Tail lights

[High Country 69]

I'm working to make my Avid night legal. mostly for safety to just be seen better. I already made the necessary changes to the wingtips and wiring for the nav lights so good there. what I'm working on now is the light on top of the vertical stabilizer. there doesn't seem to be too much out there that I can find on this. I know some of you are running one how is it mounted and faired in to look nice and be aerodynamically clean? I see this for a mount seems easy enough to add in. or is there something else that would be better? also still looking for an LED light to go here.pics of what some of you have done would be great. 

Thanks Robert 

Edited 21 Nov 2014 by High Country

[EDMO 1078]

Spruce has replacement LED bulbs, but they are priced too high, like $32 each? - I tried to find some cheap LED bulbs on ebay some time ago, and think I found some that are single contact and might work - been so long I have forgotten, but think they had 9 LEDs on them for back-up lights.

Not real sure that any of them are "legal", but who is going to challenge them?

EdMO

Edited 23 Nov 2014 by Ed In Missouri

[akflyer 1427]

I have a strobe on the top of my vert.  I drilled a hole in the tube for the wires and then used structural adhesive and 2 sheet metal screws to mount and fair in a flat plate for the strobe mount.  5 yrs of living outside and beating the snow and ice off it and she is good as the day I put it on.  I dont have any good pics of it but can try to remember to get some when I get home from work in a couple weeks.

 

[High Country 69]

pics would be great. I'm still very open to ideas. I found some nice lights by Aveo Engineering but wow such a big price tag for such a small part. I'm looking at these http://www.crazedpilot.com/bullet-led-tiny-high-output-landing-strobe-light/now.I could put a couple on in different areas and still afford lunch afterwards. what do you guys think anyone have experience with them.

[EDMO 1078]

Robert,
I have the crazedPilot Wig-Wag lights but have never used them, and someone else on here has used them and liked them. They are not landing lights!
As far as the bullet light - I bought 2 similar lights and tried to post some photos of them on the technical section some time ago - they don't put out much light, and you sure wouldn't come close to being "legal" for night flights with them.
Hope this helps.
I think I have a Grimes? tail light I could sell, but have to check on it - maybe not? - don't have the weld-in mount, but you can buy it from Spruce or Wicks. If I can find the light and have an LED bulb that fits, I would include it.  I cant fly at night on my drivers license anyway.

AFTERTHOUGHT:  If you find a pair of position lights with the rear-facing white light, then you don't need a light on the tail to be legal.
EDMO

Edited 23 Nov 2014 by Ed In Missouri

[High Country 69]

These http://www.extremetacticaldynamics.com/catalog/led-hideaway-p-93.htmlare still a bit pricey but a lot cheaper than the "aircraft" ones. Still looking for pictures of how others have mounted and fared them in

[High Country 69]

Well I finally received my strobe light but they forgot to send the mount and cover for it I may just fabricate one. I'm hoping to have my tail lit soon. so far my impressions of this light are good. seems well made very small, contains 3 sides of LED's with a total of 9 bulbs. the controller is pretty small so I hope it will not be too difficult to feed down through the vertical stabilizer and up to the front of the plane. it has 4 wires. hot, negative, one for setting the strobe pattern (19 options) and one for tying it to other lights if you wanted to (may tie to wingtip strobes at some point). I'm cutting the fabric off the top of the tail down to the first cross tubing that goes fore/aft then cut top tubing where it ties into the vertical tube where the rudder hinges are. this is where I'm welding in the mount. I hope this will give me enough room to feed the wires down and back up the fuselage. then I will just have this small piece of fabric to replace and once the tape is across the seam at the structural tubing it should look like I never touched it when I'm done. I plan to put aluminum foil on everything around the area before welding to keep from seeing the magic smoke  I may gas weld it to reduce the sparks if i still have any acetylene left. I will take pics next week and keep you all posted on the progress. 

 

p.s. still looking for pics of how others have faired the light back into the tail. 

[EDMO 1078]

I don't have any photos, but we just glued the fabric around the inside of the bare taillight mount, ironing out any wrinkles and when we shrank the fabric it just all blended in nicely.

EDMO

[High Country 69]

Almost completed the taillight install- till I ran out of Stewarts glue with only the finish tapes to go grrr. 

[SuberAvid 617]

I replaced my rudder tail light with an LED strob tail light from Z Tron labs.  It fits the standard mount, is self contained and the strob flash patterns are programable or can be synced with your other strobes if you have a trace wire.  Google them.

[High Country 69]

Update, the tail is covered and eko fill complete, I'm going to fly it gray until summer when the weather is warmer for painting. just have to get the light bolted on and wiring hooked up. FWIW this was a much easier project than I had expected it to be. I'm happy with the results so far. 

[akflyer 1427]

Looks good!  I will check into that LED strobe, mine just fried so I need to order up a replacement bulb, it may be more cost effective to go LED.  I will see if I can get the pic of the tail mount off my phone.