Has anyone installed a pulselite module or Avtek Pulsar to have their landing light flash for visibility? Looking at both systems and looking for input from those that have them.

Thanks,
Travis

I have the Pulselite system on my P172D, flashing both the landing and taxi light at the same time (since they're side by side in the left wing, having them alternate would make them appear to be steady on all the time). I have HID lights, so it's recommended that I first turn them both on with the main switch, then turn on the Pulselite switch, wait 15 seconds for the power supplies to warm up, then shut off the main switch, which starts the pulsing.

They're slightly annoying at night, especially if there's a little haze in the air, but I feel safer using them night or day. I typically turn them on within 10 miles of any airport, and I turn them on if ATC advises of conflicting traffic. Others have reported that they make my airplane a lot more visible.

Cary

Cary wrote:I have the Pulselite system on my P172D, flashing both the landing and taxi light at the same time (since they're side by side in the left wing, having them alternate would make them appear to be steady on all the time). I have HID lights, so it's recommended that I first turn them both on with the main switch, then turn on the Pulselite switch, wait 15 seconds for the power supplies to warm up, then shut off the main switch, which starts the pulsing.

They're slightly annoying at night, especially if there's a little haze in the air, but I feel safer using them night or day. I typically turn them on within 10 miles of any airport, and I turn them on if ATC advises of conflicting traffic. Others have reported that they make my airplane a lot more visible.

Cary

Everyplane I flew at school in the 90's had them.. It's a must for me and getting it installed on a new possible air toy. I am trying to decide between the 2 systems on which one. I just found the MaxPulse system also...

I have a PreciseFlight Pulselight in two aircraft. Reliable, works well and less expensive than the Avtek. Frankly, I wouldn't do business with Avtek after the crap they sold for emergency standby power for GA.

That said, I wouldn't buy either at this point, as wig-wag function is included in some of the newer LED landing/taxi lights, check out AeroLeds stuff. Top rated by Aviation Consumer and amazingly bright. I replaced 4 landing and taxi lights on my Husky. With a projected lifespan of 50,000 hours, I leave them on wig-wag for all daytime flying.

Prior to this purchase, I did a comparison of the Q4509, a 55 watt HID, and the AeroLED 36HX on my hangar door. Both the HID and 36HX handily beat the quartz halogen in terms of light output. The 36HX was as bright as the HID, but the beam evenness and quality was better than the HID.

The LEDs have another major advantage over incandescent and HID, and that is in their very fast switching or rise time. This makes the lights more noticable in someone's peripheral vision.

bumper wrote:I have a PreciseFlight Pulselight in two aircraft. Reliable, works well and less expensive than the Avtek. Frankly, I wouldn't do business with Avtek after the crap they sold for emergency standby power for GA.

That said, I wouldn't buy either at this point, as wig-wag function is included in some of the newer LED landing/taxi lights, check out AeroLeds stuff. Top rated by Aviation Consumer and amazingly bright. I replaced 4 landing and taxi lights on my Husky. With a projected lifespan of 50,000 hours, I leave them on wig-wag for all daytime flying.

Prior to this purchase, I did a comparison of the Q4509, a 55 watt HID, and the AeroLED 36HX on my hangar door. Both the HID and 36HX handily beat the quartz halogen in terms of light output. The 36HX was as bright as the HID, but the beam evenness and quality was better than the HID.

The LEDs have another major advantage over incandescent and HID, and that is in their very fast switching or rise time. This makes the lights more noticable in someone's peripheral vision.

Thanks, I will check it out. The 59 182 has 2 lights next to each other in the wing.. so not sure a wig wag will work, but will check it.

Can you turn the Wig Wag off on the AeroLED's? There are times I would not want it (fog/ifr).

Thanks again, as I wanted LED lights.

Yes, you can turn off the AeroLed wig-wag function and use the LEDs on steady. You can also use the flash or wig-wag fuction to flash a single or pair of lights if you don't have lights on each wing to allow effective wig-wag.

I have a PulseLight in my Husky, so did not get the AeroLed model with wig-wag. There's a landing light and taxi light on each wing. I wired them using diode isolators so that when the landing light switch is on, both taxi and landing lights come on steady(all four lights). When taxi lights are selected on steady, only the taxi lights come on (the taxi lights are wider beam and declinated so they don't blind other aircraft while taxiing. And finally, in pulse light mode all four lights wig-wag, landing and taxi on one wing come on together, then opposite wing. Looks like an emergency vehicle even in broad daylight.

bumper wrote:Yes, you can turn off the AeroLed wig-wag function and use the LEDs on steady. You can also use the flash or wig-wag fuction to flash a single or pair of lights if you don't have lights on each wing to allow effective wig-wag.

