Tailbeacon light & switch question

Nushi

Nushi

Filing Flight Plan
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Nov 25, 2019
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Wilmington
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Sam
So this question will show my ignorance and inexperience but oh well. I have the original Cessna pull out switch for my nav lights with two positions. I've honestly never noticed the first position before and have always run it pulled all the way out which lights my wingtips and my rear taillight. My rotating beacon is on a separate switch.

I recently had a tailbeacon installed to take care of ADS-B and when I got my plane back, I noticed that the tail light portion of the tailbeacon wasn't on when the switch was pulled all the way out. When I push it in to the first position, the light in the tailbeacon comes on. Is this normal? Seems like the switch in the all the way out position should power both the tips and taillight, not just the tips.

Can anyone educate me on this? It doesn't really matter I guess, I'm more just curious. Thanks!
 
I had the same problem,used another switch that only has the one pull out position
 
Did you get your verification on your tail beacon done
 
Do you have to do do the same verification process as was required for the rebate? Thank you
 
Sorry, new to forum. My question was in reference to the uavionix tail beacon
 
You can do a flight check to verify proper function of the tailbeacon (not exactly the same as the rebate verification report, but close); after doing a flight go to the FAA webpage and fill out the necessary info.
https://adsbperformance.faa.gov/paprrequest.aspx

I'm guessing that since your light isn't coming on, your tailbeacon is also not powering on. You can test this on the ground by using the app on your phone/tablet after powering the beacon/nav light on and connecting to its wifi signal. I do this with my skybeacon as part of my pre-flight every flight. It gives a simple OK status and allows me to verify good GPS and pressure altitude info. On the skybeacon, an additional option with the app is to turn the strobe on and off, though I don't need this functionality since my plane was already wired for strobes and I have a separate switch on my panel for the strobes.
 
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That is why they put a little red light on the inboard side of the skybeacon. You can see it come on when you power up the nav lights as a check.
 
I’m sure you are right about verifying function using the Skybeacon app. But I verify function on the ground by turning on my Stratux receiver. If I see my programmed airplane N number on my FLYQ EFB, I know my TailBeacon is working.
 
MajorTurbulence said:
I’m sure you are right about verifying function using the Skybeacon app. But I verify function on the ground by turning on my Stratux receiver. If I see my programmed airplane N number on my FLYQ EFB, I know my TailBeacon is working.
Click to expand...

That works too, but I have my plane masked in Stratux so I'm not constantly getting warnings about "another" airplane in my vicinity. Haven't dug in to ways, either in Stratux or in Foreflight, to have it show up without getting constant notifications.
 
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