Drop and Replace LED Landing Light

[Johnnybgoode]

Installed the new Parmetheus Plus Par 46 LED landing light. Pretty straight forward but it's not as bright as I would've hoped for. However, just looking at this photo, it looks like it's wasting a lot of light pointing directly down rather than forward. (I tripled checked and aligned "top" correctly).

I know there are three adjustment screws that I turn to get the light pointing more upwards but I just want to see what everyone else's light distribution looks like?

Have you flown with it yet? I wonder if the downward facing light might be well suited to the slight nose up attitude during the last 10 ft of landing. Seems to me it might provide good coverage of the touchdown zone. Not a good solution if it doesn't give enough light during taxi but how far ahead do you need to see while taxiing? Also the more upward facing you make it, the more blinding it is to fellow pilots. I'd fly it awhile and see how it illuminates the first couple hundred feet of the touchdown zone. I'd be more worried about the deer at 75mph than the ditch at 9mph.

Patrick

[Deb]

Paul Bertorelli confirmed it was the old Parmetheus and not the newer Parmetheus Plus lamps which were tested.

[ArtVandelay]

Paul Bertorelli confirmed it was the old Parmetheus and not the newer Parmetheus Plus lamps which were tested.

The fact some cause the radio to break squelch was also interesting, the old Parmetheus didn't have that problem, be nice to know if the new ones do.

[Jim Peace]

The fact some cause the radio to break squelch was also interesting, the old Parmetheus didn't have that problem, be nice to know if the new ones do.

I have the new one and it does not........

[Hank]

Have you flown with it yet? I wonder if the downward facing light might be well suited to the slight nose up attitude during the last 10 ft of landing. Seems to me it might provide good coverage of the touchdown zone. Not a good solution if it doesn't give enough light during taxi but how far ahead do you need to see while taxiing? Also the more upward facing you make it, the more blinding it is to fellow pilots. I'd fly it awhile and see how it illuminates the first couple hundred feet of the touchdown zone. I'd be more worried about the deer at 75mph than the ditch at 9mph.

Patrick

I have the old Parmetheus bulb, it's decent for taxiing and much whiter when landing than the old GE bulb ever thought about being. The numbers are clearly visible around 3/4 mile according to the 430W. My most recent night landing was Sunday. The bulb was installed after my last no-light landing in April last year (it worked fine on preflight, dead at landing over the trees 3-1/2 hours later).

[Browncbr1]

i have not experienced radio issues with my whelen.. 

it is whiter and brighter...... i have a generator, so this has helped me in more ways than one...   It has been my best bang for buck upgrade thus far.

[Seth]

I have not experienced radio issues with the AeroLEDs and I keep the landing light on much of the flight with the taxi light pulsing. At night both stay solid.

-Seth

[Tommy]

Have you flown with it yet? I wonder if the downward facing light might be well suited to the slight nose up attitude during the last 10 ft of landing. Seems to me it might provide good coverage of the touchdown zone. Not a good solution if it doesn't give enough light during taxi but how far ahead do you need to see while taxiing? Also the more upward facing you make it, the more blinding it is to fellow pilots. I'd fly it awhile and see how it illuminates the first couple hundred feet of the touchdown zone. I'd be more worried about the deer at 75mph than the ditch at 9mph.

Patrick

 

That's a very valid point! But my light still seems pointing quite a bit down. Would love to have some comparison pics from others.

[cliffy]

Had a Baron taxi in the ramp a couple of days ago with a wig-wag ligth system on the cowls. Even in broad daylight it was BRIGHT!

He was in and out real quick so I couldn't find out what he was using but if I can I'd be in line for that system if I had 2 landing lights

MAN it was bright. What a way to be seen.

[chrisk]

Installed the new Parmetheus Plus Par 46 LED landing light. Pretty straight forward but it's not as bright as I would've hoped for. However, just looking at this photo, it looks like it's wasting a lot of light pointing directly down rather than forward. (I tripled checked and aligned "top" correctly).

 

I know there are three adjustment screws that I turn to get the light pointing more upwards but I just want to see what everyone else's light distribution looks like?

