They are pretty slick. They work MARVELOUSLY! My buddy Dave has them for his -8 which is in the fuselage stage right now. I am astonished as to how bright they are!
I am leaning towards installing them too. Does anyone have any experience installing and using them?
No experience with them except that I've corresponded with Bill Von Dane for years and he's a good guy. If he's putting the product out you can bet it's good. If'n it ain't he'll make it good. If my plane didn't already have holes in the wings, I'd put those puppies on my plane.
I am a definately a function over appearance guy, but what of the unfinished appearance of the circuit board? I am thinking of perhaps doing something like darkening the sides of the outer lens in either red or green (port and starboard respectively) to diminish the visibility of the circuit boards.
Can you think of a means? I know that the people who make windshields for boats have that capability.
CJ
RV-7
Garmin G3X with VP-X & a TMX-IO-360 with G3i
It's all over but the flying! 800+ hours in only 3 years!
These lights look like would flash real bright. I would caution about real bright strobes for night operations, if they are installed in such a way that the light can bounce off the ground where the pilot can see it. I had such an installation on a Cessna 120 several years ago. The reflected light off the ground completely destroyed my ability to guage my height from the ground while landing. After almost crashing the plane on the first two landings, I turned the strobe off when I first started getting bounce from the ground. End of problem.
Captain_John wrote:I am a definately a function over appearance guy, but what of the unfinished appearance of the circuit board? I am thinking of perhaps doing something like darkening the sides of the outer lens in either red or green (port and starboard respectively) to diminish the visibility of the circuit boards.
Can you think of a means? I know that the people who make windshields for boats have that capability.
CJ
I've seen them on one finished airplane and I admit they do look a little odd. Kind of gives your airplane that geeky look. I work in the computer industry though so they probably don't bother me as much. They definately light up the place when on though.
It's important to note that the picture above is showing two CreativeAir products (well, one CreativAir product and another that they resale). Anyway, the hologen landing/taxi lights are the CreativeAir product and the LED's are another product. You don't have to use the LED's with that landing light. I've seen a couple of RV's that have the landing lights but regular (as in the standard Van's lighting kit) stuff.
These are interesting, will look into them more when the time comes. The circuit boards do look out of place, but I think he has this covered. This is from his website.
"These prototype boards use surface mount components soldered to the front so you can see them, but the production boards will be surface mounted to the back, and the front of the boards can be painted to match your aircraft."
collecting tools, planning shop, studying -9A preview plans, old and new training project on hand, fabricating stiffeners.
dirtmanf800
Just finished doing my Creative LED Nav lites with the 75 watt Halogen beaming throught the middle. Also have the strobes out in front. The circuit board is buried in behind the LED board, inside the tip cavity, and fiberglassed onto the back of the LED board with epoxy. My installation went pretty well untill I soldered one of the control circuit boards on the front of the LED board by mistake. OOOOOPS!! I learned how to desolder multiple pins right after this.
Anyway, these LED boards are very bright, and so are the strobes which alternate synched quad flashes with the tail strobe.
There is a WIG-WAG flasher unit that is available with the landing lights also. For our little birds, the flasher might be a good idea. I've used them on a few 737s and they work very well. Strangely, the flashing lights do NOT burn out faster than steady lighting?? Go figure.
Cheers, Pete
Peter Marshall
Newbie RV-8 builder.
You wanna draw, ....against the fastest rivet gun in the West??? LOL
CJ
CJ
CJ