Landing light location kf5

Has anyone mounted led light bar under fuse, attached in front of grove gear? Would this give you enough coverage,rock damage,?

Gizmos,

Mine is a 7; however, Series 5 & 7 are basically the same fuselage, etc.

I have the lights (taxi & Landing) mounted on the landing gear just inboard on each side of the rocker mount for the gear. These are Halogens, but not that different in size from an LED bar. See attached photo.

The one on the port side needs an occasional cleaning of the lens because the engine crankcase vent is nearly in front of it - otherwise no problems in 4 years of flying (which does include more than a few non-paved runways).

One postscript....with the radiator duct where it is, if the lights were mounted directly in front of the gear (mine are just below it) and anywhere other than the corners, the radiator duct would block a portion of the light beam.

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF7 Trigear

I have a detachable light bar that connects to the float attach points on my series 5. I mount three lights on it. Two 2.5" fogs on the ends, and a 6" dia
spotlight in the center. Ole N85AE looks like a 747 on approach, as I have
wingtip lights as well. The center spot light comes from one of the RV offroad
shops like you usually see on top of offroad 4x4's. The drag is negligible
and I can't tell when it's on in flight.

I use clevis pins, and a quick connect plug to hook it up, and can get it on
in about 2 minutes. The lights are fed through a relay which is connected
to the battery through a fuse, and switched by my normal landing lights
switch.

I rarely ever use it though as I live just outside Chicago, and losing an
engine at night ... There are no options except prayer for landing safely
without hitting something like a house, or worse.

Regards,
Jeff Hays

Here's a pic where you can see the light hanging under the plane. If you look
closely you can see the small end lights as well.

Regards,
Jeff

Jeff,

What has been your experience/opinion about how much light the center spot light generates? How far down the runway does it illuminate on approach/landing?

Thanks,

Dave S

I helped a guy finish a Series 5 Outback and this is what Larry decided on. The two light modules are mounted slightly offset - one being taxi and one being landing. We were able to heat form a section of Lexan to form a lens that fit the cowl curvature. I should mention that the FWF was a Series 7 version.
Lowell

Short Answer: Well ... If there were a deer at the far end of the runway I'm sure
I'm would see him ... AT least his eyes ... :)

Longer Answer:

Using the float attach points as a light bar mount is to me the simplest way to
get lots of light on the plane fast.

My blunt and candid opinion of wingtip lights - They suck. At least after I flew
with a big belly mounted light for a while that is.

My center spot light is 100W Halogen, the outer fogs are 40W halogen, and the wingtip
lights are the Skystar kit wingtip lights. This is 5 forward facing halogen lights. The
belly mounted light is so much better than the wingtip lights if I built the plane over
I would not waste time on the wingtip lights. The belly has a big advantage that you
get a LOT of reflected light under the plane which helps a lot on landing as you can
see runway in your peripheral vision. Which is a big deal in a taildragger.

The center spot light is at a compromise aiming angle, I set it so it illuminates straight
ahead, and a touch up when the plane is in a 3pt attitude, anyway when I am close
to the runway with all the lights going I can light up the runway enough to be
impressive to the Cessna drivers out doing night practice. :)

The fog lights act as filler, and light up pretty much what the spot light doesn't.

It's drawing enough amps that I have a separate fuse and relay for the belly
bar plugin, not sure what size alternator the Rotax has but my IO-240 has a
stout enough alternator for it.

Regards,
Jeff Hays

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