I'm not sure why I am concerned about this as I do not own a airplane at this point in time but it has made me wonder so I figured I would try to learn from you guys.

I think airplanes with wing tip pulsing landing lights look cool and seem like a good idea all around. However I was curious and haven't really noticed normal landing lights being on say the cowling when these are in use? Obviously landing at night wouldn't work well if they were pulsating. Maybe there is generally a switch that can be turned between pulsating and steady if you only had the wing tip lights?

Thanks for any info. I have searched Google and see some of the kits out there just curious how they work generally in the real world.
Kyle

There is a "wig - wag" controller that is wired in. You are correct, you can select steady via switch. I have seen them on many of the Cessnas that have cowl mounted lights, however keeping a conventional bulb alive in the hot, vibrating cowl can be a challenge.

They are real attention getters and a good modification to have especially in areas of sucky vis.

I have a few friends with these:

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

Mine was a constant wig wag with no option to go steady so I pulled the control box out and wired them up for steady. Maybe sometime down the road I'll pony up the money, but for now, the LED's alone and smoke system work great for recognition in the pattern

Cool, thanks for the replies. So it works basically how I was thinking. So if you had one that only "wig-wagged" then you obviously have a standard landing light in the cowl for actual landing correct?

kygreen229 wrote:Cool, thanks for the replies. So it works basically how I was thinking. So if you had one that only "wig-wagged" then you obviously have a standard landing light in the cowl for actual landing correct?

In a recent project of mine, I added forward-facing LED bulbs in the wingtips that are connected to a MaxPulse that enables flash, wig-wag, and steady. I also chose to retain my factory landing and taxi lights (but converted them to LED). In my case those are about halfway along the leading edge. Like you I wanted simultaneous recognition lights and landing lights. There are also considerations about aiming each light low or high for optimal performance, and pointing landing lights close in to illuminate the touchdown point, or pointing recognition lights 20 miles out for best recognition.
-DP

Timberwolf wrote:...but for now, the LED's alone and smoke system work great for recognition in the pattern

LOL... I guess the smoke system might get some people to notice you!

Yup. I have a $125 total in the system. $100 was for the nozzles and hose and $25 for the pump. I tig'd up the tank with some scrap. If I did it again I would make my own nozzles. I push diesel which makes awesome smoke. My original intent behind it was for wind recognition. Do a low pass and lay down a trail to see what the wind is doing. Turns out it makes a great recognition device for other planes and tower.

Back to the pulsing lights, my landing/taxi lights are HIDs, so they're really bright, some say brighter than the LEDs people are installing these days. But they have power supplies, which theoretically need to be warmed before pulsing the lights. So the recommended method is to turn on the lights with the normal landing light switch, turn on the pulse switch, then after a few seconds, turn off the landing light switch, which starts the pulsing.

Both my landing and taxi lights pulse at the same time, since they're right next to each other in the left wing. Trying to make them wig-wag would result in the appearance of being constantly on. They're good attention getters, for sure, although wig-wags might be better if I had them in both wings. I habitually have them pulsing whenever I'm near an airport, or when ATC calls converging traffic. At night, I have them pulsing except for take off and landing.

My lights are aimed so that the taxi light is level on the ground, but the landing light points significantly downward to light the runway on approach. The taxi light's beam is also a broad beam, compared to the landing light's pencil thin beam.

Cary