From: CavittP@aol.com
Message-ID: <66701a98.3603b57a@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 09:45:30 EDT
To: lancair.list@olsusa.com
Subject: Landing Lights
Mime-Version: 1.0

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While building my L-235/320 I saw some very small and extremely bright lights
on a couple of other's Lancairs in my area, and decided then and there to do
something similar to mine.

I've got a taxi light on my nose gear and a landing/pulse light in each of the
wings leading edges.  The fixtures were obtained at an electrical supply house
and the lights I got at Home Depot.  The flashing unit is from a commercial
vehicle lighting shop, and are usually found on ambulances and police cars
used to pulse their headlights.

The fixtures are QLV-1 projector light fixtures.  The lights are GE 12V 50W -
one flood for the taxi light and two spots for the landing/pulse lights.
These lights are "very" bright and provide more than adequate lighting for
night operations as well as collision avoidance.

The taxi light is wired through a relay to my gear switch so when it is placed
in the up position the taxi light is de-energized so there is no chance that
excessive heat buildup in the nose gear well could cause a fire.  I do try to
remember to turn off the taxi light after takeoff, so the relay setup is just
in case.  

The pulse lights are very effective and I have a DPDT center off switch to go
back and forth between landing lights and pulse lights as required.  The
switch is oriented in such a way that when I place the gear lever in the up
position, the adjacent light switch also goes in the up position for "in-
flight" pulse lights.  When the gear switch goes to the down "ground"
position, so does the adjacent light switch for ground illumination.  Of
course I have to move the switch manually... but you get the idea - a
procedural thing.

If anybody is interested I can dig up the exact part numbers and pass them
along.

Pete Cavitt - N320PL
619-283-7473