adding recognition lights

[Jim Peace]

Has anyone ever done or know someone who has put recog lights into the leading edge of the wings on a Mooney that was not that way from the factory?

 

I would like to have full time pulse or steady lights out on the wings in addition to the nose.

 

"see and be seen"

 

Jim

 

 

 

[LANCECASPER]

I have wingtip recognition lights, but if you forget and leave them on after landing while taxiing you can melt the lens.

 

One suggestion is to put in an LED landing light and just leave it on - most have a 10,000 hour life expectancy and use very little current. I have AERO Led LX landing lights and they are great. I met the people from spenceraircraft.com at Sun and Fun and they made me a deal on a couple of them- $285 each. Prices keep coming down so they are probably less by now. I also hear good things about the Alphabeam from Teledyne also.

[1964-M20E]

I replaced my single landing light with LED and lev it on for the whole flight.

 

I would like to have a single PAR 36 LED in each wing as well for added recognition and for landing at my home strip after dark since it is real dark there and the runway lights are not high intensity.

[Ftlausa]

If you do add them, I recommend one of the pulsing systems like MaxPulse.  Really makes the plane stand out and also is shown to reduce bird strikes. 

[Jim Peace]

My question is how does the process go.  My mechanic just can't cut into the leading edge and fabricate his own light box.  Or can he with a field approval.

 

Are there wing tips that I can put on that have the ability for me to add my own LED lights?  I am talking about super bright ones.  Not like I have seen in some mods.

[carusoam]

There was an STC to put landing lights or taxi lights in the wings. Skill and practice would be required (pro sheet metal guy) to get it right.

LED recog lights would be ideal. The lens is a couple hundred bucks and the incandescent bulb is a test of the pilots ability to avoid distraction / use checklist after the landing phase of flight...

Land, taxi off the runway, stop, recog lights off, flaps up, transponder....

Buying a used plane taught me this lesson, the lenses were pre-melted for my convenience?

The O has 3 pairs of lights, five more bulbs than my C did.

It is good to be seen,

-a-

[WardHolbrook]

I'm a huge fan of pulsing recog/landing lights - the more the merrier. 

[Jim Peace]

  On 10/22/2014 at 4:05 PM, carusoam said:

There was an STC to put landing lights or taxi lights in the wings. Skill and practice would be required (pro sheet metal guy) to get it right.

 

Anyone know where to find this on internet?

[ArtVandelay]

  On 10/22/2014 at 4:05 PM, carusoam said:

There was an STC to put landing lights or taxi lights in the wings. Skill and practice would be required (pro sheet metal guy) to get it right.

LED recog lights would be ideal. The lens is a couple hundred bucks and the incandescent bulb is a test of the pilots ability to avoid distraction / use checklist after the landing phase of flight...

Land, taxi off the runway, stop, recog lights off, flaps up, transponder....

Buying a used plane taught me this lesson, the lenses were pre-melted for my convenience?

The O has 3 pairs of lights, five more bulbs than my C did.

It is good to be seen,

-a-

I'm in the process of pulsing/wig-wag my recognition lights, I'm using Pulselite 1210/2405, this will solve 2 problems at the same time, better visibility and don't have to worry about melting the lenses.

[carusoam]

LASAR is probably the source for the wing mounted lights STC.

http://www.lasar.com/mods.asp

Sherry (sorry about the spelling?) knows everything like this...

If not Sherry, a small renewed organization in TX may be able to help.

http://www.mooney.com

Best regards,

-a-

[KSMooniac]

I don't recall seeing an STC for adding wing-mounted lights from my browsing through the FAA list.  Mooney of course did it from the factory, and it would be nice if they would offer a kit or at least the drawings to support the modification.  Perhaps you could call and ask?  Failing that, you could try to find a salvage wing that has the pieces, and harvest everything from it for transplant.  I'm doing exactly that with my center console and nose wheel well transplant in my '77 J to get rid of my throttle quadrant and upgrade to conventional controls.  My IA considers this a minor mod since all of the parts are coming from a Mooney and going into a Mooney so by default the engineering data is approved.  You could make a similar argument for the wing lights.