Landing light location with slats

As I am moving into detailing some wind design aspects for my plane, I am still in a quandary about locating good landing lights.
Clearly the size and packaging of useful lights has been changing and will continue to do so before I lock down my design but I have unknowns to work with.
I will at times be landing in a small field with trees lining the approach, the field is open. This happens to be a one way landing area with a hill on the other end so each approach will be a one shot deal.

My LE will have retracting slats, Handley Page style on the mid and outer wing. The inner 4' is, at this time not slatted. This could change should I be talked into it.
I plan on utilizing Wig Wag lights on the LE as well.

I would like opinions about landing lights being 3 to 4' outboard of the fuse which might get reflected by the prop? I know an incandescent would but are the LEDs less prone to that with the more controlled beam as I see from the new flashlights we have?
Or should I get the lights further out on the wing. This would require spacing between inner and outer slats. Or all the way out into the tips.

I do see lights under the belly being used, how are these working for those with them?

Thoughts?

Lights under the fuse work well and would be my first pick, with the weight of LED's you can also mount them in the cowl but it's a bit more work to build the housing ect. wing tips work well so long as you have them aimed properly especially if paired with the belly lights. Personally i would not mount the lights inboard on the wings or want to cut into the leading edge in your described location.

Light is light. If incandescents reflect, then LEDs reflect. So don't move them to close, inboard. If you decide to keep the lights in the wing, it sounds like the only choice will be to move them outboard. But that might be dependent on your wing tip style.

Lights in the cabane vee is a no brainer. Clamp the lights into place and wire them in (added benefit of very short wires). And with LEDs getting brighter, you can either add illumination to existing light installations or just use them as your primary landing/taxi lights.

If you want landing lights AND wig-wags, look at using a Max Pulse control switch. It will allow you to select either left or right on, both on, alternately flashing, or simultaneous flashing.

Web

The calendar cover photo shows the position of my landing/taxi lights (each side) on my wing with slats. Work very well. Plenty bright!

When I did the -12 lights on the long step attach bolts the FAA was concerned about light reflection on the prop and required flat black paint on the prop to approve the installation. I think their concern was valid. This plane has the lights closer to center with no prop reflection potential.





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I plan to gear mount two lights. The baja designs s2 pro spot for the landing and wide cornering for the taxi. 8 oz’s each. The spot light claims 400’ of light. https://www.bajadesigns.com/products/s2-pro-led-spot.asp

Those Baja Design lights are the first ones I am aware of that actually draw some power. I have been buying LED replacement bulbs for our cars but have been very disappointed. They offer a great white color but the light does not reach out anywhere near what the Halogen bulbs I have been used to.
To put a little merit as to what I am used to here are two pictures of what my wife and I drive, I hope to make sure my plane can get light to reach out.



We like to see in the dark.

Charlie, having flown lots of different types in and out of unlit landing and water areas at night, my preference is to place a light in each wing tip in a position where there is no possibility of any light reflecting towards the cockpit. The PA-24 Comanche is a good example. A light mounted out of the way on the belly can reflect on the ground as you get low reducing your night vision just when you need it the most. When landing on non-pavement surfaces at night there is often a good possibility that there may be some mist or light fog just above the surface. When the landing lights are close to the cockpit they sometimes turn that fog into a bright light which destroys your ability to see what you need to see. Lights in the wing tips minimizes this effect. A separately switched taxi light under the belly could be useful. This could be used or not used depending on the "fog" situation. If your wing lights reflect towards the cockpit place a baffle close to the light, blocking the light in that direction.

I like those thoughts. Something like the S2 Pro lights but for me it will be what comes to market when I am ready to commit, these out on the wingtips and I could experiment with a "Stall fence", as you state baffling separating/ shielding their light from the slat since I expect the extension and retraction will have varying reflections on the back side of the slat not to mention quick changing shadowing just when it may not do one well.
It could be a pair of taxi lights at the junction of the upper gear leg would be a good thing too.
With the compactness of these lights the taxi lights could possibly be blended into the upper juncture of the lift strut as well.

One concern with the Baja S2 is they state their light reaches out 400', I am used to lights that reach out 4000'. Obviously their spec does not state how many lumens are at that 400' distance.

Also Charlie, for your home strip place a row of reflectors along the outer most edges of your landing area. The landing lights then very nicely define the parameters of the landing area.

skywagon8a said:

Also Charlie, for your home strip place a row of reflectors along the outer most edges of your landing area. The landing lights then very nicely define the parameters of the landing area.

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I also like the walkway lights just to locate the place but reflectors would be a great value since they would be a much higher intensity.

Reflectors can be seen at least a mile away. The only problem I had with reflectors was the neighborhood kids stealing them.

An array of reflectors can be arranged in a manner to project a desired glide path as well.

For 4000’ range you’ll need 100w LEDs. Big and heavy. My Solo Pods are 10w and have about 400’ range. More then adequate for daytime recognition. If you want to light the night? Look at light cannons. LEDs are pretty easy to judge. More power and more size makes more light.

https://www.visionxusa.com/producttype/led-lights/

Now those get the range.
All the cars I have all have a minimum of 4 100W lamps up front. Kind of a serious responsibility on the dimmer fingers. It is allot of light.
Now, maybe retractable landing lights with LED conversions. Talk about design creep.