Quick PIREP on the PAR36 from http://www.goodiesforpilots.com...

For $40 (or $60 with a pulsing module), it's a hell of a deal. I think my Rigid landing light is brighter, but hard to compare since the Rigid is a spot/landing and the GFP is a flood/taxi. MY indication from this came from the fact that the Rigid has only a slightly narrower beam but the distance is quite a bit more, maybe that's an unfair comparison. However, the GFP taxi is much much brighter than the GE incandescent it replaced.

Rigid:
- 40W (confirmed with ammeter)
- 9-36V input
- $209
- 4x large LEDs

GFP:
- 18W (confirmed with ammeter)
- 9-36V input
- $40
- 18x small LEDs

Overall, it was a great purchase. This is coming from someone who was very skeptical before buying (as can be seen by my previous posts in this thread). Don't find many upgrades for airplanes for $40 that are a real improvement.

-asa

A guy I know just ordered a light & flasher from goodiesforpilots.

I bought a 13W LED spot (aka landing) light from marinebeam.com a year or two ago,
I have it wired through a flasher & I've been told it really catches your eye & shows up from a long ways off.
Cost me about $72 delivered about 2 years ago, thought it was a pretty good deal.
But these GFP units being half again as bright and only $44 delivered sound even better.

Just saw this thread.

Purchased one "Landing" and one "Taxi" light along with two goodie flashers form goodiesforpilots a few months back. I have been nothing but impressed, especially for the price.

Installed in the wing:



Really bright, just before sunrise:



A flyby with the flashers on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQLobwN0N0A

RKTX wrote:Just saw this thread.

Purchased one "Landing" and one "Taxi" light along with two goodie flashers form goodiesforpilots a few months back. I have been nothing but impressed, especially for the price.

Riley, did you do anything special to sync them up or do you simply just hit the switches together? Looks great.

-Asa

asa wrote:

RKTX wrote:Just saw this thread.

Purchased one "Landing" and one "Taxi" light along with two goodie flashers form goodiesforpilots a few months back. I have been nothing but impressed, especially for the price.

Riley, did you do anything special to sync them up or do you simply just hit the switches together? Looks great.

-Asa

The lights are wired to the original pull-switch where the first detent is for the taxi light and the second is for the landing light. Pulling the switch all the way out fairly quickly syncs the lights pretty well.

I put the Teledyne Alphabeams on my 182, and they are ridiculously bright. At first I thought I had a wiring issue at the light, but then realized my original pull switch (as described in the post above mine) was actually not making full contact. The old incandescent bulbs were so lame I never actually noticed this. If I use the half pull I get one light on quite bright, at full pull it gets dimmer and the 2nd bulb flickers a bit. Unfortunately I cannot find a PMA replacement for this switch style, so I’ll have to live with single-bulb until a new panel graces my plane.

I bought the Alphabeams after reading some user reviews which compared multiple LED replacements. I think almost anything is better than the PAR incandescent style, but these were highly rated by anyone who tried them that I could find. Cost is high at $275 a pop, but I will never have to replace them again. The wiring and switches in my panel, however....

You could just wire both lights to the first position on the switch.

I have the same 2-position pull switch on my 1953 C180,
but for some reason it's wired for the first position to turn on one light,
and the second position to turn on the other light-- no "both" position.
That's OK, I have the first light wired through a flasher as a recoghnition light, and the other one is steady on for taxi use.
If I get a second LED, I might just get one of those GFP flashers & wire both lights to the same position.
THat way, they'd both be either flashing or steady on.

hotrod180 wrote:You could just wire both lights to the first position on the switch.

That did cross my mind, but I want to replace the panel and wiring anyway. No sense paying for redundant work from my A&P.

Any suggestions on PAR46 LED landing lights? I haven't found many that aren't over $400.

UngaWunga wrote:Any suggestions on PAR46 LED landing lights? I haven't found many that aren't over $400.

I spoke to someone this weekend who had a C195 and he was looking at my LED's and telling me how he just found a PAR36/46 machined aluminum adapter that allows him to use standard PAR36. I'm not familiar with it, but it seems like it could be an option.

