PTK

Recently my GE landing light bulb burned out after many years of service. I wanted to replace it with an LED and have been researching them for some time. I learned some things in the process and wanted to share. Because led bulbs are not regulated by the FAA, manufacturers want to make their bulbs appear better than the rest on paper and things become very confusing very fast. A good example is all the talk about lumens and candelas. The latter tells us how bright the light source is in a certain direction which indicates how far away we can be from an object and still be able to illuminate it. It’s the light intensity in a single direction from the light source. When sitting behind a light and we want to see straight ahead into the distance, as is the case with a landing light, the candela is the most important metric. Lumen is total light output in any direction. So if we care about direction, as in straight ahead with a landing light, we want high candela values which are sustained over time. And here is where it becomes interesting. Some manufacturers play tricks with this. They can drive the led very hard in order to get high candela values which they proudly publish in their advertisements. What they don’t tell us is that led lights get hot especially when driven hard and must be protected. They call this thermal management. This is very important in my application because my landing light sits inside a cavity in the lower cowl. Mostly all have heat sinks to dissipate heat away from the light. Another way they manage heat is to throttle the led back and reduce power. In doing so the candela value drops very precipitously. There’s one manufacturer that I found who advertises a very high candela value. What they will not tell us is that this value decreases by a whopping 75% after about 30 minutes of operating the light! This would be very bad landing light. The data is obtained by independent lab testing. One such lab is Light Laboratory, Inc. in California. The manufacturers have this data and should provide it if a customer asks for it. This particular manufacturer would not provide it saying it’s proprietary information. I now know why! So when selecting an led landing light it is very important to bypass the flashy ads and reliance on a sales pitch. Rely instead on independent data. It exists and manufacturers have it. Ask for it! Consider how it will be operated and the conditions in which it lives. Does it receive air flow to help cool it or is it enclosed? Does it have superior thermal management by design or does it depend on throttle back? It´s very important to ask the manufacturer for this data and select one that sustains the candela value over time. This means the led´s are not overdriven and it has superior thermal management built in to its design. If they refuse to provide this independent data their light is probably not worth the hundreds of $$ they’re asking! The landing lights with the best data that I found are Whelen lights. Their data is so good that they publish it in their brochures.

So you are confirming it’s FAA approved? And how is one silicone baffle material “vastly superior” than another? I understand Gee-Bee will cut it to fit and that’s great but what else?

I would suspect a malfunctioning pressure relief valve. Was it adjusted at annual? If it’s malfunctioning or failing my concern would be that lubrication of the engine may become compromised. This is an airplane grounding issue until solved, imo.

Gee-Bee How exactly is it better? Last I checked it wasn’t FAA approved. Has this changed? https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/safety/programs/sups/upn/media/98-071r.pdf

That’s a circular threading connector, aka ms connector. Try this... http://www.whelen.com/aviation/product.php?head_id=11&prod_id=45 You may also want to consider the Whelen Orion led. https://www.whelen.com/aviation/product.php?head_id=11&prod_id=162

Based on my experience: Every time I bid out work to Lancaster avionics always comes back way over the rest. Most recently, remove GTX33R and put in a GTX345R. I had bids ranging from $5800 to $6300. Lancaster avionics came in at $7800! When I asked about ot out of curiosity they said that’s the most it could be and if it ends up less it would be whatever it is! That didn’t sound something I’d be comfortable with. Weber is top notch MSC and I had an excellent experience with Sensenich propeller.

I would not pay them anymore money. I would document everything in great detail and consult an attorney. Demand they put you plane back like it was before they put their paws on it and refund all you paid. Additionally have your attorney demand they reimburse you a fair per diem rate for grounding and interfering with your use of your plane. Bring Garmin in the conversation as well as this may work in your favor.

I don't think so. The KI300 is an attitude indicator and a separate component from the HSI. It does not affect the HSI. Just like the KI256 is a separate component and not part of the KCS55A compass system.

Still looks brand new like this poor guy... right? But no worries! Hector does give a very very long one year warranty on his work!

That's good to know. Thank you Byron. According to their rep Lycoming doesn't seem too concerned about the Slick. Not sure if it's rep's personal "opinion" or Lycoming's official position but he says that he has seen Slicks and bendix mags break down about equally. Not sure how accurate that statement is as I have heard of way more Slicks go down than bendix. Going on a tangent here but I think it's appalling that we're asked to pay upwards of 35$K and more to the factory no less and we are not given the option of an engine accessory. What's next? They'll tell us we can only use one manufacturer's oil filter and not the other? Or one manufacturer's hoses or ignition harness? They won't even sell us the bendix mags even if we are willing to pay extra. They're pushing Slicks. That's a sad example of how we are helpless hostages. Incidentally, this is not about the Lycoming engine. I love my engine. It's been great to me and I feel I trust it. This is about their business practices.