I believe mine point more in line with the fuselage.   Which means they point slightly up when the plane is on the ground.  I would double check your install.

[flyingcheesehead]

I have a pair of XeVision 50W HIDs for the landing lights and a pair of Whelen Parmetheus Plus for the taxi lights. I like both, though I often leave the landing lights on for taxiing when not near other planes or people because of the wide spread of the Parmetheus Plus taxi lights - I think of the HID's as "high beams" when taxiing.

 

I figure that, compared with the 1000 watts worth of GE 4596's that used to be in the wing, that if my alternator is 66% efficient, I should have an extra 1.75hp going to the prop now and that should be worth an extra half knot, too.

[carusoam]

FCH do you still have the original recognition lights in your R?

Or have they gone LED as well?

Best regards,

-a-

[Hank]

On a related topic, does anyone make a (legal) LED position light & strobe combo that fit inside the 201 wingtips? That's the only way I'll ever have strobes, synchronized or not, and that will make my lights all LED (belly blinker and landing light are already Whelen LED conversions).

[jetdriven]

Whelen has LED strobes but they are very expensive. The certified Aveo Galactica are also sky high at 1250$ a pair. A lot of guys on beechtalk have been getting the cheaper Aveo units on a 337 field approval but my IA guy won't touch it. I can't even get him to try for approval on a redbaron mini for the belly, even though the wingtip strobes meet the regs for anticolission.

[Hank]

The Whelen belly blinker works pretty well, costs about the same as a Parmetheus landing light, and is much smaller than the old flasher. I'll have to rummage on my computer for the photos, I took them with the camera not phone. Maybe half the size, maybe smaller.

[Seth]

On a related topic, does anyone make a (legal) LED position light & strobe combo that fit inside the 201 wingtips? That's the only way I'll ever have strobes, synchronized or not, and that will make my lights all LED (belly blinker and landing light are already Whelen LED conversions).

Galactica Strobes.  

 

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/ultragalactica.php

 

You will not be part of the CB club if you install them, but they are bright, work great, and fit in the 201 wingtips.  I replaced mine with these in 2013.

 

I can have the NAV lights on only, or the NAV and STROBE at the same time.  These units both light up green/red and strobe.

 

-Seth

[Hank]

Wow, those certainly look bright!! For the price,they should self-select the appropriate function as I taxi and move through various airspace. Like a combination of automatic headlights and self-starting/stopping windshield wipers.

I'll have to pass for now. Maybe someone will release one at a reasonable price, say similar to an LED landing light rather than a LoPresti BoomBeam. Several nice ones are out there, but are not approved for certified use. Durn FAA getting in the way of safety again!

[ArtVandelay]

On a related topic, does anyone make a (legal) LED position light & strobe combo that fit inside the 201 wingtips? That's the only way I'll ever have strobes, synchronized or not, and that will make my lights all LED (belly blinker and landing light are already Whelen LED conversions).

Orion by Whelen

[flyingcheesehead]

FCH do you still have the original recognition lights in your R?

Or have they gone LED as well?

Best regards,

-a-

 

 

I still have the original recognition lights... But they're next. Durn things are $138 apiece, a pain to install (A&P required), and not all that bright. They're now both burned out, I plan to search for deals at Oshkosh. So far the most likely contender, due to size, is the AeroLEDs MicroSun. http://aeroleds.com/shop/microsun/

 

If anyone has switched the recognition lights to LED, I'd sure love to hear about it!

 

Here's a pic of the Ovation with all of its lights (as currently installed) operating:

 

[jetdriven]

Since the bulb is part of the reflector assembly it's going to be a problem. Whelen doesn't even supply the 2$ molex connector with the light assemblys. It's bare wires u must cut and strip both sides and crimp the connector to put on the plug. Snd if you leave them on on the ground it melts the 300$ wingtip lens. Seriously.

Ok rant off but it wouldn't be technically difficult to engineer an led solution to the wingtip recog light due but it will have to be a homebrew solution.

[Tommy]

How good is the Orion 650? Easy to install? 

 

Can you just install one side of the wing first or you have to have both? 

