The International Cessna 170 Association

Thanks for all the replies and great advice. I will be ordering the Goodiesforpilots landing and taxi light as well as the WigWag switch. Since I am based in a busy class C and lots of military training it can only help.

Note:

I was told that the flood from goodiesforpilots comes with a pigtail while the landing has the normal 2 screws on the back.

As a result, you may have to do some wiring mods to the taxi light.

LEDs are improving rapidly. I installed mine a couple of years ago. I still love them, but I'd guess that whatever you buy now is better.

Some pics:

Just ordered the Goodie lights. 62C has two early-era LEDs that a previous owner installed that hardly throw off any light at all - I'm amazed at the difference in the photos other members have shared, and anything will be an improvement. In the interim while waiting for them to arrive, any detail you could share on the lighting "mod" for the pigtail?

I just ordered a set as well. The 800 lumen Grotes I'm currently using are adequate but I would prefer brighter. I noticed that the photos on the website show screw terminals and the one that shows a pigtail has a big red "X" over it. Hopefully no mods will be required.

Goodie Lights just arrived - wow, some fast service. On close visual inspection, neither light has the pigtail, both lights appear to have a high build quality. I'm anxious to install them in 62C and will report back with a "before" and "after", at least on the ground. Unfortunately I had shoulder surgery this past Monday which has clipped my wings for a couple weeks, so it will be a while before I can see them in flight.

I came across this website and seems these are drop in replacements with no re wiring required. I have not used them just some info to pass along. Hope to get them for my birthday or Christmas so will post a pirep after i install them.


https://www.aero-lites.com/

$75 a piece sounds like a good deal compared to $300. Not sure how much the goodies are.

Fly safe.

Installed the new lights from Goodiesforpilots. Had a chance to use them and was very happy about the current draw and, of course, the visibility. Haven't used them at night yet. We will see about that. I don't fly at night much. I mostly wanted the visibility because I am based in a very busy Class C.

Looking directly AT LED lamps that are "on" might appear brilliant as anti-collision .... but bear little resemblance to their effectiveness at illuminating runways, taxiways, and objects at night. The "shade" or temperature (Kelvin scale) can be so narrow that much of the objects will not reflect an image back to you in the cockpit for your eyes to see much. Photographs of scenes illuminated can be misleading as well. (After all, photographs are nothing more than reflected-visible light and the camera will make it appear better than in real life. Example: Ever notice how airplanes for sale never look as good in reality as their photographs depicted?)

For an object to be visible to the human eye there must exist a wide-spectrum which is reflected back to your retina. Most LEDs are not good at that.

Bottom line is ....that it may be inconvenient or unfortunate but .... personal viewing of the performance in actual operating conditions are necessary before you will know how effective they may be.

I've tried a few of them and resorted back to incandescent since land/taxi lights are intermittent electrical loads anyway (at least the way I use them). In congested areas I run my taxi lamps only (which are 60-watt 4461 units but quite noticeable as anticollision lamps.) Wig-wag of ANY lights will definitely improve visibility (but I found it distracting in haze... which is when I felt I most needed additional anti-collision lighting.)

I switched to the Whelen Promethius Plus bulbs, one landing, one taxi lens. I think they are just OK. I didn't say "wow" when I first turned them on. I'm not thrilled with the cool white color, but then I don't know whether that color is better for collision avoidance than the traditional soft white color of the GE incandescent bulbs. My sense is that they are slightly less bright than the incandescents. But that may be because of how I perceive the cool white color vs soft white, as George explained. All in all, however, I'm glad I switched because I can now comfortably leave both bulbs on for collision avoidance without worrying about currect draw, heat buildup, and burning them out. If anyone finds a bright LED landing or taxi light with a soft white color like the GE incandescents, please let me know.

Pictures of standard incandescent par36 landing lights and AeroLED Sunspot 36 LX taxi lights at 65 feet. The tailwheel was jacked up about 18” to get the landing lights onto the adjacent hangar. The plane has right wing and left wing landing and taxi lights

It’s my opinion incandescent landing lights penetrate further than LED landing lights and I like the color of the incandescent light more than the LED. LED taxi lights look brighter as seen from another airplane for collision avoidance and draw much less current allowing continuous operation of the pulse-lights and they work just fine for taxiing.

Aryana wrote:I just ordered a GE 4461 bulb on Amazon for $12 and looking forward to seeing the improvement from a diffused beam for taxiing. Thanks for the heads up George.

The reason I used that 4461 was for the diffused beam... but also keep in mind it was in conjunction with my modification to DUAL land/taxi lamps...adding a second set to my right wing.... keep in mind that my night operations are in a dark-hole, remote strip out here on the ranch.
The 4461 is only a 60 watt lamp. If you expect it to be as brilliant as the 100 watt 4509 you will be disappointed. If you only want a broader beam (but willing to accept less brilliance) then it will give you that.
The dual 4461's illuminate a much-greater area than the single 4509 previously existing...and do so with less amperage draw than the land/taxi lamps both-on ...on the left side only, as Cessna designed it. (120 watts versus 200 watts... the 200 being brighter but only on the left side, leaving the right side dark. I was needing the right side illuminated as well taxying around out here on the ranch.)
I'm not certain I'd be as satisfied with a single 4461 on the left side only. (On the plus-side...they are rated at 300 hrs instead of the 25 hrs of a 4509)

Please do not bank on a 4461 giving you 300hrs. A aero club that I was working for a while ago was running them for a while here and sometimes they would get 30 hrs or 50 hrs then blow. The greatest number hours were 210 hrs . They had about 15 cessna 172 and about 4 cessna 182,s . So there was a constant flow of parts and they were always looking for reliability and cost effectiveness. Each aircraft had a hit list of issues so tracking was carried so,patterns could be drawn up and who was flying that aircraft .

I don't bank on anything reaching TBO. But it's a darn sight better than 25 hrs.