so, I would prewire with at least 4 wires and/or run conduit so you can pull wires as necessary. I used a shielded quad conductor wire. I'm not really sure if shielding was necessary since there is no high voltage power supply, for that matter, there's no separate power supply at all! But, I figured you can never go wrong to shield any wiring!)

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Permalink Reply by John Austin on February 2, 2012 at 7:27pm

Here's a pic of the light with my mount:

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