I don't generally fly at night, but I do occasionally get caught out late so would like to have something to illuminate the instruments. My 180 no longer has the two red bug eyed panel lights on the cabin ceiling fixture, just a cabin (map) light. It does have a pair of (inop) Grimes lights mounted on the upper door posts, but even if they worked that looks like it wouldn't be too great for lighting the instruments anyway.
Been thinking about how to approach this problem, and discovered the "Pilot Light Pro" sold by Spruce and others. It's powered by a pair of AA batteries and Velcro's (or whatever) to the cabin ceiling, with two banks of LED lights (red, blue, or green) for the instruments plus (I think) a cabin light on the bottom-- sort of a modernized version of the old Cessna overhead lighting fixture. I could attach a plate to the cabin light box to cover the hole in the headliner, and to provide a spot to attach the new light.
Does anyone have any experience with these units? Or have any other ideas for panel lighting? I don't have a glare shield so there's nowhere to mount the lighting strips which I've seen for sale, besides I'm not so sure that a light along the top of the panel would properly illuminate the face of the instruments. And I'm not interested in post lights or surround-type lighting for each instrument either.

I have a headlamp with both white and red lights. Works great, the light follows my head movement and I keep it turned down to the dash so it won't reflect off the windscreen. I have heard of headsets that have a light built in to the boom,but have not tried one.
DENNY

I'm kind of a light junky, so take these thoughts with a grain of salt.

I have Nulites around several instruments, which have the effect of internal lighting--and they are great. They are also relatively inexpensive. The installation must be signed off by an IA--I think my IA charged me an hour time to install them, so they can't be too difficult to install. http://www.nulite.net/

I have a Flitelite Gen II boom mic light on my headset. They work well, but the switching using one's lips is problematic. They're nice because they shine where I'm looking. I had the coin battery option, but lost part of it during my seaplane training last July, so I reverted to the AAA battery box. I'll stick with that, because there's a tiny bit of power drain which drains coin batteries if they're not unplugged--the AAAs last a lot longer. http://www.flitelite.com/

I also have a Glovelite, which is now available from Sporty's, too. It's a flashlight that can't be dropped, since it's worn like a glove. It lights well, but it's too bright using the standard battery--best to replace that with one which is half the voltage. http://glovelite.com/ http://www.sportys.com/PilotShop/product/16334

Lots of people use headlamps--many types at your friendly local sporting goods store, many with red lenses and the ability to change brightness. I'm not fond of wearing a headband, so I've never used a headlamp except when camping, but not while flying.

I also have a pen/flashlight, which I bought from Myron's, an office doodad store which mostly sells pens as gifts for clients. I doubt that they can be bought one at a time. It's handy for writing clearances in the dark, but its batteries don't last very long.

I have a military style lighted kneeboard--works well.

I also have other flashlights of various kinds, including my first RayOVac Dcell flashlight I bought when I started flying lessons 42 years ago.

Cary

Thought about a headlamp, I have one which I used when I was still working (construction). Also thought about a lamp which clips onto the bill of a ball cap. Kinda want something a little more official than that.
I took anther look at the overhead light fixture today. I think the cabin-light-only thing I have is a standard Cessna cabin-light-plus-panel-lights piece with the forward (panel light) end wacked off. Checked the IPC and it looks lke the standard piece uses grimes torpedo lights inside of it for panel lights. I'm gonna scout around and see I can come up with a stock Cessna overhead panel light of some sort. They had several over the years.

The overhead light works, but not well. By the time you turn it up high enough to see the gauges, it's too bright and screws up night vision, I think. That's why I had the Nulites installed, and I really recommend them. That allows me to keep the lights turned down to a reasonable level and still see the gauges.

Cary

I have the ceiling mounted light and it sucks. Thanks for the link to the nulites Cary, I'll be installing them.

David

I know you said you dont want instrument lights, but damn... they sure are awesome. I installed UMA bezels around each of my instruments and flying in the dark is a hoot. Ive been up a bunch of nights in the past week and they were soooo worth it. And as mentioned... not difficult to install.

This is an old pic, but you get the idea... I have since also installed a 1/2 UMA srtip light just under the sub panel which floods the floor and the flap tunnel. Now I can see the trim setting along with anything that might get dropped. Kinda gluttonous I know, but really cool.

hotrod180 wrote:Thought about a headlamp, I have one which I used when I was still working (construction). Also thought about a lamp which clips onto the bill of a ball cap. Kinda want something a little more official than that.
I took anther look at the overhead light fixture today. I think the cabin-light-only thing I have is a standard Cessna cabin-light-plus-panel-lights piece with the forward (panel light) end wacked off. Checked the IPC and it looks lke the standard piece uses grimes torpedo lights inside of it for panel lights. I'm gonna scout around and see I can come up with a stock Cessna overhead panel light of some sort. They had several over the years.

I would check with Skywagon City. Last time I was on their site I saw a lot of old cabin lights and the torpedo lights that came on many old Cessnas.

http://skywagoncity.com/index.php/elect ... ap-lights/

My 1978 International Scout had better dash lighting than the majority of airplanes I've flown. Even the high dollar ones. Pretty pathetic until you tweak 'em a bit.

