So this question will show my ignorance and inexperience but oh well. I have the original Cessna pull out switch for my nav lights with three positions - off, middle and all the way out. I've honestly never noticed the middle position before and have always run it pulled all the way out which lights my wingtips and my rear taillight. My rotating beacon is on a separate switch.

I recently had a tailbeacon installed to take care of ADS-B and when I got my plane back, I noticed that the tail light portion of the tailbeacon wasn't on when the switch was pulled all the way out. When I push it in to the first position, the light in the tailbeacon comes on. Is this normal? Seems like the switch in the all the way out position should power both the tips and taillight, not just the tips.

Can anyone educate me on this? It doesn't really matter I guess, I'm more just curious. Thanks!

The landing light switch had three positions (off - half way out - all the way out) and the nav lights were two position (off - all the way out). Sounds like you have a landing light switch for the nav light. Unless, there was an old nav light flasher option and that required the three position switch.

Guessing this is an early Cessna. I seem to recall the Nav lights sometimes had the two position switch if the optional 'nav light flasher' circuit. It's a decent sized little box somewhere in the plane that causes the navs to flash (I think usually wired to the first position of the switch). Inside is a little coil deal that heats up and open a contractor at a prescribed rate given nominal current load...doesn't work with LEDs... I have only seen it installed once or twice.

Fiddler wrote:Guessing this is an early Cessna. I seem to recall the Nav lights sometimes had the two position switch if the optional 'nav light flasher' circuit. It's a decent sized little box somewhere in the plane that causes the navs to flash (I think usually wired to the first position of the switch). Inside is a little coil deal that heats up and open a contractor at a prescribed rate given nominal current load...doesn't work with LEDs... I have only seen it installed once or twice.

My first 180 had the flasher unit. When I first got the plane and was fiddling with it on the ground without the engine running I pulled the nav light switch and heard what sounded like the blinker of an '85 chevy pickup. Took me a while to figure out what was making that noise and it was the nav light flasher mentioned above . Promptly removed it

Nushi wrote:So this question will show my ignorance and inexperience but oh well. I have the original Cessna pull out switch for my nav lights with three positions - off, middle and all the way out. I've honestly never noticed the middle position before and have always run it pulled all the way out which lights my wingtips and my rear taillight. My rotating beacon is on a separate switch. I recently had a tailbeacon installed to take care of ADS-B and when I got my plane back, I noticed that the tail light portion of the tailbeacon wasn't on when the switch was pulled all the way out. When I push it in to the first position, the light in the tailbeacon comes on. Is this normal? Seems like the switch in the all the way out position should power both the tips and taillight, not just the tips. Can anyone educate me on this? It doesn't really matter I guess, I'm more just curious. Thanks!

I would have guessed that you had your nav lights running off a 3-position landing / taxi light switch.
The explanation given by others re a factory flasher arrangement makes sense, although I never heard of it before.
What doesn't make sense is that your nav lights behaved "properly" before, but don't now.
Unless the installer reconnected the aft nav light wire to a different terminal at the switch.

FWIW when I installed my Tailbeacon ADS-B unit,
I disconnected the aft nav light wire from the nav light switch,
and connected it to it's own 1 amp circuit breaker on the avionics master circuit.
That way I have ADS-B without having to run my nav lights all the time.
I can control whether the aft nav light is on or off with the Tailbeacon app.

You guys hit the nail on the head! My three position switch was indeed from an early model Cessna which has the flasher box. The middle position yielded always on wingtip lights and also lit my tailbeacon as a solid white tailight. If the switch was pulled all the way out to the third position, the tips flash but the tailbeacon doesn't light up, presumably because it is an LED light. I wish there was a work around on this because I like winking and blinking as others have said. That brings up two questions though....

1. Does the tailbeacon (specifically the ADS-B out part) still work even though the LED light itself in the unit isn't lit?

2. I'm thinking about switching my wingtip bulbs to Aero-lite LED bulbs in the existing receptacle. Any idea if these will still work with the flasher unit?

You could use the Aero-Lite bulbs so you can maintain the constant power phase of that switch. SkyBeacon has three wires (Power, Strobe, Ground). The skyBeacon is active and transmitting when the RED LED NAV light is one and solid. If the switch pulses it, that will cause issues (reboots) to the skyBeacon. You'll need constant power to the Red power wire. The yellow wire is for a strobe trigger. You may need to run a separate wire if you want to have that switched. The STC install instruction manual does permit for a second switch or wire to be installed for the skyBeacon ADS-B. You can contact me directly with PM and I'd be happy to visit with you to help.

Nushi wrote:….I recently had a tailbeacon installed to take care of ADS-B and when I got my plane back, I noticed that the tail light portion of the tailbeacon wasn't on when the switch was pulled all the way out. When I push it in to the first position, the light in the tailbeacon comes on.....

If the Tailbeacon nav light is on in one position of your switch, but not in the other(s),
I'd say that in the other switch position(s) there isn't any power going to it.
You can select nav light on or off using the Tailbeacon app,
but you need power to the Tailbeacon to select that or to even get the app to open.