LED Landing Lights

[Colonel Sanders]

We don't have an "owner's" forum, so ...

Has anyone tried out the new LED landing lights?

The GE 4509 is 7.5 amps at 12V (100W) and the
replacements are 1.2 amps, and a heckuva lot
brighter.

If I replace my landing and taxi lights, I go from 15
amps to 2.5 amps.

Landing light:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/el/ ... par362.php

Taxi light (wide beam)
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/el/ ... par363.php

There are other brands, as well.

Anyways, with winter coming on, the nights are getting
longer. Any experience with LED landing/taxi lights?

Glossy brochure:
http://www.whelen.com/pb/Aviation/Produ ... Series.pdf

[Shiny Side Up]

Well worth it I'd say. We replaced all the ones in the fleet. Slightly brighter than the old incandesent bulbs, and so far they seem to be durable as well. No problems as of yet. While they're pricy, they more than will cover that cost - especially for the nose mounted lights which never seemed to last very long. I know we used to go through several per plane, per winter.

[kamikaze]

I have the Whelen Parmetheus on my Warrior.

Easy drop-in-replacement install, works as advertised and illuminates much better. No issues so far, after one season of flying.

The issue si that the Whelen product is a full STC install, event hough they claim PMA approvals.

The Alphabeam is a true PMA replacement for the original Piper part number, so no need for an STC.

So anyways, the Whelen is very nice, but the paperwork is more demanding. In retrospect, I might've chosen the Alphabeam to save all the paperwork. All I can say is check the paper trail required for each product before you pick.

Aviation Consumer evalauted these products last year and they'd preferred the Whelen ...

Overall I recommend the change ... you can fly with it on permanently for visibility if you so chose, imporoves your night flying, no worrying you'll be in the middle of nowhere with a dead 4509 ...

[Strobes]

Some metros at PAG have LED taxi lights. They're crap. Really bright, makes you really visible to others, but from the cockpit you can't see much more than 8ft in front of you, less in bad weather.

I believe we're switching back to incandescents and exploring HID lights as a substitute.

[Taiser]

I got two sets for my homebuilt, not certified but the exact same ones are available as certified, for extra cash of course... I happen to LOVE mine. Yeah some don't cast as far as an older incan types, but good ones do. If you plan DAY VFR for most of you flying the cheaper ones would be fine though.

The light put off is also a lot higher temperature than incan lights. Overall they have WAY more positives than negatives when compared to older lights. Some benefits... mine use less than an amp of power! They don't need heavy transformers, use tiny wires, weight next to nothing and last 50,000 hours!!!

My marker lights and strobes are also LED's and are insane bright. I will NEVER have to worry about these things again, unless they get smashed (or stolen) somehow! There are just to many positives not to have these things IMHO. I think EAA has a write up about them as well in the last magazine!

[Colonel Sanders]

This may sound weird, but I think I will stick with
the stock incandescent for the landing light, and
go with the LED taxi light, which my generator
(not alternator) will appreciate at the lower RPM's
due to the decreased amperage. The reduced
distance of the LED should be irrelevant for the
taxi light.

Since both lights are in the wing leading edges,
vibration is not an issue.

[KAG]

Great idea for general aviation AC, see and be seen and all, and no worries about them burning out.

[C-GKNT]

I replace the one on my Mooney and both on my Aerostar with Whelen LED's this summer. About 10% of the power draw and as a result much less heat. I considered it a safety issue and can now leave them on all the time without worrying about them burning out or melting the light cover.

Glenn

[PilotDAR]

I have ordered the Rigid R+ for one of my planes, and another Rigid product for the other. I will offer comments when I have tried them. Neither are accompanied by any form of approval that I'm aware of. Once the operation of these LED bulbs has satisfied me, I will undertake the approvals required.

This change was inspired by having to replace yet another alternator drive coupling. The hard work for the alternator comes during the power off stages of the approach and landing. As mentioned earlier, the low RPM of the engine, but continued demand for the same amount of electricity, drives the torque demand way up on the alternator. For those alternators which are internally driven, the drive coupling can suffer.

