In search of cheap LED landing lights

[rodsmith]

I live on an unfenced airport and we have a lot of deer living here. It's standard procedure at dusk or night to do a low level fly over before landing. I need some very effective landing lights. I thought I might be able to find some auto or off road LED lights that could be used in the wing leading edge. Did a lot of internet searching and found what I thought was a good candidate, a 6" light bar with 12 cree leds 36w and 3600 lumens. For comparison I bought one Aeroleds Aerosun light from spruce, also 36 w 12 leds and rated at 3960 lumens. Figured I could send that back if a much cheaper light worked. Both easily fit in a nose rib bay. The off road light bar is larger as you can see and weighs 17oz vs 8oz for the Aerosun (aerosun on left). The aerosun has a better mounting system for the wing but the other could be made to work. The aerosun has a built in wig wag feature and requires 4 wires to alternately flash two of them vs 2 wires for the off road bar. Wig wag modules can be had for $75 so I didn't think that was a big advantage. Until I tested both lights at night I thought I had found a cheap alternative. With the lumen ratings so close I thought it would be hard to tell the difference. First I aimed them from my house to my hangar fifty yards away. The aerosun appeared to be twice as bright. Then I aimed them at my neighbors hanger 300 yards away. Could clearly see it with the aerosun and as luck would have it there were a couple deer in front of it that I could easily make out. With the off road light couldn't see the hangar at all. Quite disappointing. Did more searching and found several more powerful lights with the same dimensions. Odd thing was they jumped from 36w to 180w and went as high as 640w. Even using the 180w I would need to use a relay, heavier wires and inrush limiters with the wigwag module. No guarantee that they would have the reach of the aerosun as I think the difference is due to the reflectors. So going with the aerosuns, working on the mounting in the wings. Off road lights will go on my sidexside.

[jaredyates]

Very useful data, thanks. I have also found that quantitative specs on imported consumer electronics gadgets can be grossly exaggerated. Whether it's brightness of LEDs, capacity of lithium batteries, or wattage of a power supply, it's almost a given that any Chinese numbers are going to be fictional.

[Flygirl1]

We looked like you have for a cheaper, light weight alternative. Hard to do. Vans has some nice lights, sorry do not remember the price but they are usually very competitive. I found ours on an off road web site and they were advertised for aircraft and around $200 each. We also tested them against cheaper road vehicle lights and no comparison. As far as your deer issue, I have always wondered if those whistle things they sell for cars would work on a plane. I’ve heard they work on the road.

[JimParker256]

I've been researching these as well. I've found a site (https://www.larsenlights.com/par-36-...tt-flood-light) that seems to have good, reliable ratings for their LED lights. These are their PAR-36 replacement lights. A buddy of mine purchased the "Hi-Lo" version for his airplane, and he is absolutely thrilled with them. Those lights have two "sets" of beams - a wider "flood" beam like a taxi light, and a narrower "spot" beam that reaches much further out, but with a narrower range.

They also have some "light bars" similar to what "rodsmith" purchased, in a wide variety of lighting intensities. The key for LED lights is the refraction of the lens set-up. If the lenses are set up for wide-beam, they will be very bright at close range and illuminate a wide band in front of the light, but it will not carry very far. You need to look for "spot" lenses that focus the light for distance viewing. The exact same Cree bulbs can appear to throw almost no light at all at a 300' target, or light it up like daylight, all depending on the lens used.