hotrod180 wrote:Get a smooth Stene's fin cap, then buy one of these and mount it on the fuselage.

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

Not as visible as fin-top or wingtip strobes, but cheap at $182, quick and easy to install.
Plenty good enough for my flying, which is 99% day VFR.
My C150TD had an aftermarket fin cap with one of these mounted on it, low profile and very clean looking.
I wish I could remember / figure out who manufactured it.
FWIW at night they're very effective, but IMHO strobes don't do much for you in the daytime.

Think I'd just get the aeroleds, I couldn't cut a hole in my 185 and replacing one factory beacon for a slightly smaller one just doesn't make too much sense to me.

Probably end up biting the bullet and going aeroleds in the future.

Thanks for the info!

Here's a pic of the Aeroflash strobe. Much smaller, lighter, and cleaner than the old rotating beacon.
I mounted it where an external GPS antenna had been removed-- I ran the wiring down through the old coax hole, so I didn't have to cut a new hole. Another plus was that the new strobe covered the footprint of the old antenna very nicely.





Another option is fuselage-mounting a Universal Flightstrobe 4400.
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/e ... fs4400.php
Self contained, just run a hot wire, but almost as large as the old rotating beacon plus needs a pretty big hole to mount in. These are actually designed to replace the rotating beacon, so if you want a strobe and don't mind the big wart up on the tail, this might be a good way to go. For some reason, I have seldom if ever seen a rotating beacon mounted on the top of a C180 fuselage, it's always on the fin-- although the fuselage is almost always where they are mounted on 170's.

I had both on hand, the FS seemed to have a very slight edge in strobe brightness but the Aeroflash won out due to smaller size and easier mounting. BTW Aeroflash offers double-flash replacement powerpacks but Spruce only seems to sell single-flash AF strobe kits.

airChris wrote:

hotrod180 wrote:Get a smooth Stene's fin cap, then buy one of these and mount it on the fuselage.

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

Not as visible as fin-top or wingtip strobes, but cheap at $182, quick and easy to install.
Plenty good enough for my flying, which is 99% day VFR.
My C150TD had an aftermarket fin cap with one of these mounted on it, low profile and very clean looking.
I wish I could remember / figure out who manufactured it.
FWIW at night they're very effective, but IMHO strobes don't do much for you in the daytime.

While I agree that's a cheap way to do it (at least the parts are cheap, someone still has to be paid to cut & reinforce the fuselage and run wiring, install the Stene flush cap with paint to match), I'm not sure it really makes sense.

1. Do you gain much of a speed advantage since you're just moving a big strobe from one location to another?
2. Would anyone realistically go through all that trouble for a 1960's legacy product?

Chris

I'm surprised he recommended a change at all! Hotrod's usual reply is that "(manufacturer) knew what they were doing in (year manufactured) and it's good enough for the majority of pilots. Also, I still run a generator on my airplane."

[emoji2]

CamTom12 wrote: I'm surprised he recommended a change at all! Hotrod's usual reply is that "(manufacturer) knew what they were doing in (year manufactured) and it's good enough for the majority of pilots. Also, I still run a generator on my airplane." [emoji2]

Geez, you've got me pretty well figured out!
Seriously though, in a lot of cases they did have things figured out.
Everybody's hot to trot these days on modding up their airplanes, whether they're a C180, PA18, or whatever, but the truth is that most of us probably can't fly a stock one of these to the limits of it's potential.

I would probably have been happy with a rotating beacon, as long as it wasn't a "grinder" like a lot of them are, but I don't care for the wart on the tail. My airplane had a FS4400 on the bottom of the tailcone when I bought it, but it was inoperative plus I didn't like that location anyway. Top of the fuselage seemed the best compromise between easy and clean looking, Aeroflash seemed the best combination of easy and cheap. I think wingtip strobes give better coverage, but since I do very little flying at night I didn't wanna go to that much trouble. I did install a blinking LED landing light for daytime collision-avoidance purposes though, I think they're very effective. Kenmore Air uses wig-wag lights on their Beaver floatplanes and you can always see them a long way off.

hotrod180 wrote:

CamTom12 wrote: I'm surprised he recommended a change at all! Hotrod's usual reply is that "(manufacturer) knew what they were doing in (year manufactured) and it's good enough for the majority of pilots. Also, I still run a generator on my airplane." [emoji2]

Geez, you've got me pretty well figured out!

Looked like a good opportunity for a friendly jab!

hotrod180 wrote:Seriously though, in a lot of cases they did have things figured out.
Everybody's hot to trot these days on modding up their airplanes, whether they're a C180, PA18, or whatever, but the truth is that most of us probably can't fly a stock one of these to the limits of it's potential.

That's not wrong! Still, there's fun and satisfaction in improving things. Did my old trans am NEED a new cam and heads? No, but it was a whole lot of fun after. And I never squeezed the 1/4 mile times out that car was capable of before or after the mods but I sure enjoyed trying!

hotrod180 wrote:I would probably have been happy with a rotating beacon, as long as it wasn't a "grinder" like a lot of them are, but I don't care for the wart on the tail. My airplane had a FS4400 on the bottom of the tailcone when I bought it, but it was inoperative plus I didn't like that location anyway. Top of the fuselage seemed the best compromise between easy and clean looking, Aeroflash seemed the best combination of easy and cheap. I think wingtip strobes give better coverage, but since I do very little flying at night I didn't wanna go to that much trouble. I did install a blinking LED landing light for daytime collision-avoidance purposes though, I think they're very effective. Kenmore Air uses wig-wag lights on their Beaver floatplanes and you can always see them a long way off.

So true! I've got whelen wig-wags from a cop car on mine. They're quite visible!

I just got my little catalog from Stene's after requesting it on their website.
I didn't notice it online, but FWIW they make C180 fin caps in large beacon, small beacon, and no beacon versions. Same price for all of them: $128.50.
Dumping the rotating beacon and stock fin cap and replacing them with the small beacon cap & a small aeroflash strobe or similar would be easy cheap and clean. Like I said, it's not as good a coverage as a 2 or 3 position strobe systems, but probably the best place for a single beacon is right up on top of the fin. $128 for the cap and $180 for the strobe kit, so not much over $300 -- vs a bunch for any of the wingtip strobe kits.