M7 Landing / Taxi Lights

[drak130]

Hello All,

Neither landing light on my new to me M7 are working. From previous threads it looks like it will be LED for me. Question 1: Can I replace the lights legally myself. 2: Any benefit to doing a landing light in one wing and a taxi in the other.

Thanks
Tim

[MauleWacko]

J

[drak130]

Not the yellow one. Cream with red and yellow stripes. Yeah, dialing this thing in. A few things have come up. Don't think they were missed but the airplane has flown more in the last 3 weeks than all of last year so hopefully she's finding her groove. Stupid question, but I know the landing lights are a high draw, I checked them on the ground using the battery switch. They don't require alternator power do they?

[MauleWacko]

[andy]

The Q4509 landing light draws around 9 amps at 12 volts (100W). It shouldn't strain the battery as long as you don't leave it on too long. If you have both two landing lights or a landing light and taxi light, then that is double the current drain. The battery should still be healthy enough to power both of them but don't leave them on too long.

LED PAR36 type taxi and landing lights draw about 1.4 amps each at 14 volts. They're a lot brighter than the Q4509 and not sensitive to thermal shock or vibration like filament lights.

You can't replace the Q4509 with an LED light yourself since it involves a STC. If you were just replacing a burned out Q4509 with a good one, you could do it yourself. Most mechanics do a 337 form if there's a STC involved and that has to be signed by an A&P.

The beam direction and pattern are different between the landing light and taxi light. The landing light is aimed farther ahead of the nose and has a narrower and more circular beam. The taxi light is aimed down more than the landing light and has a wider rectangular beam.

[drak130]

Copy that. A few of my previous aircraft would "load shed" high draw items if the motor was not running. I copy that on the landing beam (10deg) and the taxi beam (40deg). Just wondering if anyone has a landing light in one wing and a taxi in the other. Best of both worlds or watering down the critical landing illumination?

Thanks
Tim

[andy]

The landing light doesn't do a very good job of illuminating the ground when you're taxiing. The wider rectangular down-pointing beam of the taxi light does a far better job. My preference would be an LED landing light on one side and an LED taxi light on the other with both connected to a wig-way for visibility in the air. I'm not aware of any Maules that have a "load shed" function when running off the battery. AeroLEDs has a PAR36 model with built-in pulse for both the landing and taxi lights: https://aeroleds.com/sunspot-36-products/

[drak130]

Thanks Andy. That answers the mail! I think I will go with the Landing in the left wing and taxi in the right. Had 10 minutes between rain showers so looked for a breaker for the lights and I don’t see one on the panel. I guess step one will be to put a meter on the wing connection and step two will be standing on my head looking for the fuse under the panel. Interesting that the nav lights don’t have a breaker on the panel either.

[Spiff]

I had exactly the same questions. Please let us know how you like LED landing light in one wing and LED taxi in the other.

[drak130]

Good power at the wings so both lamps are bad. LEDs ordered today, one taxi one landing. Will let you know how it works out.

[gdflys]

I have Whelen's LED landing light in one wing and their taxi light in the other. It's not a perfect solution but the options are fairly limited by the aiming position limits. They are much better than the stock bulbs. Here are some pics I took back when I converted them.

Stock Bulb

Whelen Prometheus Plus LED Upgrade by gdflys1gregflys, on Flickr

Whelen Prometheus Plus Landing light LED

Whelen Prometheus Plus LED Upgrade by gdflys1gregflys, on Flickr

Whelen Prometheus Plus Taxi Light

Whelen Prometheus Plus LED Upgrade by gdflys1gregflys, on Flickr

I don't have any pics from in the plane but they light up significantly more area on each side, especially the taxi light. I'd almost consider doing two taxi lights as the diffused light works better in the wig wag setup I have as you can see it better at wider angles.

Here's a video during the day of the wig wags.

https://youtu.be/bLwahNB5UMg

[andy]

The Whelen P36P1L Parmetheus Plus landing light is 60,000 beam candlepower while the P36P1T taxi light is 15,000 beam candlepower. A taxi light in both wings wouldn't give you the intensity that you need at night to clearly identify the runway surface on approach to landing. Being able to clearly see the runway surface on final approach during night landings helps you maintain your aiming point and helps you decide when to flare. Not only does the taxi light have less intensity but the wide beam spread further dilutes the beam intensity at a greater distance.

I've never heard of this arrangement but the ideal would be to have a landing light and taxi light in each wing. Then you could switch both landing lights on during approach and both taxi lights on during taxi.

[stick_rudder]

Congratulations on your new plane. Pretty sure you will find a circuit breaker for the landing lights, should be 20amp. Of course someone could have changed this but most likely the 20 amp breaker is there somewhere, might not be labeled.

[DavZeeMXT]

Congratulations on your new plane. Pretty sure you will find a circuit breaker for the landing lights, should be 20amp. Of course someone could have changed this but most likely the 20 amp breaker is there somewhere, might not be labeled.

Doesn’t the landing light switch act as the breaker too?

[andy]

The switch could also be a circuit breaker as stick_rudder mentioned. Tyco makes some good ones. Normally, it would be marked as a breaker with the amperage (20) but the label may have worn off. Same could be true if you have a taxi light switch. If you have the rocker type switch, it could still be a combination switch/breaker.
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/ ... ckkey=5950
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/ ... ckkey=5950