Battery powered dome light?

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Wagondriver

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I am interested in finding a battery powered dome light for my 1953 Cessna. Mostly so I can find stuff in the back at night while camping. Something small, simple and easy to mount, like velcro to the side panel or ceiling. Powered by a 9 volt or a couple of AA batteries.

I saw an inspection panel with a light in it years ago, but I cannot find who made them now. I'd like one of those too, nice for a camping situation.

Anyone have any suggestions?
 
How about a mid-quality ‘headlamp’ type setup instead? I’ve used them myself to fill in deficiencies of cockpit lighting. You can get white, red, green or whatever color you want, easily available for other uses.

OK, more for camping than flying, it looks.
 
Wagondriver said:
I am interested in finding a battery powered dome light for my 1953 Cessna. Mostly so I can find stuff in the back at night while camping. Something small, simple and easy to mount, like velcro to the side panel or ceiling. Powered by a 9 volt or a couple of AA batteries.

I saw an inspection panel with a light in it years ago, but I cannot find who made them now. I'd like one of those too, nice for a camping situation.

Anyone have any suggestions?
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There a hundred nice LED lights now for cheap.

Like said above I have a LED headlite that uses a small battery about the size of a nickle. You could take it off the strap stick it overhead?

The problem with that idea is the overhead light is very easy to forget to turn off. Dead battery's are PIA.
I keep a small led light in my console and use it to see around the cockpit at night. Kind of hard to put it back and not notice it is on.
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I use this cup holder made for autos on the floor of my 172. In the center is the flashlite, fit's firm into a pen holder. I can find it in the dark. Harder to forget to turn off. It is made for aviation with a red light for chart use.
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Wagondriver said:
I am interested in finding a battery powered dome light for my 1953 Cessna. Mostly so I can find stuff in the back at night while camping. Something small, simple and easy to mount, like velcro to the side panel or ceiling. Powered by a 9 volt or a couple of AA batteries.

I saw an inspection panel with a light in it years ago, but I cannot find who made them now. I'd like one of those too, nice for a camping situation.

Anyone have any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Why not just use the light on your cell phone? In those instances, I just turn the light on and set the phone on the glareshield or a seat. And since it is my phone, I'm unlikely to forget it and run the battery down.
 
Hang 4 said:
I got this as a gift. It works great for what you are describing

https://www.rei.com/product/878228/black-diamond-moji-lantern
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There seem to be hundreds of cool looking battery powered LED lights on the market these days. The lights work well, they are all high output with low drain on batteries.

I’d suggest paying attention to switch quality and avoiding fancy things with remotes and such. I’ve had a few cool looking lights go bad because the switch fails or is intermittent like those ‘free’ flashlights Harbor Freight has been selling and giving away for years.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Unfortunately most of the items suggested are low quality chinese made crap. While I thank everyone for their replies, I was hoping for something of a little higher quality. If it has the aircraft pricing, I'm ok with that, as long as it is good quality.

I have a headlamp, I have an Iphone, I have numerous flashlights. But while doing some night flying a few days ago, I saw a need for a dome light. The trim wheel is on the floor and the panel lights do nothing for it. It got me thinking that if I could find a nice high quality dome light, I could solve two issues at once. Often times while camping, I have my hands full, and need to reach back to the extended baggage. A good quality, small, lightweight, "dome light" might be helpful.
 
Wagondriver said:
Unfortunately most of the items suggested are low quality chinese made crap. While I thank everyone for their replies, I was hoping for something of a little higher quality. If it has the aircraft pricing, I'm ok with that, as long as it is good quality.
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That's certainly one of way of going about it. Another way is to consider that these things are about as cheap as toilet paper and then use them that way.
 
My answer is to use finger lights like the .mil uses. They are very small, and have a little velcro strap to fit on your finger. I have two velcroed to the sun visors. They are always where I can find them.

There was a time when little LED lights were quite rare, and rather expensive. I found a nice one and clipped it up to the visor. One moonless deep winter night I lost all the power. I just pulled that little light off of the visor and used it with my instrument scan. After that, I never wanted to be without some sort of highly accessible and dependable light source.

I happened to be over a nice, but unstaffed airport. It had the runway lights on full bright, and it made the landing easy. Just recently I thought about my good fortune. If the lights hadn't been on, things could have been much different. I don't think I had the juice left to turn on the lights if they hadn't been left on, even if I was able to find it. Without the lights, I didn't have a chance of finding the airport. It was pitch black, and I had no lights. I was in the middle of nowhere.
 
I cannot find them, but I have seen one. It is a 9 volt battery and an LED mounted on an inspection plate. Myself and a couple of friends would like to acquire one.
 
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I really like this pocket flash light . Not much bigger then a fat pen,always carry in my pocket.
Great for preflight look see's also.
 

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