Jump to content

$hitty night landing


bradp

Recommended Posts

8 minutes ago, bradp said:

@OSUAV8TER James those are pretty pictures. Are you doing any virtual or in person show discounts for SnF this week? 
 

 

No, not this year unfortunately. The virtual stuff last year was because of Covid and because they cancelled both SnF and Oshkosh. I plan to be at Oshkosh this year but I do not know what kind, if any, promotions they will be running.

Thanks! I enjoy doing photography and I am very handy with a camera. So when I go out to compare these lights I want everything setup the same. Same shutter, ISO, white balance, aperture, focus, etc. It really shows the difference.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, OSUAV8TER said:

No, not this year unfortunately. The virtual stuff last year was because of Covid and because they cancelled both SnF and Oshkosh. I plan to be at Oshkosh this year but I do not know what kind, if any, promotions they will be running.

Thanks! I enjoy doing photography and I am very handy with a camera. So when I go out to compare these lights I want everything setup the same. Same shutter, ISO, white balance, aperture, focus, etc. It really shows the difference.

Yes James I think I’ve seen other pictures of your V tail here and there - looks like it should be on a Flying cover. Or a calendar.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/9/2021 at 5:53 AM, OSUAV8TER said:

Here are photos of a PAR-36 WAT Parmetheus Pro versus an Aerolite. These were taken with the exact same camera settings with a little post editing to correct the color balance because the Pro has a more blue-ish color to it versus the Aerolite so it through the white balance off a little bit. A PAR-46 Parmetheus Plus is $300 and a PAR-46 Parmetheus Pro is $599.99. I have the Pro in both wings of my Bonanza and it is a phenomenal light.

Edit_WATPro.thumb.jpg.e517b60848a00b0403f5a7cfcb24dff8.jpg

Edit_Aerolite.jpg

So what kind of trade-in can I get on my Parmetheus? My new home has poor paint, and it's tough to see the runway at night.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, bradp said:

Yes James I think I’ve seen other pictures of your V tail here and there - looks like it should be on a Flying cover. Or a calendar.  

Thanks! Like many others, I'm very proud of my V tail! It's a project plane though :)  I'm always doing something with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Hank said:

So what kind of trade-in can I get on my Parmetheus? My new home has poor paint, and it's tough to see the runway at night.

I dont do trade ins but here is what I think they are worth resale used.

Parmetheus PAR-36 gen 1 - $50-$100

Parmetheus Plus PAR-36 gen 2 - $150-$175

Parmetheus PAR-46 gen 1 - $100-$150

Parmetheus PAR-46 gen 2 - $200-$225

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/7/2021 at 11:29 PM, PT20J said:

Landing lights can actually be a distraction at night. I used to teach night landings without using the landing lights. First, they light up the runway too close to your touchdown point and your eyes naturally go there which causes you to lose height perception. Second, you need to be comfortable landing at night without a landing light in case it fails (not infrequent for those airplanes with cowling-mounted incandescent bulbs).

Mooney's are difficult to full stall without a thud unless you get everything just perfect. At night with fewer visual cues, it's extra hard. Try using a soft field technique. I find it much easier to get pleasing night landings that way. Also, on short final look to the far end of the runway, but don't fixate on it. Keep your focus moving from side to side to take in more of the surrounding area, maybe +/- 15 deg left and right of the center line. It's a trick I learned flying seaplanes where there are fewer cues on the water. Doing this seems to give the brain more data to process the changing geometry of the runway lights and better judge height.

Skip

During my private training my instructor taught me that landing lights were more for recognition by others than as a visual aid for landing. The regs do not require a functioning landing light for night flight. All of us should be proficient at landing without landing lights. I’m not saying that I am but now I have the urge to find out.

Edited by Shadrach
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Shadrach said:

During my private training my instructor thought me that landing lights were more for recognition by others than as a visual aid for landing. The regs do not require a functioning landing light for night flight. All of us should be proficient at landing without landing lights. I’m not saying that I am but now I have the urge to find out.

I’d much rather land at an airport with functioning runway lights and no landing light than vice versa.  I’ve scrubbed a few landings when I couldn’t get the lights to light up on the PCL- not something I’m comfortable with.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, bradp said:

I’d much rather land at an airport with functioning runway lights and no landing light than vice versa.  I’ve scrubbed a few landings when I couldn’t get the lights to light up on the PCL- not something I’m comfortable with.  

I’m not sure if vice versa is legal. I’ll check the regs later. I wholly agree though. I pushed my luck flying to a destination that didn’t have landing lights. The facility closed at dusk. I arrived right at dusk. I could see the runway on downwind but it faded to almost nothing by the time I was on final. Some kind soul lit up the end of the runway with their headlights. I had an uneventful landing. When I turned around whoever had lit up the runway was gone. One of the dumber things I’ve done in an airplane...

Edited by Shadrach
Link to comment
Share on other sites

on landing without runway lights, can one get that setup with ATC for training? it’s common here to get in touch with controllers to throw some night landings without full lights set and practice with aircraft lights only: PAPI off, missing CL, missing RL, ALS off

Some instructors push this further to ask to switch everything off, bit daft without vertical guidance (GPS or ILS), not sure how much aircraft lights are useful for approach in darkness...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/12/2021 at 11:58 AM, Hank said:

So what kind of trade-in can I get on my Parmetheus? My new home has poor paint, and it's tough to see the runway at night.

The original Whelen Parmetheus are the reason I don't put much faith in the fact that a light is "FAA approved". I bought four of them in 2014, two landing and two taxi, and after hours of struggle to install them in the wings on an Encore, they put out so little light that I went back to the incandescent and sold the Parmetheus for half of what I paid. Very disappointing. I understand the second version were somewhat better. Whelen should have offered a goodwill gesture to the people that got stuck with the original Parmetheus. 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then there is flying the Garmin 1000 that as the sun went down slowly dimmed to nothing which was right about downwind.  So basically landed by engine noise level.   Found out later from a flight instructor to point the flashlight at the sensor to get it to brighten up again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As my instructor told me way back in 1977 all night landings are a crap shoot !!!!!  I’ve made some good ones byte have checked out the planes structural integrity a few times also. Safe flying to all and Sun n Fun was great yesterday 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

The original Whelen Parmetheus are the reason I don't put much faith in the fact that a light is "FAA approved". I bought four of them in 2014, two landing and two taxi, and after hours of struggle to install them in the wings on an Encore, they put out so little light that I went back to the incandescent and sold the Parmetheus for half of what I paid. Very disappointing. I understand the second version were somewhat better. Whelen should have offered a goodwill gesture to the people that got stuck with the original Parmetheus. 

I got my hands on a first generation Parmetheus taxi light so I am going to go do a photo comparison of it versus a second generation Parmetheus taxi light. I will post the results here. LED technology has come along way in the past decade. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, OSUAV8TER said:

I got my hands on a first generation Parmetheus taxi light so I am going to go do a photo comparison of it versus a second generation Parmetheus taxi light. I will post the results here. LED technology has come along way in the past decade. 

The Plus was released a couple months after I installed the original Parmetheus . . . . .

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.