Our Leading Edge landing Lights have been designed with specific things in mind.
First, you need a good, clean, adjustable installation, that is cost effective and puts the light where you want it. As with many certificated aircraft, we use a wing cutout that limits the light to forward and down output, not allowing the light to shine ‘up’ where it can interfere with the pilot’s peripheral vision in dark, hazy, or misty conditions. The larger cutout on the underside of the wing allows light to spill onto the Taxiway in front of the wings and to the sides.
Lights mounted in the wingtips tend to not address some of these considerations, with the added downside of blocking taxi light in front of the aircraft. This is a complaint that we hear often from builders who installed wing tip lights, and many report that they ‘wished they would have used a leading edge installation’.
One of the nicest benefits to our designs is the wide range of light options that are available to the builder. You can start with the lowest cost light, or even our ‘Installation Only’ kits without a lamp. From there we provide several very easy options, and ALL of our lights will easily ‘Upgrade’ to any of our newer Lamp options. You can even use different lamps in each wing, to balance performance and cost, while keeping the ‘appearance’ the same (ie Round 100w in the right wing and Round HID in the left).
This can be a critical factor for the builder. Pilots who were fine with one type of lamp may begin frequenting or move to an airport with a more basic or unlighted runway. With our lights it has been very easy for them to upgrade to the 100W and the HID Xenon 4″ Round lights. They report that the ability for them to scan and see the runway with these lights is amazing.
Many of the wing tip lights don’t have the option for a full sized lamp with as much output as the 4″ units, which can be limiting if a builder finds that their needs have changed.
