I'm somewhat familiar with LED strobe and position lighting options but also want a beacon on top of my rudder. The only LED beacons I'm finding are seriously expensive relative to the strobe/position lights prices. That points me back toward the Whelen 70509 self-contained flasher. Am I missing something? Anyone out there found a good LED beacon alternative that isn't silly expensive?
LED Rudder Lights
- Thread starter stewartb
- Start date
skywagon8a
MEMBER
SE Mass MA6
stewart, check out his company: http://kestrobes.com/ They have a large selection of reasonably priced lighting which will fill your requirements.
bob turner
Registered User
They still make those little hand-held strobes. I don't know if they meet the brightness requirememt, but they fit in very slim sleeves on the top of the rudder, look great, and can be powered from ships power with a simple voltage regulator.
Mark_Moyle
SPONSOR
Platinum
Here's my Aveo Galactica rudder strobe mount.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
While on the topic of rudder beacon lights:
Does anyone maybe have a pic showing the wire routing from the rudder beacon, passing to the vert stabilizer.
I have the hole in the metal work on the rudder which is above the vert stab, near the corner.
Does it just run through the gap into the vert stab.
What about rudder deflection, does the wire not pull tight, or is this just the way it is?
Thanks,
Steel.
Does anyone maybe have a pic showing the wire routing from the rudder beacon, passing to the vert stabilizer.
I have the hole in the metal work on the rudder which is above the vert stab, near the corner.
Does it just run through the gap into the vert stab.
What about rudder deflection, does the wire not pull tight, or is this just the way it is?
Thanks,
Steel.
Mark_Moyle
SPONSOR
Platinum
Deleted...wrong pic
I know good LED lights are available. I'm just surprised at how the ones that are appropriate for Cub rudders are mostly in the $700-750 price range. I can get a Whelen 70509 self-contained flasher with 35w halogen bulb for about $130 and it fits perfectly. I still have one in use on the other plane. At the wingtip and tail positions the experimental LEDs are surprisingly inexpensive, even for Comet Flash Whelens (I have Whelen Microburst III lights for the BCSC). Beacons? Spendy. I find it odd.
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wireweinie
FOUNDER
Palmer, AK
Don't have a pic but it's pretty easy. I use a single conductor shielded wire. Center conductor is 12V and pigtail the shield for the ground. Route the wire straight down from the beacon, close to the post, and install grommets when passing through the 'ribs'. Just route it out of the fabric at the lower, left hand side, where the nav light wire is. I like to leave enough wire to make my connections inside the fuselage. I suppose it will flex the wire enough to break eventually but I have not seen many problems there.
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bob turner
Registered User
The few J-3s with nav lights from the factory had a teeny steel fairlead screwed to the top back of the fin, extending into a hole in the rudder. The wire came down into a hole in the top of the rear tube of the fin, then out and forward near the bottom. I replaced my wire in 1969, but did not need to. I had a lot of Teflon- sheathed wire to use up at the time.
Merrill Field Instruments has a non-TSO and TSO Whelen beacons mounted on a display. The TSO model is a little taller but much brighter and their price beats the catalog retailers. I like it.
I found a good deal at Stoddard's and ended up with the Whelen wingtip nav/strobe, the tail beacon, LED landing lights and LED position for the tail (non-TSO'd = $27). The install was easy, the 3 in 1 wire that includes the sync cable to make it flash all pretty is pricey. Had it all wired and sync'd in with a Max Pulse during the annual. Been flying big and small airplanes around the most congested parts of the state and no longer believe in the 'big sky, little airplane theory.' It was the cheapest piece of mind I could buy.
