Jump to content

Turn on Nav Lights - Gear down light goes off !


Recommended Posts

In our Ovation the gear down annunciator dims so much that during the day, it looks like it’s out. I was in the pattern and thought I didn’t have the gear down annunciator until I realized the nav lights were on . Turned them off and I could see the gear down annunciator again. I think it’s normal, at least in ours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Annunciator lights dim automatically when the Nav lights are switched on. Check it inside a dark hangar. 

Are “all” annunciator lights supposed to dim? I think in mine, only the gear down dims. I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be all annunciator light.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry. You are correct. Just the gear light dims. A least in my K.

I guess Mooney’s logic is that the gear light is a “normally on” light for landing whereas the others are normally off, so if the light up, they want to make sure you don’t miss them. Just my uneducated guess.

Personally, I am not a fan of that dim gear light. I would like to add a nice bright green light right next to the gear handle. 

 

6E180C6B-1A3E-440B-AC17-AEC967B03A21.png

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Mooney was the first airplane I encountered with this “feature”. In other airplanes I always flew with Nav lights on out of habit and the theory that anything that increases your visibility is a good thing, but it drove me nuts that I had to squint and shade the annunciator panel with my hand to get a secondary confirmation that the gear was down. (First confirmation being the floor indicator) I had momentary heart palpitations more than once when I would glance at the panel on short final and think I had forgotten to lower the gear because the light was so dim.

Now I fly with the Nav lights off in daylight which raises the risk that I will forget to turn them on during transition from day to night. To me that is a lower threat than forgetting the gear, but I would have preferred that Mooney left the choice of dim or bright gear lights up to me.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Part of the reason I removed the annunciator panel and made a custom one was because I couldnt see the gear down light. No regrets. I was charged 4 hours of labour and the cost of the lights to make that charge during avionics install. Well worth it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Niko182 said:

Part of the reason I removed the annunciator panel and made a custom one was because I couldnt see the gear down light. No regrets. I was charged 4 hours of labour and the cost of the lights to make that charge during avionics install. Well worth it.

Got a picture?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A curious thing about the gear down annunciator light is that it is normally grounded through the nav light bulbs, the filaments of these bulbs in parallel having a low resistance to ground when off and the annunciator current being too low to illuminate the nav lights. When the nav lights are on, a diode causes the gear down annunciator to ground through a resistor reducing the current and thus dimming it.

I'm curious if anyone has noticed any changes in behavior of the gear down annunciator light after changing to LED nav lights.

Skip

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Niko182 said:

Part of the reason I removed the annunciator panel and made a custom one was because I couldnt see the gear down light. No regrets. I was charged 4 hours of labour and the cost of the lights to make that charge during avionics install. Well worth it.

Ditto...with the JPI 900 and G5s, no longer had the Vac annunciations or the fuel low annunciations. 

 

8AFE70B4-C1D4-4E88-A9E7-6513405A87CF.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Scottknoll said:


Are “all” annunciator lights supposed to dim? I think in mine, only the gear down dims. I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be all annunciator light.

Aha! I have this as a squawk to look into. I am also going to check this weekend if its a function of nav lights being on. Here I was thinking electrical problem! (and yes, I should have ready that portion of the POH more carefully)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

‘94 Annunciators and newer are pretty complex devices... the wiring diagram in the MM looks complicated...

+1 for having lights on all the time...

-1 for not being able to see the green gear down light on short final... when nav lights are on... and it’s daylight out... and the annunciator panel is far enough to the right....

Best regards,

-a-

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, skyking1 said:

My gear down light is dim with the nav lights off. Any ideas? Mooney screaming eagle. Thanks 

If it gets dimmer with the nav lights on, then something is either obstructing the lens or the bulb isn't getting enough current. This would be something amiss inside the annunciator panel.

If it doesn't get dimmer when you turn on the nav lights, then there is likely a bad diode inside the annunciator, or a broken gear down return wire between the annunciator panel and the nav light bus, or all nav lights are burned out.

Skip

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, PT20J said:

A curious thing about the gear down annunciator light is that it is normally grounded through the nav light bulbs, the filaments of these bulbs in parallel having a low resistance to ground when off and the annunciator current being too low to illuminate the nav lights. When the nav lights are on, a diode causes the gear down annunciator to ground through a resistor reducing the current and thus dimming it.

I'm curious if anyone has noticed any changes in behavior of the gear down annunciator light after changing to LED nav lights.

Skip

Skip, 

when I originally installed the led nav lights on my J, my “gear safe” light became dim all the time.  The  grounding backfeed through the  un-powered LEds was not sufficient to give the daytime brightness required.

as someone on Mooneyspace recommended, I installed a grounding relay...now it work perfect like original function

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thankfully I didn't notice any change in my Gear down light after installed Orion LED all around. Same brightness as best as I could tell.

Mooney is not the only airplane that dim's the gear down light when Nav lights are on. Piper does the same, at least in the same time period as Mooney. I learned long before Mooney's that Nav lights are for night time only. If they didn't dim with Nav lights on you would have a very bright Gear down light distracting you on the annunciator at night. My strobes are on day and night, along with flashing recognition lights,  but I see no reason to run nav lights during the day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, larrynimmo said:

as someone on Mooneyspace recommended, I installed a grounding relay...now it work perfect like original function

Can you provide more details on your solution.

I have subsequently learned I don't yet have the dimming problem with my Orions LEDs because I still have 2 incandescent rear wing tip bulbs to provide the ground path - but will when I replace those with LED, assuming I do that which I was thinking of doing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.