lights on a Vari

[jridge]

Here's a PDF of the Landing Light plans...Don't remember where I got them.

Rutan Landing Light Page 1.pdf Rutan Landing Light Page 2.pdf

[A Bruce Hughes]

That diagram is from the RAF design but it was not a kit.

I bought the plan from RAF about 1995, made all of the parts, installed it, then wondered why the hell I did all of that work as i don't plan to fly at night.   It took a looooooooooooooooong time to do all of that work.   When LEDs became available, I upgraded just in case I want to sell it to somebody more daring.

It does work and the parts in your picture look like the plans.   If you go ahead with the project, you need to do it while you can still turn the fuselage over.    I built a framework that would hold the fuselage right side up or upside down and could be moved around anywhere in my 2 car garage.

Good luck.

[Bugstrider]

On 12/30/2020 at 6:37 PM, Marc Zeitlin said:

I've done it on two VE's. The hardest part is drilling a hole from the wingtip to the end of the aileron cove for the wiring without drilling through the top or bottom skins. Other than that, it's just running some wires and creating hard points in the wingtip for the LED lights to mount on to. 1/2 - 1 day's work, maybe.

Landing Lights on VE's are more problematic, as there just really aren't many places to put them. A fold down one, like on the Long-EZ, could be done, or something like this:

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/el/landinglights_aveo/aveo_11-18453.php

on the bottom of the fuselage, next to the nose gear wheel well.

What nav light design have you installed on the Varieze, and have any particular designs more prone to causing any type of wing tip flutter or vibration due to the added weight at the tip of the wing?  As far as the possible landing light solution, what lens angle would best represent the optimal range for the Vari?  Per the company data sheet, there is quite a bit of an output difference between the lens angles of 3 degrees and 30.

I’ve seen several nav light options on the AS web page including some not meeting the FAA’s night requirements.

[Marc Zeitlin]

47 minutes ago, Bugstrider said:

What nav light design have you installed on the Varieze, and have any particular designs more prone to causing any type of wing tip flutter or vibration due to the added weight at the tip of the wing?  As far as the possible landing light solution, what lens angle would best represent the optimal range for the Vari?  Per the company data sheet, there is quite a bit of an output difference between the lens angles of 3 degrees and 30.

I’ve seen several nav light options on the AS web page including some not meeting the FAA’s night requirements.

These days, any wingtip lights I install are one of the 4 or 5 different LED NAV/STROBE/POS combination lights. They're all small, lightweight, bright, and expensive. Whichever one the customer picks. There's no structural or aerodynamic issue with any of the available lights.

Landing lights are landing lights - they don't care what plane they're mounted on. I haven't done side by side comparisons so I don't know what beam angle is optimal for any plane. I used to have automotive driving lights on my plane, and they were barely adequate. I've just installed these:

https://flyleds.com/products/#!/Single-Spotlight/p/108852015/category=0

one standard, one 30 degree beam. Haven't tried them at night yet, so no feedback.

If you want to be night legal, you'll need to get a N/S/P light that meets the TSO requirements, even if they're not TSO'd. But getting specs on the non-TSO'd lights is like pulling teeth...