LED Lights- Finding the Plug and Play for Cub

[BC12D-4-85]

I see LED flashers better than single flash strobes during the day. The LED's can slowly turn off and on versus a quick burst of strobe lights. Multi-flash strobes (like 2-3 flashes per event) are better. Local C-208 Caravans have the LED's and they are very visible. At night it makes less difference.

Edit: I see now there are multi-flash LED's> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QkxOuDLAZk

Gary

 

[mvivion]

I see LED flashers better than single flash strobes during the day. The LED's can slowly turn off and on versus a quick burst of strobe lights. Multi-flash strobes (like 2-3 flashes per event) are better. Local C-208 Caravans have the LED's and they are very visible. At night it makes less difference.

Edit: I see now there are multi-flash LED's> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QkxOuDLAZk

Gary

Yeah, but you're old, Gary.....:lol:

MTV

 

[stewartb]

Wingtip strobes? No hesitation to use LEDs if it’s time to replace unless the strobes are Comet Flash and the power supply is still good. The rapid flash is what makes the old style better. Single flash? I have both and can’t see any difference.

 

[BC12D-4-85]

Synchronous flashing helps......vs one at a time for me. And yes I'm older and SS eligible, but I can still see polar orbiting satellites at night. Or even the occasional UFO?

Gary

 

[mvivion]

Synchronous flashing helps......vs one at a time for me. And yes I'm older and SS eligible, but I can still see polar orbiting satellites at night. Or even the occasional UFO?

Gary

But can you read a newspaper, without cheaters?

MTV

 

[BC12D-4-85]

But can you read a newspaper, without cheaters? MTV

Newspaper? What's that? I can w/o glass if I turn up the font on the 'puter.

But to topic. The old Whelen red 2-bulb rotating beacons on the tail or fuselage (top and bottom) were easy to see, even during daylight. Most of what I watch now soon disappear unless the lights are on for a bit and real bright. If I were going to the trouble of upgrading I'd source the brightest lights available. Lumens stuff.

Gary

 

[mvivion]

Newspaper? What's that? I can w/o glass if I turn up the font on the 'puter.

But to topic. The old Whelen red 2-bulb rotating beacons on the tail or fuselage (top and bottom) were easy to see, even during daylight. Most of what I watch now soon disappear unless the lights are on for a bit and real bright. If I were going to the trouble of upgrading I'd source the brightest lights available. Lumens stuff.

Gary

But, that is the point: Strobes are generally brighter than LEDs. I put a SkyBeacon on my plane for ADS-B out. It provides an LED red position light, which is indeed much brighter than the old Grimes light it replaced. But the LED “Strobe”, which is actually a flasher, is nowhere near as bright to my eye as the Whelan strobe it replaced.

MTV

 

[Gordon Misch]

But the LED “Strobe”, which is actually a flasher, is nowhere near as bright to my eye as the Whelan strobe it replaced.

Yes. I was quite disappointed. And - the Uavionics "strobe" makes an audible "flash" on the radio/intercom system. The company rep didn't seem real interested when I brought that up at the Puyallup trade show a year or two ago. The Wheelen system is flawless.

Edit: But on the upside, I'm ADSB compliant, with very little effort. Sometimes that's very helpful here in the Pacific Northwest.

 

[BC12D-4-85]

Lumens, Lux, and Candella all walked into a bar> https://flywat.com/blogs/blog/lumens-lux-candela-what-s-the-difference

Wonder who walked out?

Gary

 

[md11freighter]

I have my navs/strobes wired together and a beacon on a separate switch. Living in Alaska flying at night scares the crumb out of me. I just turn on my navs when I take the runway like the big jets do. No reason to have navs on during daylight hours.

 

[frequent_flyer]

I just turn on my navs when I take the runway like the big jets do. No reason to have navs on during daylight hours.

Don't "the big jets" typically have the nav lights on any time the aircraft is powered? The strobes and landing lights come on when taking the runway.

