Tail position light

[Maverick]

What are you using for a tail light. Certified lights are so expensive it would seem that there is some alternative. Is anyone using off the shelf parts to make a tail light?

[ken nougaret]

No tail light. Using a 3 in 1 wing tip lights, nav/white aft/strobe. But they are certified whelans. I fly out of class B at night sometimes.

[jiott]

I am using the Whelan Microburst III (Non-certified) wingtip lights. As Ken said they have a white light that shows from the rear so no other tail light is required.

[Dave S]

I am using 3 in 1 wing tip lights, nav/white aft/strobe from Aeroflash. These are noncertificated units using certified incandescent position and white bulbs.

At the time the aircraft received its airworthiness certificate, the DAR would not accept noncertified LEDs unless I first proved compliance with light quality (wavelength) and quantity (brightness) for the LEDs. He was fine with non certified units as long as the actual bulbs were conventional aircraft lights.

Today I think a person is in a better position to ulilize the LED position lights as they are more widely accepted. The big deal between LED and incandescents is the power draw. I'd say get the LEDs if you can.

The Areoflash setup could utilize either a single power unit for the strobes in the fuselage, or a separate power unit in each wingtip for the strobes - I didn't like the idea of running a high voltage line from the power unit in the fuselage past the fuel tanks. I ended up with double flash separate power units in each wing.

In any case, the wing 3 in 1 are the way to go to avoid wiring out to the tail and avoid the negative W/B impact of extra weight in the tail.

[colospace]

I'm not using it, but I believe Kitfox offers a really sweet looking housing that they had on a plane at OSH a couple of years ago. I think it used an AeroLed light and that maybe Brandon was its creator.

[efwd]

Aeroled Pulsar NSP. No Tail light needed.

[PapuaPilot]

This tail light/ADSB was just announced at the AEA conference this week. It is an ADSB out (with antenna/ WAAS GPS, etc.) and LED tail nav light all in one package. They say it is as close as you can get for plug and play for an ADSB unit. It looks like the price is going to be $2000 or less.

uAvionix also makes one like the tail unit that goes on the left wingtip, it is available $1499 for experimental planes.

FYI I am using the Aveo Powerburst 3 in 1 LED wingtip lighting in my plane. The Kitfox does not have the mounting plate for a rudder light and it was so much easier to install the 3 in1 lights.