Landing lights

[Nathaniel]

Anyone put lights in the leading edge of the wing? How'd you do it?

[Nathaniel]

Tips? Must have missed that in the catalog. Thanks

[Nathaniel]

Excellent! Thanks for the link.

[jonbakerok]

I don't know how much use wingtip landing lights would be with such a long wing. I had one leading edge light in my RV6 in the second bay from the tip and it was just about useless. All I could see was the runway edge markers. I always missed the cowl-mounted light in my Cherokee. Since I've got the "smooth cowl", I've been thinking I might try to figure out some way to put a light in the cowl this time.

[Nathaniel]

Seems awfully difficult to put one in the leading edge with that spar. Like to have something for at nite. Tip may be enough, I dunno.

[Dave S]

Nathaniel,

People have used many ways to mount landing/taxi lights. Appearance wise and drag wise - the leading edge or wingtip mounts are great - for a kitfox we are pretty much limited to wing tips......

I couldn't bring myself to mount them in the nose cowling - brings back memories of Cessna nose mounts which seemed real good at euthanizing lots of bulbs. Told the FBO that if they ever managed to keep the landing light alive - they would have to do a check-out flight on me to see if I was able to land the plane at night WITH landing lights.....

Our aircraft has halogens mounted in the armpits of the landing gear - see attached photos. Mounting them is exceptionally easy in this case; although, some would make the argument that they add drag in this location (probably does).

Dave S

[jonbakerok]

Seems awfully difficult to put one in the leading edge with that spar. Like to have something for at nite. Tip may be enough, I dunno.

You could stick it on the front of the LE, but it would add a lot of drag and might mess up the trim. I agree, the leading edge is the wrong place. I just don't know how much a wingtip light would help.

The fact that someone sells them doesn't mean they work. That "Duckworks" light I had on my RV has been on the market for 20 years, but any light that is recessed into the leading edge is going to be blocked from illuminating the centerline. Tip lights have the same problem, only worse, since they're farther away. I guess anything is better than nothing and they do serve the most important purpose of making you more visible to others. But I'd just like to actually be able to SEE what I'm landing on.

Another idea I had was to put one on a lift strut at the intersection with cabanes. That's already a high-drag area, so if you made a pod to fair it in, it might not hurt performance much. But that's my backup position. I'm hoping there's room in the cowl.