I have a PulseLight in my Husky, so did not get the AeroLed model with wig-wag. There's a landing light and taxi light on each wing. I wired them using diode isolators so that when the landing light switch is on, both taxi and landing lights come on steady(all four lights). When taxi lights are selected on steady, only the taxi lights come on (the taxi lights are wider beam and declinated so they don't blind other aircraft while taxiing. And finally, in pulse light mode all four lights wig-wag, landing and taxi on one wing come on together, then opposite wing. Looks like an emergency vehicle even in broad daylight.

Thanks! Email sent to AeroLED to see if they have an option for the old 182. Can't tell from their site, seems to be mainly experimental focused.

I have the Avtek pulsar in my Scout. It works great, I am pulsing the front landing light only. I have kept the same unit now for 3 airplanes and move it when I get something different. Really simple to wire. I had a funny thing happen this past winter, I landed at a grass strip in FL, and a gentleman came up and introduced himself and asked about the pulselight. It was MIke Peterson, the manufacturer of Avtek. He is a Boeing engineer, and builds these units on the side. I have had good luck, and get a lot of comments on the added visibility

Jim

29singlespeed wrote:
Thanks! Email sent to AeroLED to see if they have an option for the old 182. Can't tell from their site, seems to be mainly experimental focused.

Looks like they have one Certified bulb. 1000 lumen, $450 each. Thanks Bumper, I was looking for a bulb like this, the pulselight kit is cheaper, but this is much easier to install when I've only got 1 light on the Citabria. I'd like to add wing recognition lights that wigwag but haven't found a kit like that.

http://store.aeroleds.com/index.php?mai ... ucts_id=44

L-19 wrote:

29singlespeed wrote:
Thanks! Email sent to AeroLED to see if they have an option for the old 182. Can't tell from their site, seems to be mainly experimental focused.

Looks like they have one Certified bulb. 1000 lumen, $450 each. Thanks Bumper, I was looking for a bulb like this, the pulselight kit is cheaper, but this is much easier to install when I've only got 1 light on the Citabria. I'd like to add wing recognition lights that wigwag but haven't found a kit like that.

http://store.aeroleds.com/index.php?mai ... ucts_id=44

Check out the Alphabeam...highest rated Taxi/Landing LED...much cheaper too.

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/e ... glight.php

SixTwoLeemer wrote:
Check out the Alphabeam...highest rated Taxi/Landing LED...much cheaper too.

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/e ... glight.php

Looks like a nice light. Does not look like it has a pulse/flash/wig-wag function built in and thats what I am looking for! Heading to EAA and will check out all the pulse options there.

Leaning towards the AEROLED since it combines the LED and the pulse.

Whatever bulbs you decide to get, take the time to aim them properly. When I decided to get HID lights for my P172D 8 years ago, I decided to have my IA install them, since it meant doing some drilling and mounting of the power supplies in the wing (a mechanic I'm definitely not). The bulb units themselves just fit where the old incandescent bulbs were. I was immediately disappointed in the results until I realized how far off aim they were. It took several landings (and removing the lens cover, re-aiming, reinstalling the lens cover, etc.) before I was satisfied. Especially the landing light beam had to be lowered a lot and redirected a little laterally, to light the runway at the angle of attack typical of a normal approach. The taxi light was less critical, but I did spend some time with it, too, primarily angling it inward so that it effectively lights the taxiway directly ahead of the airplane instead of off to the left side. It has a broader beam, so it still lights the left side of the taxiway adequately.

Cary

A buddy of mine bought a Maxpulse flasher for the Pacer project he's working on. Not flying yet, but it looked like a slick arrangement-- you can set the thing to flash the two lights in several different ways. Don't recall the price but it seemed pretty affordable.

hotrod150 wrote:A buddy of mine bought a Maxpulse flasher for the Pacer project he's working on. Not flying yet, but it looked like a slick arrangement-- you can set the thing to flash the two lights in several different ways. Don't recall the price but it seemed pretty affordable.

Its on the list.... My hang up is there are to many options on it..