[Meatservo]

This may sound weird, but I think I will stick with
the stock incandescent for the landing light, and
go with the LED taxi light, which my generator
(not alternator) will appreciate at the lower RPM's
due to the decreased amperage. The reduced
distance of the LED should be irrelevant for the
taxi light.

Since both lights are in the wing leading edges,
vibration is not an issue.

THat sounds perfectly sensible. That way you can evaluate the LED light.

I wish I knew more about the nature of light. I put some kind of L.E.D. light in my house, and I know it's not the same as a transportation-type light, but still... the light seems brighter..., but there feels like there's "less" of it. I don't know how to describe it. I can picture L.E.D. light being visible from far away, but I have trouble picturing it illuminating anything. I know this doesn't make any sense based on what I know about the actual nature of light, but there you go.

DAR, is that a Volmer in your avatar picture?

[Shiny Side Up]

It does make sense, and the one place I would say that the LED lights are worse is how far the beam is visible through any visibility obscuring phenomena like say snow. The reason is most LED lights have a more "white" light than most incandesents which tend to generate more yellow biased light. Since your eyes pick up reflected light, depending on the color of your room, a lower percentage of light is reflected from the white illumination than it would be yellow biased light beam. In the case of snow, the whiter beam reflects well off of snow that is close so your eyes adjust to focus on the closer intensity reflection than what might be farther out. Since the yellower bean is less reflctive off of the near snow your eyes are able to focus farther away giving you the perception of "seeing farther" at night with some sort of obscuring phenomena. In spite of the pilot's reduced visibility with the brighter "whiter" light, the aircraft is more visible from the ground on the approach with the brighter light in all conditions.

One of the things that I really notice is that while the beam seems fainter with the LED, since we have a relatively newly painted runway, with the LED the reflection off of the runway markings is noticably brighter.

All this comparrison aside though, I think the chief advantage of the LEDs are their durability especially in the cowl mounted light set up. I would also reccomend them if you're having issues with how much current you're using.

[burninggoats]

in my opinion, they are PERFECT, for smaller aircraft. Durability (leading to an arguable cost savings), bright enough for VFR nght, and the low draw on power are all big plusses for light aircraft. when you get into bigger stuff flying IFR, i'll take the better visibility and light penetration on your standard bulbs. especially since things like power use, and durability aren't as big of an issue.

[cap41]

Im interested from a power draw perspective. I have a C150 with the dual lights on the wing. Is it just a matter of switching out bulbs? or are the different wiring harnesses, ballast issues to consider.

[Beefitarian]

Scroll up cap. Kamikaze wrote there's differences between certain brands. The LED units don't have ballasts.

[Colonel Sanders]

I think the HID units have high-voltage ballasts. Pricy.

The LED bulbs are PMA'd drop-in replacements that draw
much less current.

[Old Dog Flying]

I have installed the Whelan LED landing light in the nose f the Grumman and although it does not project a "beam" of light , it certainly does give a better field of coverage on the ground.

The use of the LED for daylight safety , coupled with a Pulselite system does increase visibility..if the idiots are looking out the window and not playing with their "toys".

Barney

[cap41]

I think the HID units have high-voltage ballasts. Pricy.

The LED bulbs are PMA'd drop-in replacements that draw
much less current.

Sorry newbie question what is PMA'd. I like the idea of the draw of 2-4 amps over 15amps. I have the setup of 2 lights on the wing. Might see what it looks like with one of each.

[Colonel Sanders]

what is PMA

Parts Manufacture Approval. Issued by the
FAA to third parties. It means that it is legal
for install on certified aircraft as replacement
for OEM parts.

[PilotDAR]

DAR, is that a Volmer in your avatar picture?

It is a 180 HP 1971 Thurston Teal, 38 made, only a few left flying. It's the most fun I have ever had on the water! (It also has the least effective landing lights I have ever seen - soon to be changed).

[lownslow]

IIRC, LED lights are also invisible to FLIR. This can be good or bad depending on what you're using the airplane for...

LnS.