8KCAB 1996 Super Decathlon Lights

C

CaptCaveman

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Apr 5, 2018
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13
Just bought a 96 Super Decathlon....While the plane has a lot of ramp appeal during the day light..>I am looking to upgrade the night time lighting...Nav,strobes,landing light. Any suggestions?
 
An LED landing light is an easy first upgrade! Nice to be able to leave it on whenever you want without worrying about it burning out, and it also pulls next to no power. Oh, and it's much, much brighter. I have wingtip strobes, but I'll be replacing the nav light bulbs with LED's this summer.
 
LED landing lights have been around long enough now that they are a plug in replacement, no paperwork needed. As I understand it there are some non-certified bulbs out there that are dead ringers for the certified ones....YMMV.....available at Tractor Supply if I remember correctly but I'll check on that for all y'all

I was wondering if there are LED strobe systems that eliminate the power supply for the traditional strobes.
 
Landing Lights:

A buddy of mine put a "Hi-Lo Beam" LED from Larsen Lights on his plane. In aviation terms, they are dirt cheap - under $35 each! He absolutely raves about his "Hi-Lo" LED. Says it is much brighter than the old GE bulb, the "hi-beam" portion projects a lot better, and the "Lo-beam" part illuminates the taxi area far better. And when he bought his, they only had the 18W version available. Now they offer both 18W and 24W versions. The 24W one must be incredible!

On the Hi-Lo LEDs, there are three spades for wiring (2 positive and 1 negative), with the original idea that you would use a dual-position switch and wire one leg to the "hi" and one to the "lo" beams. But after consulting with Larsen, my friend who used these on a Rockwell Commander 114 (single landing light like the Citabria) used a "Y-jumper to connect the Hi and Lo posts together so that they both came on at the same time. Still well below the original bulb's wattage, and WOW it lights up the world! He used the "Owner maintenance" provision of the regs, and signed off the log entry as "Replaced PAR-36 landing light bulb with LED equivalent." When I do mine, that's what I'll use.

On that same page, Larsen also offer "Spot" (20º beam) and "Trapezoid" (60º "flat" beam) that roughly correspond to "Landing" (typically 10-15º beam) and "Taxi" (typically 40-60º beam) lights for your friends with both taxi and landing lights on their planes.

LED Position / Strobes:

The folks at uAvionics are just about to get their skyBeacon certified by the FAA. They are already shipping an "Experimental-only" version of this combination LED position light, ADS-B Out (UAT 978), and WAAS GPS position source that replaces the port-side position light, and fully meets the 2020 mandate for ADS/B, and sells for $1500.

An EAA friend of mine was a test customer for their experimental version, and he says it took (literally) less than 10 minutes to install and configure. You just remove the existing position light, connect the two position light wires to the SkyBeacon, then run the configuration app they provide via the App Store to tell is how long your wings are, what your transponder's ICAO code it, etc. Under 5 minutes, easy. No power supply other than the standard 12v wires for position lights. Turned on and off via the position light switch.

uAvionix are working on a "Certified" version of the SkyBeacon, expected to be available this year (cost around $2500-3000). They are in the final stages of the TSO / PMA process (expected 2Q18). This certified SkyBeacon will include everything the "Experimental" version has, plus a paired position light/ADS-B IN receiver in the right-wing. But the really cool thing is that both port and starboard units will also have certified LED strobe functionality!

That's pretty incredible to me: For under $3K (including installation) you could replace your position lights with LED, add wingtip strobe capability, AND meet the 2020 ADS/B mandate requirements, plus have a WAAS/GPS and ADS-B IN receiver for your handheld devices.

These uAvionix guys are newcomers to the GA scene, but they've been providing GPS and ADS-B to the military and drone markets all over the world, and are world-class technology leaders. They are the ones who created the "Scout" that ForeFlight now touts for low-cost ADS-B In capability. And, no, I'm not a stockholder, nor do I have any financial interest in these guys. (I wish!) I just got to see the experimental version at our last EAA meeting, and it was really cool to see how easy it was to add ADS/B by just swapping out the position light...

If I had not needed to replace my failing transponder anyway, I would have waited for this solution, instead of using the Appareo Stratus ESG to meet the mandate. I'm quite happy with the Appareo transponder, but the installed cost was a bit over $5K (my airplane's wiring was a mess).
 
That is all quite good news. If the $1500 deal is good enough for an experimental, why is it not good enough for us? The possibility of failure produces identical results.
Anybody know of a good source for simple LED lightbulbs? The automotive equivalent of the good old 1137 doesn't seem as bright as the old filament bulb.
 
These companies have a lot of LED bulb replacements, but I don't know if they offer an 1137... Sometimes you have to dig around a bit to find an equivalent LED...

1000bulbs.com
superbrightleds.com
 
Watch the low budget LEDs a friend of mine put in some cheap LED landing lights, and had his com radios full of static. I had the same issue with an osb port plugged into a lighter socket. Check your radios after any electronics install.
 