 

[md11freighter]

Yep….that was the point. I turn the navs and strobes on when I take the runway; they’re wired together.
I never have navs on in small airplanes unless it’s dark so wiring them together was as eZ as it gets.

 

[wireweinie]

Yep….that was the point. I turn the navs and strobes on when I take the runway; they’re wired together.
I never have navs on in small airplanes unless it’s dark so wiring them together was as eZ as it gets.

The point of having them on separate switches is when you DO need to run one without the other it's possible. I.e., if you are taxiing near other aircraft in low light or operating in dust/fog situations. 99.99% of the time, the guys that connect both systems to one switch are just trying to do LED's without bothering to wire them correctly.

Web

 

[stewartb]

My Cub has three switches for strobes, nav, and beacon. The WAT Orion wingtip strobes fire 4 pulses like Comet Flash did. It’s way more effective than single flash strobes on the Cessna. The Cub’s beacon is LED and it’s way brighter than any other beacon I’ve seen on other planes. The tail strobe is Aero LED, rapid fires in 3 pulses, and is also hard to miss in any conditions. My Cessna has old school Aeroflash strobes and a Whelen 70509 flasher for the beacon. What once was state of the art is now mediocre at best. It all meets the FAA requirements but there’s no question the newer LED lights are better. At everything. I really should replace the Cessna lights with LED.

I used to think Lake Hood’s airspace was busy. MatSu airspace is busier and less organized. Recognition lights are important to me. My Cessna has strobes and beacon wired together. I turn them on after runup. Not my fav situation but not worth changing for where I fly.

 

[DanaD]

I've been thinking about "upgrading" my same wintip lights on my -12 too and have the inspection covers already cut out. I figured the LED wingtip strobes on the AeroLED Pulsar series would have to be brighter, but it sounds like that is not the case! The other reason I thought about upgrading was to knock a few pounds off the wing tips by removing the power-packs (is that the technical term?), but maybe those don't weigh much either, saving me the hassle and $$$. Third reason would be to save battery for if I have charging issues, which I'm working through now. Any idea on the weight of the power packs?

 

[BC12D-4-85]

FWIW I watched 6 Cessna C-208B Caravans fly by today. Whatever LED's they use are bright, both landing and anti collision.

Here's an example: https://flywat.com/collections/stc-...0613-series-led-position-anti-collision-light

Gary

 

[frequent_flyer]

The flash pattern of some LED strobes is more complex than one might think. I wanted to understand the flash pattern of my FX-3 LED strobes as I hoped to reproduce it in a home brew taxi light controller.

I was surprised to find that each of the visible flashes was actually many very short flashes. Not visible with the eye but easily seen with a photodetector driving a digital storage oscilloscope. The basic visible pattern is one long pulse followed by two short pulses. What is not visible is that each of the visible pulses is actually lots of much shorter pulses. Probably only of interest to extreme nerds or engineers but scope traces follow:

 

[BC12D-4-85]

LED's get hot. I have a couple of FENIX 3000 Lumen flashlights that will make touching the lit end uncomfortable on high. But if flashed via their strobe setting it's not like that. Control of duty time via cycling have to help.

Gary

 

[astjp2]

The point of having them on separate switches is when you DO need to run one without the other it's possible. I.e., if you are taxiing near other aircraft in low light or operating in dust/fog situations. 99.99% of the time, the guys that connect both systems to one switch are just trying to do LED's without bothering to wire them correctly.

Web

I thought that current guidance is the nav lights on prior to prop rotation so others near you can see that the airplane status has changed....

 

[astjp2]

One thing to consider is that LED nav lights really are affected by UV after a few years, the light sports at the flight school get bad sun fade in the plastic after 2-3 years. I would rather just change the bulb in the whelan housing and stick with the glass cover. YMMV. Tim

 

[skywagon8a]

I thought that current guidance is the nav lights on prior to prop rotation so others near you can see that the airplane status has changed....

Anti collision light on prior to engine start as it is more apt to attract attention than nav lights. Strobes on while taking the runway.