Ordered a new landing/taxi light combo today

DavidWhite

DavidWhite

Final Approach
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Apr 19, 2011
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DW
Got the Whelen Parmetheus landing/taxi light combo today - should be here by Saturday. People will be like "Who is that great American with the LED light?" I will be like "Dunno, but he must be pretty awesome."
 
They running a special, or are you just rich?
 
David, Is that YOUR plane, or a family owned plane?

I'm jealous either way.
 
No brag, just fact.

White Lightning is a sweet bird, too!
 
We'll be joining your little "great American" club soon and White Lightning and 79M can hang out and act cool with their LEDs together somewhere. ;)

Just curious, any reason you went with Whelen over the alternatives?

I'm a lighting nut and would love HIDs in the cowl and the wingtips too, but you'd think someone needed to pay off a banking bailout for the price of those.

Hell, I can put 'em in my ground pounding truck for $100 in any color "temperature" I like, but they've stayed insanely high for aircraft use.

And there's always the possibility that the ballasts will create awful RF problems that'll be hard to find.

But four HIDs and a pulse light controller (not necessarily the PulseLight brand) makes for quite a spectacle headed your way from the front.
 
I installed HID lights in both wings with a 337 and they are great. Turn on when taking the active and leave on the entire flight, day or night. The ballast has not been a problem with avionics, flux gate, etc, and the current draw is miniscule compared to incandescents.

May go to an led taxi light as there's no room in the nose for the ballast.

Right now the hid lights put out a little more than the led arrays, but they work really well.
 
The wingtips have started cracking so ordered wingtips w/HID plus LED for cowl light last Monday. Also got the pulselight. Aught'a look like a 737 on final when they're all fired up and flashing...
 
I have had the Whelens installed in the plane since they were announced, (both landing and taxi bulbs in the nosebowl) and absolutely love them. In my airspace, which is busy most of the time, I leave them on and they draw around 4 amps total. Haven't changed a bulb yet, and I was going through a new incandescent bulb every few hours before due to vibration issues and burning out the filaments. Losing both tractor bulbs on a night landing one time convinced me to make the change.
 
I don't think the Whelen Parmetheus is overly expensive, and if you consider the replacement costs of the GE incandescent lamps, the costs comes out nice and cheap.
 
I'll be interested to see what you think. It's on the list of "nice-to-have" upgrades for the 310 eventually.
 
David, how do you like them so far? I'm trying to convince our club to put a pair (or at least the landing light) in 71G.

How much brighter are they?
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I'll be interested to see what you think. It's on the list of "nice-to-have" upgrades for the 310 eventually.
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My problem with twin Cessna landing lights has always been the gear/motors, the lights themselves have been fine. I repaired or replaced both landing light motors in my 414A in 2 years/150 hours.:mad2: replace one in my 421 last year.:rolleyes: Cheap plastic gears.:dunno: I am careful not to extend them until I've gotten full flaps down, under 120 knots.
 
N747JB said:
My problem with twin Cessna landing lights has always been the gear/motors, the lights themselves have been fine.
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The taxi light on the 310 is absolutely worthless. Half the time I can't even tell if I've turned it on.

Either, the landing lights are good. But light is something I like to have lots of. And these are a pretty cheap upgrade, so we'll put it on the "maybe" list.

I repaired or replaced both landing light motors in my 414A in 2 years/150 hours.:mad2: replace one in my 421 last year.:rolleyes: Cheap plastic gears.:dunno: I am careful not to extend them until I've gotten full flaps down, under 120 knots.
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We had to replace one gear motor a bit over a year ago that went out, but otherwise have had pretty good service out of them in 400 hours or so of flight time. I only extend them when needed at night, and make sure that it's after I put the gear down (150 mph max).
 
My landing light wasn't working yesterday morning. I can't easily reach the terminals with volt meter leads to test it but I expect the sealed beam is burned out. If so, I think the LED light will be a worthwhile upgrade.

Thursday night a Cherokee taxi'd in to get fuel as the Sun was setting. He had THREE LED landing lights. One was in the nose and he had added one in each wing tip. He didn't seem to have much trouble seeing where he was going.
 
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