All well and good with factory engine and roller tappets but here's the 60K$ question: Does Lycoming give a choice in mags? Or are we stuck with the Slicks? If the answer is no, is there such an animal as a D engine with roller tappets?

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/july/24/bendix-king I think 2018 may be BK year!

So you know where the leak is. This greatly cuts down all the work in chasing an elusive leak. That is fantastic! I’m curious if a general statement can be safely made that most leaks occur around the top from not filling the tanks and sealant drying. I, for one, most of the time fill to the tabs. Once in a while I’ll put in 32 gallons but rarely. No leaks yet knock on wood!

Mistresses eat money... it’s what they do! The difference is normal mistresses get paid to leave. But in the case of Mooney mistresses they stick around asking for more!

Looking to buy interior side panels with radius windows. These are the three side panels and the one door panel, 4 total. They are the OEM panels Mooney used in the M20J MSE and the M20K with rounded windows. Either the earlier ABS or later fiberglass will do. Thank you Pete K

So you want proven system integration and redundancy. I see. Well, that does narrow your options. (Hint: you better stick with Garmin!)

You have other autopilot options besides Garmin products. Is there a particular reason why you need to buy the GFC500?

I’d like to ask the professional pilots who fly for the airlines about training paths. A friend asked me because his son has expressed an interest in becoming an airline pilot. I have taken him up a few times and he is very excited about flying and interested to explore it as a career. He is currently in his second year in college and has zero time. I suggested to him the next step should be to take a couple of intro flights with an instructor to get his feet wet on flying an airplane. As far as schools what are the best options out there that train career pilots? Any suggestions I can relay to this gentleman highly appreciated!

This discussion you're having now you probably should've had before you bought the units. You're asking for someone to install the unit you bought used and assume the responsibility on your behalf. That's not an easy thing. Expect to pay more to have it installed than if you bought it from a dealer. The dealer has a margin built in on the units they sell and install. A used install has no margin for them and they will not assume the responsibility and all that it entails. As the buyer you have to assume the responsibility of making sure what you bought is what you think you bought and this means installed in the airplane. Without proper documentation you cannot legally put the unit in a certified airplane. That doesn’t stop some people from doing it everyday. But finding someone to do it for you is not easy. I stopped in to a shop away from home to change the oil a couple of years ago and I had a filter with me. They refused to use my filter because they could not trace the paper trail as to where it came from. It may have been extreme overkill but on the other hand it is an FAA repair station and I understand they need to remain in business. You have 8130's and that's a good thing. Maybe an option would be to go to a dealer and see how much they want to assume the responsibility and install it for you. You may find that you would be better off to have gone to the dealer initially by passing these headaches. Another option may be to go back to the seller and/or issuer of the 8130 and see if they'll install it and how much it would be.

I'm not talking about dual servos. Only dual computers that would be switchable by the pilot. They would not be on at the same time. Only one at a time and when one is on the other is turned off.

Yes but that doesn’t answer my question. Two pilots in the cockpit of a jet are double the redundancy but they have two and sometimes three autopilots.

I was told by Mrs. Brye, my very wonderful 6th grade teacher a long time ago that there is no such thing as a stupid question! So here we go: Is it possible to have dual autopilots in our planes? Much like some turboprops and jets do? For example with my KFC 150, is it possible to have dual KC 192 computers? Not operating simultaneously but with pilot selection if one fails? We have dual Nav/Comms, dual ADI's and we're all about redundancy. So why not dual ap's?

Kathryn's Report says "...The plane was grounded and running when Kramer was hit in the head by the plane's spinning propeller..." http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2018/07/cessna-182p-skylane-n1311s-fatal.html

They should try and work with BMW M division! That would be something worth doing since BMW builds the best driving machines today and has a legacy building aircraft engines. And the M for Mooney! BMW M Powered Mooney... the ultimate flying machine!

Curious about something that caught my eye: Spruce shows the Parmetheus Plus as 1.2 amps at 14 V which calculates to putting out 17 watts. The Sunspot discussed in this thread at 14v comes in at 11 amps which is 154 watts! I wonder is there really that much variation in these lights? The Sunspot for example is really ~10x brighter? Or is there a typo somewhere.