[khedrei]

I know this thread is dead, but while searching for LED landing light stuff I came across it.

My annual when I purchased my plane the mechanic charged me $45 CAD for a replacement landing light.  Spruce wants about $400 for a drop in replacement LED.  Yes, very expensive when you consider it worth $800 to do both of them.  But the way I see it, it would almost pay for itself if I keep the plane long enough.  How often do these normally burn out if you are flying 100 hrs a year?  I know the flight school planes always had them burnt out and they didn't even do much night flying.  I know they are flight schools but if I had to replace one every year it's 20 years to make that up and by then I'd be looking for a new LED anyway.  But just the time to remove the cover and replace it, not to mention it burning out when you need it as well as the benefit of less electrical load on your system.  To me if you can afford it, it's a no brainer.

Also, does that above pic of the wingtip include LED position lights, and wingtip strobes?  I'd love to get one of those for my plane.

Is the traditional bulb in there an additional wingtip landing light?

Edited May 6, 2017 by khedrei

[jaylw314]

That's the Whelen Orion 650, both LED position lights and strobes.  No bulbs.

The bulb in the photo is the M20J recognition light, not the landing light.  The J only has one in the cowl.

For your K, why don't you just replace one landing light with LED's?  That way you invest half the cost and can see if it's worth replacing the other.  You'll still cut your current load, and you won't have to worry about both bulbs burning out.

[xcrmckenna]

I know this thread is dead, but while searching for LED landing light stuff I came across it.
My annual when I purchased my plane the mechanic charged me $45 CAD for a replacement landing light.  Spruce wants about $400 for a drop in replacement LED.  Yes, very expensive when you consider it worth $800 to do both of them.  But the way I see it, it would almost pay for itself if I keep the plane long enough.  How often do these normally burn out if you are flying 100 hrs a year?  I know the flight school planes always had them burnt out and they didn't even do much night flying.  I know they are flight schools but if I had to replace one every year it's 20 years to make that up and by then I'd be looking for a new LED anyway.  But just the time to remove the cover and replace it, not to mention it burning out when you need it as well as the benefit of less electrical load on your system.  To me if you can afford it, it's a no brainer.
Also, does that above pic of the wingtip include LED position lights, and wingtip strobes?  I'd love to get one of those for my plane.
Is the traditional bulb in there an additional wingtip landing light?

I started a thread two weeks ago, I installed the Aeroled Sunspot 46 during my oil change. There was a noticeable difference in the light spread and brightness. The led light was $640 but to your point, I am sure I will never have to worry about it burning out in my life time and the light will be in anytime the master is on. Well worth the money now vs having a shop replace a 4522 every year at annual, if not more:)



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Brian_tii]

15 hours ago, khedrei said:

I know this thread is dead, but while searching for LED landing light stuff I came across it.

My annual when I purchased my plane the mechanic charged me $45 CAD for a replacement landing light.  Spruce wants about $400 for a drop in replacement LED.  Yes, very expensive when you consider it worth $800 to do both of them.  But the way I see it, it would almost pay for itself if I keep the plane long enough.  How often do these normally burn out if you are flying 100 hrs a year?  I know the flight school planes always had them burnt out and they didn't even do much night flying.

Bulb life varies on model of bulb, but some of the more popular ones can be as low as 25 hours. Our Cirrus uses a single par36 4596 250w 28v bulb that kept burning out - rated at only 25 hours. The also common 4509 is only good for 25 hours too. A few models are in the 200-300 hour range, if you look for them. We switched to the aeroleds sunspot 36-4596 which is a 100w led... its bright and so far so good - only had it a couple months though. It's rated for something like 5000 hours with a 5 year warranty.

 

I think Mooneys use the par46 bulbs... you can check out all the various GE models on their site which includes expected bulb life:

http://commercial.gelighting.com/catalog/c/Lamps_Specialty_Transportation_Aircraft?q=%3Arelevance%3Afeature-BulbShape%3APAR36%3Afeature-BulbShape%3APAR46&text=#

 

ps - 4522 is rated at 25 hours too - http://commercial.gelighting.com/catalog/p/24700

Edited May 7, 2017 by Brian_tii