Flashing landing lights.

[flying dog]

Ok, I've seen the "new" Planes which have flashing landing lights.

 

Supposedly to scare the birds.

 

Question:

 

Is that another setting or is it a different "function" of the Landinglights switch?

 

As in:

 

Are there:

 

Off, On, Flashing.

 

Or is it just OFF, ON. But the ON is either (depending on the plane) ON or flashing.

 

 

[Ultralights]

a flashing light is more visible to to ther pilots than a solid unflashing light! as for the switch setup, im have no idea. but i would imagine landing at night with pulsating landing lights would be quite distracting!

 

 

[kaz3g]

No idea but it would need more than a different switch to avoid blowing fuses and globes, I think. Are you sure it is the landing lights that are flashing and not strobes?

 

kaz

 

 

[flying dog]

Yeah. I was watching the commercial busses landig at Sydney and their landing lights were alternating left/right.

 

 

[Ultralights]

they work well, makes picking out the aircraft easier and faster when they are pulsating, its mandatory in Alaska now. easily see how effective it is here

 

 

 

[dunlopdangler]

Great for increasing recognition, you can get either a landing light with a strobe function included or a flashing relay wired into the landing light circuit..when you have two alternating light sources you hardly notice the pulses on landing...

 

 

[Powerin]

You can buy a module to do this. It's called a Wigwag in the US....not sure if it's called the same here.

 

Here's one example: http://www.periheliondesign.com/wigwagmnl.htm

 

And here's an extremely poor quality video of an Airvan taking off from our farm with one operating:

 

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

I've seen it on wing mounted landing lights of one twin. It really did draw my attention to it.

 

I imagine that using LED lights would be preferable, since QI lamps will have severely shortened life being switched this many times at this rate.

 

One time I had a car headlamp that kept blowing every few weeks. Finally traced it to a chattering relay contact. You could not even see the effect in the light strength, but it certainly killed the globes quickly. Replacing the relay fixed the problem and the lamp then in the vehicle lasted for years afterwards.

 

 

[Guest Tsemler]

I brought this wig wag flasher can off ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ALTERNATING-EMERGENCY-POLICE-WIGWAG-HEADLIGHT-FLASHER-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem43a547c48eQQitemZ290535752846QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

 

Wired her into my little spotlights on the gyro, setup a relay for the switch and its good as the expensive brand ones and you really stand out.

 

 

[Ferris]

LED's are very directional, ie if you are just a few degrees away from the centre of the beam, their effectiveness reduces significantly. The emergency services have used flashing headllights for years without too many problems. Cheers Ferris.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

Using a switch or relay will shorten the life of incandescent lamps significantly. The way to go is with electronic switching (which presumably the wig-wag is) which is soft switching - it dims the lamp significantly during the off phase but does not extinguish it completely thus keeping the filament warm and the on phase has a slight ramp up to full voltage. Of course LED's are much less sensitive to switching and wouldn't be too bothered with a relay switch as long as any voltage spikes are damped.

 

 

[winsor68]

I have heard that flashing landing lights was an Australian innovation... apparently.

 

 

[Brett]

I've seen them advertised in the Narva catalogue as well ,,not sure on the price or part no. however

 

 

[eightyknots]

I have heard that flashing landing lights was an Australian innovation... apparently.

Hi Winsor68: I'm interested in your statement. Do you happen to know when they were first used in Oz?

 

 

[Yenn]

There will be a 3 way switch to control them. Steady light - off - flashing.

 

Mostly they are controlled by electronic switching and there is a device which limits inrush current. It has a high initial resistance which lowers as it heats up and gives a much gentler start for each globe. I can't remember what it is called.

 

 

[winsor68]

Hi Winsor68: I'm interested in your statement. Do you happen to know when they were first used in Oz?

Ironically on the very day this thread popped up at the flying school a group of us were talking about Landing lights... and someone said that it was an Aussie innovation first used and discovered by Qantas... I am guessing fairly recently if this is the case because the only commercial aircraft I have seen so far with it are Qantas's fairly new Dash 8 400's.

 

That is all I know... and just what I heard.

 

 

[eightyknots]

I agree. The wig-wag landing lights really grab the attention of other aviators in the circuit. I think the authorities should give notice that, say, by 1st January 2020 all landing lights equiped aeroplanes should have the wig-wag facility fitted. This means that during the 2019 annual inspection they must be operational. I think that the cost wouldn't be that great if the landing lights are already in place on the aircraft.

 

Who knows how many lives this may save due to avoidance of mid-air collisions such as this one: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/two-dead-in-mid-air-collision-3673977

 

Of course, there are still a good number of aircraft that don't have two (or any) landing lights. Something has to be thought up (e.g. retro-fitting lights?) for them as well but, perhaps, over a longer time period.

 

What do others think??

 

 

[kaz3g]

How do you wigwag a single landing light?

 

kaz

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I had a flight today in a RV8 at Caboolture and wow what a nice aircraft...really fast too we were doing 160knots TAS. Trevor has wigwag fitted to its lights and I asked him this morning what he though of them after reading this thread yesterday and he told me many many pilots have commented on how well his aircraft stands out now certainly on approach . he told me it cost him $88.00 and was easy to fit into his existing lights it also has some special current monitoring for fast switching. Seems like a good idea for all aircraft to me

 

Here are some pics of the flight...it was awesome :)

 

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[ATTACH]11018[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eightyknots]

How do you wigwag a single landing light?kaz

I excluded one and zero landing light planes as per post No 19: "there are still a good number of aircraft that don't have two [that is, one] (or any [that is, zero]) landing lights. Something has to be thought up (e.g. retro-fitting lights?) for them as well but, perhaps, over a longer time period."

 

I hope that clears up the confusion.

 

 

 

[Yenn]

I have got Kitplanes magazines with flashers back in 1997, but the good one with an inrush current limiter is Jan 2000.

 

I didn't build one because of the problem of getting the Keystone CL-11 inrush limiter, which is supposedly available from mouser in the USA, but the freight costs for small orders from them are excessive.

 

 

[airangel]

Not sure about this. From somewhere, I understood that Flashing landing lights was a given sign to others that your radio was not operational. [As opposed to wig wag]

 

 

[gregrobertson]

I have had a flashing landing light on my Skyranger since I built it in 2006. I just used a standard automotive two pole flasher unit, with a three position switch Off, On and Flash. Very cheap and very efective I haven' had any globe failures in nearly 500 hours and it is on all the time, although I only use the flash setting in busy trafic areas. Any thing to make an aircraft more visable is a good thing.

 

Regards

 

Greg.

 

 

[kaz3g]

 

Hey Kaz if you have one it is call a wig; when you buy the second one its called a wag, then you have a wig wag!Sorry couldn't help myself.

 

David

Thank you, David... I was worried that if I installed one in my existing system it would flash twice as fast and I'd end up with a wigwarm.

 

kaz

 

 

[Guernsey]

Well, well, well, dear oh dear oh dear, stone the crows, holy mackerel or knock me down with a feather,

 

What are you guys doing to us???

 

This forum is begining to be very expensive indeed. Our Morgan Sierra ( not far off completion ) is to be fitted with all the bells and whistles and now we have to fit ' Flashing Lights '

 

Seriously folks a very good idea indeed and easily fitted whilst in the construction stage, thanks for all your valuable contributions.

 

Isn't this Forum absolutely FANTASTIC!

 

Alan.