ADS-B Out

[EzFernando]

I need to install lights on my Vari-Eze. It came without lights (built in 1979). Dous anyone have plans for this? 

Also, any advice for ADSB?

[Anthony P]

https://uavionix.com/products/skybeacon/

https://uavionix.com/products/skysensor/

https://aviolights.com/products

Edited April 13, 2022 by Anthony P

[Kent Ashton]

18 hours ago, EzFernando said:

I need to install lights on my Vari-Eze. It came without lights (built in 1979). Dous anyone have plans for this?

What sort of lights?  Wingtip, cockpit, landing?  For wingtip lights, the Long-ez has a hole through the wing for running wires.  Not sure if one is there in a Varieze.  If not you might sharpen the end of a long piece of EMT (electrical metallic tubing) and drill a hole down the wing.  Or run wires along the aileron cutouts.   Or a combination of things. 

The easy way to have cockpit lights is to buy a couple of cheap LED light arrays and fix them so they shine on the panel.   Dim them with a PWM from Ebay.    There are hundreds of those sort of LEDs.  For example this (pic) is a little square array I got for a buck or two.  They come in all sorts of strips and will light up a cockpit or panel.  They are so cheap they are not worth advertising. 

Landing lights are not absolutely required and they really do not help much for landing--mostly useful for taxi.    You could carry a strong LED torch that plugs into a cigarette lighter or embed some LEDs in the nose or wing leading edge. 

Edited April 13, 2022 by Kent Ashton

[Bugstrider]

I need to do the exact same thing on both levels…..

[EzFernando]

When I figure out what the plan is, I’ll message you what I did.  

[Marc Zeitlin]

On 4/12/2022 at 6:38 PM, EzFernando said:

I need to install lights on my Vari-Eze. It came without lights (built in 1979). Dous anyone have plans for this? 

Also, any advice for ADSB?

There are no plans for VE wingtip lighting installation.

I've installed wingtip lighting in a couple of VE's that didn't have conduits for wiring - did something similar to what Kent indicated. You have to be VERY careful not to puncture the top and/or bottom skins during  the drilling operation, and if there are winglet antennae, you need to be very careful not to destroy the antenna coax. It can be done, but you have to know exactly what you're doing because without a spar near the tip, the wing skins are the only structure and you can damage them easily.

With respect to ADS-B, if your transponder is relatively new and working well, then this:

https://uavionix.com/products/echo-uat/

with the SkyFYX GPS antenna is the best choice. I've installed a bunch of them in canards.

If, however, you have an ancient, tube-type transponder that could fall over dead any second, and you're NOT going to update your whole panel with an EFIS system but need a standalone transponder, this:

https://stratusbyappareo.com/products/stratus-transponders/

is the most cost effective solution.

[Eugen]

Watch that…….easy and cheap…..

https://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/threads/high-intensity-led-strobes-acl-whats-available.34848/page-2

 

 

[Marc Zeitlin]

39 minutes ago, Eugen said:

Watch that…….easy and cheap…..

https://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/threads/high-intensity-led-strobes-acl-whats-available.34848/page-2

May or may not be legal for night flight (if you just want them for recognition, you can use whatever you want), and you still need to run power out to the wingtips, which is the difficult part - whatever light is out there still needs power.

[Bugstrider]

On 4/15/2022 at 8:14 AM, Marc Zeitlin said:

There are no plans for VE wingtip lighting installation.

I've installed wingtip lighting in a couple of VE's that didn't have conduits for wiring - did something similar to what Kent indicated. You have to be VERY careful not to puncture the top and/or bottom skins during  the drilling operation, and if there are winglet antennae, you need to be very careful not to destroy the antenna coax. It can be done, but you have to know exactly what you're doing because without a spar near the tip, the wing skins are the only structure and you can damage them easily.

With respect to ADS-B, if your transponder is relatively new and working well, then this:

https://uavionix.com/products/echo-uat/

with the SkyFYX GPS antenna is the best choice. I've installed a bunch of them in canards.

If, however, you have an ancient, tube-type transponder that could fall over dead any second, and you're NOT going to update your whole panel with an EFIS system but need a standalone transponder, this:

https://stratusbyappareo.com/products/stratus-transponders/

is the most cost effective solution.

Thank you Marc for the ADSB info.  I have been looking at the uavionix site and I see there are two GPS antenna options.  Which one do you prefer, the SkyFYX or SkyFYX-EXT?  I am trying to determine the differences and which one would be preferred for the VE platform.  

Regarding lighting, our VE only has a single strobe on the bottom with a large power supply on the floor of the rear passenger area. I am looking into replacing it with the AVEO SuperNova DV because it would fit the existing mounting plate dimensions. It I remove the plate, I could go with the SuperNova SF Daylight beacon, its low profile and sleek.

With regards to the navigation/wing tip light option, I was looking into the AVEO PowerBurst NXT or the Andromeda DayLite 14v.  Would you recommend one over the other for the VE wingtips for one that needs to be modified to install?  I am still looking into landing light options and have seen the AVEO landing light pod you recommended a while back.  I have also seen a VE that had a custom modification of two LED lights mounted on the speed/air brake on the bottom.  I have only seen pictures and have no idea what that modification would require for that option.

Thank you again for your input on this matter.

Trevor

 

To the OP, I hope I did not overstep with this post.  It was my intent to gather more information for this venture since we seem to be in the same boat.

Cheers

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Bugstrider

[Marc Zeitlin]

7 hours ago, Bugstrider said:

Thank you Marc for the ADSB info.  I have been looking at the uavionix site and I see there are two GPS antenna options.  Which one do you prefer, the SkyFYX or SkyFYX-EXT?  I am trying to determine the differences and which one would be preferred for the VE platform.

This is the bundle I usually get:

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/uavionix11-15210.php

Fewer components.

7 hours ago, Bugstrider said:

With regards to the navigation/wing tip light option, I was looking into the AVEO PowerBurst NXT, Andromeda DayLite 14v or the PowerBurst NG DayLite.  Would you recommend one over the other for the VE wingtips for one that needs to be modified to install?

I have no preference - it's not at all obvious what the performance differences are, so I'd go with whatever fits the easiest and has the highest reliability, if you can figure that out from reviews/complaints.

7 hours ago, Bugstrider said:

I am still looking into landing light options and have seen the AVEO landing light pod you recommended a while back.  I have also seen a VE that had a custom modification of two LED lights mounted on the speed/air brake on the bottom.

I doubt that I "recommended" any AVEO landing light pod, if I recall what you're talking about, but I may have mentioned that I've installed something like that on customer's aircraft. They strangely were not very bright, IIRC, and the customer wasn't thrilled. Mounting lights in movable bits never made any sense to me - particularly bits that point straight down when not landing. VE's don't have a lot of space for extraneous crap - finding a location for LL's is non trivial.

[Kent Ashton]

I used the bundle Marc suggested.  The antenna is embedded in the foam just underneath the instrument cover.  It works in the "sniffer" mode

[Bugstrider]

On 4/16/2022 at 10:32 AM, Eugen said:

Watch that…….easy and cheap…..

https://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/threads/high-intensity-led-strobes-acl-whats-available.34848/page-2

 

 

 

 

 

Cool video, I gotta admit that the outtakes at the end were my favorite.