A quick google search shows Whelen PAR46 bulbs on Amazon for $170, though.

-asa

UngaWunga wrote:Any suggestions on PAR46 LED landing lights? I haven't found many that aren't over $400.

How about a PAR-46 LED bulb for under $40? Check this guy's site: Larsen Lights

Larsen's "Hi-Lo" LED lights are incredible. Buddy of mine put one of the PAR-36 Hi-Lo lights on his Rockwell Commander 114, and LOVES it. Both High and Low light up together (that's how to set it up for aviation use - the "low" is for tractor usage) and it provides both a "spot" and "flood" combination pattern. The "spot" is not quite as far-reaching as their dedicated "spot" beam, but VERY usable - especially with a slower-landing airplane like our BCP types. Likewise the "flood" pattern isn't quite as broad as their dedicated "flood" beam, but is amazingly better than the old GE bulbs.

I have RMD wingtip light as well as the two factory landing lights on the nose. All four lights are LED’s and they are incredibly bright. I have it set up with a controller so that they pulsate between the two tip lights and the nose lights. With these on the recognition is amazing. I would highly recommend installation of these lights.

Replaced my Citabria landing light with the PAR36 from goodiesforpilots.com. Had to whittle out the aluminum rear bracket a few thou for it to fit over the back of the LED. Couldn’t see any markings on the two connections and sure ‘nuff it was polarity sensitive. At least I tested it before putting the cowling back on. Switched wires and works fine. $40.

Karmutzen wrote:Replaced my Citabria landing light with the PAR36 from goodiesforpilots.com. Had to whittle out the aluminum rear bracket a few thou for it to fit over the back of the LED. Couldn’t see any markings on the two connections and sure ‘nuff it was polarity sensitive. At least I tested it before putting the cowling back on. Switched wires and works fine. $40.

Did you also install their wig-wag gizmo?
Pretty affordable also.

Someone here bought one of those goodies LED lights a while back, it had pigtail connections.
I've heard that they now have screw terminal connections, which I would prefer.
Which does your LED light have?

Screws. Which matches the original leads for the GE bulb. Just get the polarity right. Added the +, - to the picture.

hotrod180 wrote:

Karmutzen wrote:Replaced my Citabria landing light with the PAR36 from goodiesforpilots.com. Had to whittle out the aluminum rear bracket a few thou for it to fit over the back of the LED. Couldn’t see any markings on the two connections and sure ‘nuff it was polarity sensitive. At least I tested it before putting the cowling back on. Switched wires and works fine. $40.

Did you also install their wig-wag gizmo?
Pretty affordable also.

Someone here bought one of those goodies LED lights a while back, it had pigtail connections.
I've heard that they now have screw terminal connections, which I would prefer.
Which does your LED light have?

The lights have screws, the flashing module has pig tails.

The polarity thing got me, too. A simple + molded into the case wouldn't been handy.

I bought mine a few months back and it has pigtails I think. I bought the flasher too, so it will be hard wired. Going on next month with my Sportsman.

asa wrote:...The polarity thing got me, too. A simple + molded into the case wouldn't been handy.

If they made it easy, everybody would be doing it.

I also got a set of lights from Pilot Goodies. http://www.goodiesforpilots.com/ Would like to echo what has been said previously. They worked great. As soon as I can, I will get someone on the ground to take video and I will post.

For those of us that are electronically challenged, the polarity issue was simply fixed by switching the leads so the hot from the switch matches up with the correct lead on the pulsing device.

I understand he is working on position lights as well!!

This was well worth the value.

L

Hi,

I’m just getting spooled up on the GFP lights. In my last plane I had gone the Whelan route. I hadn’t gone to LEDs on my current plane simply because of the cost. The new plane has wingtip lights, but no pulse...which I’d like.

So what’s the general consensus? Taxi (flood) better for recog lights in the wingtips? My stock in-wing light has one taxi and one landing.

Some pics of which pole is + would be great. Thanks!