I can tell you the Larsen Lights PAR-36 "Hi-Lo" (~$30) work very well with zero noise. A buddy had several of them on his Commander 114, and they are amazing. He has the Hi and Lo wired to come on together, and they provide a nice long-range beam, while also providing a broad spread pattern for taxiing. It's on my list of things to do for my 7ECA.
 
Great info guys. Thanks...I am bumping this to the top to see if we get any more info...maybe some pics
 
JimParker256 said:
Landing Lights:

A buddy of mine put a "Hi-Lo Beam" LED from Larsen Lights on his plane. In aviation terms, they are dirt cheap - under $35 each! He absolutely raves about his "Hi-Lo" LED. Says it is much brighter than the old GE bulb, the "hi-beam" portion projects a lot better, and the "Lo-beam" part illuminates the taxi area far better. And when he bought his, they only had the 18W version available. Now they offer both 18W and 24W versions. The 24W one must be incredible!

On the Hi-Lo LEDs, there are three spades for wiring (2 positive and 1 negative), with the original idea that you would use a dual-position switch and wire one leg to the "hi" and one to the "lo" beams. But after consulting with Larsen, my friend who used these on a Rockwell Commander 114 (single landing light like the Citabria) used a "Y-jumper to connect the Hi and Lo posts together so that they both came on at the same time. Still well below the original bulb's wattage, and WOW it lights up the world! He used the "Owner maintenance" provision of the regs, and signed off the log entry as "Replaced PAR-36 landing light bulb with LED equivalent." When I do mine, that's what I'll use.

On that same page, Larsen also offer "Spot" (20º beam) and "Trapezoid" (60º "flat" beam) that roughly correspond to "Landing" (typically 10-15º beam) and "Taxi" (typically 40-60º beam) lights for your friends with both taxi and landing lights on their planes.

LED Position / Strobes:

The folks at uAvionics are just about to get their skyBeacon certified by the FAA. They are already shipping an "Experimental-only" version of this combination LED position light, ADS-B Out (UAT 978), and WAAS GPS position source that replaces the port-side position light, and fully meets the 2020 mandate for ADS/B, and sells for $1500.

An EAA friend of mine was a test customer for their experimental version, and he says it took (literally) less than 10 minutes to install and configure. You just remove the existing position light, connect the two position light wires to the SkyBeacon, then run the configuration app they provide via the App Store to tell is how long your wings are, what your transponder's ICAO code it, etc. Under 5 minutes, easy. No power supply other than the standard 12v wires for position lights. Turned on and off via the position light switch.

uAvionix are working on a "Certified" version of the SkyBeacon, expected to be available this year (cost around $2500-3000). They are in the final stages of the TSO / PMA process (expected 2Q18). This certified SkyBeacon will include everything the "Experimental" version has, plus a paired position light/ADS-B IN receiver in the right-wing. But the really cool thing is that both port and starboard units will also have certified LED strobe functionality!

That's pretty incredible to me: For under $3K (including installation) you could replace your position lights with LED, add wingtip strobe capability, AND meet the 2020 ADS/B mandate requirements, plus have a WAAS/GPS and ADS-B IN receiver for your handheld devices.

These uAvionix guys are newcomers to the GA scene, but they've been providing GPS and ADS-B to the military and drone markets all over the world, and are world-class technology leaders. They are the ones who created the "Scout" that ForeFlight now touts for low-cost ADS-B In capability. And, no, I'm not a stockholder, nor do I have any financial interest in these guys. (I wish!) I just got to see the experimental version at our last EAA meeting, and it was really cool to see how easy it was to add ADS/B by just swapping out the position light...

If I had not needed to replace my failing transponder anyway, I would have waited for this solution, instead of using the Appareo Stratus ESG to meet the mandate. I'm quite happy with the Appareo transponder, but the installed cost was a bit over $5K (my airplane's wiring was a mess).
Click to expand...

I was just visiting with the Skybeacon folks at a fly-in but was not there with my Scout. Anyone know if their wing or tail template fits American Champion? I won't be back with my airplane for a couple months and thinking of getting one or the other.
 
I believe you can download a template for the wingtip "device" from their web site, along with their installation guide. Both can be found on this page: uAvionix
 
My Decathlon has what seems to be a standard Grimes light mount, and I believe it came from the factory that way. It currently has Whelen Comet strobes. I think the uavionics part was designed for this standard base. Not sure. A friend is going to do a Cherokee with the same light mount. I may be the signatory.

I am waiting until the deadline. I will fly my Cub from Jan to June 2020, then decide on a $2000 upgrade for the Dec.
 
Yeah. That appears to be standard Grimes. Remove your outer case and don't drop the lens ($35). Then look at the three mounting screws on the inner plate. Should be a triangle - 1" vertically, with the apex aft 1 3/4" from the vertical two. If you see that, you have the correct mount.

The big deal caution - applies to me - do not hook a high poweredlead to the strobe. If you haveq a strobe transformer in the cockpit, beware!
 
Whelan Orion 650 LED position/anti-collision lights. Best part is yanking out the ridiculous 3lb strobe power supply.

IMG_20200916_151630.webp
 
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