I am going to mount a "be seen" light on my cabane vee as a minor alteration. I'd like to put a police LED light bar with red, white and blue flashing lights there. Would I be breaking any FAA rules by doing the red, white and blue ILO of just a blinking or steady white light like a lot of the planes now have? If so, what rules?
Why not put a disco ball there?
"Put out my hand and touched the face of God!"OLDCROWE liked this post
Because with the police lights, I can pull someone over for speeding and ALL planes speed compared to a super cub. Just makes one more reason to fly.
Pick a light.
The FAA rules are minimum lighting for a purpose with the idea of being seen.
N1PA
The only rule I can think of without research would be don't draw unnecessary attention to yourself/plane. It seems someone is always wanting to get their panties in a wad over something and that would fit the bill. A few of my friends have the digital flashing position lights and strobes, you can see them from miles away. Putting a wig wag flasher on the landing/taxi lights works great also.
DENNY
At least in GA, no vehicle including boats and airplanes can display any blue lights while in motion unless it is law enforcement. Lots of boats on our lake have been busted. Many states have similar laws.
There is some science behind 'anti collision' or 'recognition' lights. Mainly, a light in motion is easier for the human eye to find than a stationary light. Therefore a flashing light is easier to find/focus on than a steady light. Next, there is a limit (distance wise) for colors of light to be perceived by the eye. Colors considered 'bright' are normally easier to see from a great distance. That's why safety gear is usually colored bright yellow, white, orange, etc. An opposite example is light used for reading maps at night. I'm old, so we used red lenses. Nowdays they use that blue/green shade. But both were used for the same reason. That particular color is difficult to see at a distance. The engineer types, here, can give you the whys and hows.
Ignoring any legalities, I'd recommend some type of flashing white light for anti collision use. And if you think about it, flashing strobes and wig-wag landing/taxi lights are the main types used on small aircraft now.
Web
I just looked in the AIM and saw nothing about what color of lights you can't have. I just want to be "seen", especially in public non towered airports, which are the airports I fly. And because the FAA doesn't require you to have a radio or even use it if you have one, which doubles your other aircraft perception abilities, being "seen" is even more paramount.
As for the color of lights, you need to read CAR 3, FAR 23, and FAR 91.
Web
Life's tough . . . wear a cup.
Aviation red and aviation white are ok for anti collision lights. There are pretty specific color requirements based on the Certification basis for the airplane as a web pointed out.
There is nothing in 14 CFR about blue lights, but as someone above stated, there may be local/state laws that prevent blue lights on vehicles of any kind.
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The original question reminded me of this:
What a "light job" on that bad boy. That's what I'd like but my alternator won't handle all that. Why would anyone "care" if, daytime, you had pink lights or whatever you thought would get you noticed. Aviation is so "locked in the past" that it's thwarting our progressing to "better".
Has nothing to do with being 'locked in'. A flashing white light will be noticed from a longer distance than other colors.Originally Posted by The Kid
If you are interested in using lights like in the video, stay with LED's. All those lights will probably pull 5 amps or less.
Web
Life's tough . . . wear a cup.
too many colors might make it a UFO just say'n
As long as the FO part is recognized, no one will hit it.
N1PA
I hope someday we can capture one of them UFO things to see if they are the ones that started this ADSB requirement.
Get the colors synched up in a pattern and this could be fun!
Web
Life's tough . . . wear a cup.
Kinda like this?
https://youtu.be/-nxIUP5il1M
"Put out my hand and touched the face of God!"
The stats say that 4 out of 5 "midairs" happen from behind. So why not get these lights, mounted in the cabane vee, to flash red and blue and maybe white FRONT AND BACK (like top mounted on police cars) and I think they could be seen from the rear level and rear lower as doesn't the tail fly high and thusly exposing the cabane vee from the rear? And don't forget about drone traffic, a threat we haven't had before and will only increase dramatically, as seeing us better too. And, I hadn't thought of that, but we'd give the UFO aficionados some more fodder for their cannons? I think it's a win win " go for it", even though it might expedite my getting committed to a psycho ward.
How many amps is the Wagabond's lights drawing? I just found out that one of the police lightbars I wanted draws 20 amps. I can only afford to have something draw about 3. It ain't lookin good.
I've got the drawings. It shows an old style system with a generator and 35A fuse in the generator circuit. Master has 50 A going to bus bar, but that's because the starter draws from that.
The light circuit is left blank, but 20 amps sounds pretty high for your lights--won't have much for anything else.
I'm sure that Wagabond in the video is using LEDs.
As stated above, with a small aircraft and the number of lights you seem to want, don't bother with anything other than LED's.
Do the math.
Web
Life's tough . . . wear a cup.
Look here for light choices in LED. https://www.superbrightleds.com/ You will be amazed at how much you can get for so little current draw.
N1PA
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