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250 watt landing light vs. LED

On initial startup slow warm up is true -but the HID setup has their own special flasher. Anyway—not the longevity advertised.
 
So here's the 11 year update. The 250 watt bulb is bullet proof. I installed it in 2010 with the filament vertical as recommended by someone here. 1650 hours later mounted in the prop blast right in front of my belly pod its still burning. I bet it makes TBO. For the money ,candle power and focal specifications, the bulb is nothing short of awesome. I've left it on for hours, actually forgot.
 
I found the same thing. Went with conventional. Big wire and close to the buss, its bright as all get out. Perfect. I prefered the std over the quartz beam as well. THe standard had the better beam. I'm experimental and built the whole landing light assemble from parts around the hangar for 18 bucks.

Correct, most certified LED's do have more Lumens, but poorer Candlepower or Candela than traditional Incandescents or Quartz Halogen.

As far as focal difference between traditional incan.'s and quartz, if you do some research you will find that GE, Norman, or many other manufacturers produce several renditions of PAR36 lamps in either flavor, so it is possible to have the desired focal point in incan or Quartz. The real difference is the incan consumes it's tungsten at a far greater rate than the Quartz, which is due to the Halogen's gas, making the Quartz last longer, and as a result burn brighter for a longer amount of time.

One fault of both flavors is that if you leave them on for long periods of time, they get hot, hot enough to degrade the traditional mercury reflector. A close look at one that stays on all the time will show a shiny reflector, but one that is dark, almost like 'black chrome' which is why on work airplanes, I prefer to have my work lights (PAR64 $$$) on a trigger, allowing them to cool in the turns. A PAR64 (600W) gets hot enough to cook on in a minute +/-.

As a side note, (and I hope this doesn't go against some site regulation) Norman Lamps sells direct on amazon. there prices are far more inline with what a light bulb should cost than buying from an aviation specific dealer, Here is an example of a pretty good way to light things up;
https://www.amazon.com/4522-Volts-Watts-250W-Candela/dp/B007XKW5SK

Now for comparison, look at the candela on this very high quality (read; expensive) LED;
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/el/landinglights_aeroled/sunspot36lx.php

Take care, Rob
 
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