On that note, those Nulites look like a way to go. My credit card thanks you.

Gump

For sure, having decent panel lighting and more useful flashlights makes night flights easier and more comfortable. I've always enjoyed flying at night, but the panel lighting of most airplanes truly sucks. I've never understood why gauge manufacturers don't all have internal lighting, but since many don't, Nulites are certainly the next best way to go. Post lights are a distant 3rd--every airplane I've flown with post lights was annoying, because the darned things would loosen and either flicker or go off, so it seemed like much of any night flight was spent twisting them to get them to stay on for awhile.

Cary

DENNY wrote:I have a headlamp with both white and red lights. Works great, the light follows my head movement and I keep it turned down to the dash so it won't reflect off the windscreen. I have heard of headsets that have a light built in to the boom,but have not tried one.
DENNY

X2. I've got Enirgizer headlamps. One has 1 Red LED and the other has 2 Red LEDs. Battery life with the lights on are over 50 hours.

I have a little bit more liberty in what I can do with an experimental, but I wanted something to satisfy lighting requirements, and not hardwired as I don't see using it a lot. I keep the RAM light, which has a red and white lens cap, in my panel chart box and plug it into the cigarette plug I put on the glare shield of my Zenith 750 for charging SAT phones, etc. Seems to work great, and the price is about right at $6.

I have a standard cap that has two small led's built right into the front of the cap. You can hardly see them and to turn them on you just reach up and sqeeze the brow in a certain spot and that operates a small hidden switch. The hat stays in the plane and it is my standard flying hat. Works good for me when I come home a little late. A trapper friend of mine has one as well. He says it is great when you are working with beaver at night because it leaves both your hands free and you can still see what you are doing.

With some of the night-time beaver work in my past, I was glad I couldn't see it.

Yup.... An old basic rule.

"Go ugly early, and you'll never go without."

Gump

Zenithguy wrote:....... I wanted something to satisfy lighting requirements, and not hardwired as I don't see using it a lot. I keep the RAM light, which has a red and white lens cap, in my panel chart box and plug it into the cigarette plug I put on the glare shield of my Zenith 750 for charging SAT phones, etc. Seems to work great, and the price is about right at $6.....

That looks like a great solution. Keep it in the glove box until needed, then just plug it in. My 180 has a centrally-located cig lighter, a flexy light there could serve to illuminate anywhere on the whole panel (but probably not the whole panel at once). Is there any provision for dimming the light(s), or is it a get what you get kinda deal? Is the lighting with the red cover in place about right for night flying?

That looks like a great solution. Keep it in the glove box until needed, then just plug it in. My 180 has a centrally-located cig lighter, a flexy light there could serve to illuminate anywhere on the whole panel (but probably not the whole panel at once). Is there any provision for dimming the light(s), or is it a get what you get kinda deal? Is the lighting with the red cover in place about right for night flying?

There's only an on-off switch, no dimming. My 750 has not flown yet, but when I'm sitting in my dark hanger and pretending, the light seems about right for me. I though if it was too bright I could attach a piece of red film, but it seems ok without it. You can't beat it for $6, even as a secondary light source, and it's made by RAM, a good quality company.

bigrenna wrote:I know you said you dont want instrument lights, but damn... they sure are awesome. I installed UMA bezels around each of my instruments and flying in the dark is a hoot. Ive been up a bunch of nights in the past week and they were soooo worth it. And as mentioned... not difficult to install.

This is an old pic, but you get the idea... I have since also installed a 1/2 UMA srtip light just under the sub panel which floods the floor and the flap tunnel. Now I can see the trim setting along with anything that might get dropped. Kinda gluttonous I know, but really cool.

I really like these Greg, and I see you can get them in red as well. My eyes would like that better. Just wondering where you ordered them and if they were easy to install?

David

Turns out that due to the location, that cig lighter gizmo wouldn't shine all the great on the instruments-- plus it would conflict with the throttle prop & mix knobs. Those light strips look good, unfortunately I would have to fabricate a overhanging glareshield to mount them.
Several years ago, I remember someone marketing a small red-lensed flashlight which came along with a peel-n-stick swiveling mount, intended for cabin/panel lighting. Checked my brand new Spruce catalog yesterday but nothing like that in there.

A1Skinner wrote:
I really like these Greg, and I see you can get them in red as well. My eyes would like that better. Just wondering where you ordered them and if they were easy to install?

David

David,

I ordered them from right from Spruce and they are very easy to install. FYI, I used UMA not Nulite. I actually started with the Nulite and did some testing with both... Ended up returning the Nulite as I felt the UMA were a better light IMO. Also, they do come in the different colors, but the "aviation white" is the only "approved" color (if being "legal" is something you care about.)

I installed the UMA dimmer for both the glareshield light and inst lights. In retrospect, I would not do the dimmer and just install a SPST switch as I have been flying with all the lights at full brightness. The white are nice and easy on the eyes.