Hal Woodruff instigated this little endeavor. Hal has probably never heard of me, but I have of him. He published the results of his leading edge landing light construction on Compuserve’s Avsig site. I stumbled across this years before I ever contemplated building an airplane, in fact, I might even venture to say that it was this publication that planted the early seeds of homebuilding madness into my feeble (and hopelessly fertile) mind. Yes Hal, it is your fault. (…And to think that I have blamed Cal Brabandt for this germ of a seed!!!)
So, early on in the building process of my ES (I’m still firmly entrenched in that phase, by the way), I had decided to dispense with the suggested cowl mounted light in the construction manual and opt for leading edge lights. In typical homebuilder fashion, I researched what lights I’d like to have in my leading edge. I then came across Hella Xenon lights (they are the lights seen on higher priced German autos, and give off a slightly bluish hue) which are perfect in that they emit 60% more light than a 100W Halogen light for 55% less electrical power! (readers please note "on higher priced…" everything in aviation is "higher priced" and now consciously a choice is made where the item is in, and of, itself already "higher priced" and to think I was happy years back at saving $50!). Well, obviously (I think this is called the millionaire mania?) this is the light for me. Thinner wire out to the lights, cooler operation, and BRIGHT lights to boot. The bad news is that they are arc lights and a very high voltage trigger initiates the arc, also the light is sustained by a constant current source. Looking at what was involved in this, I decided not to pursue this path and rationalized the decision by recognizing that it violates my number one rule, KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!). This rule is always invoked when I need to dispense with something really cool (In the movie "The Big Chill" a character says "rationalizations are better than sex. When asked how that could be he was answered, "Ever tried a week without a rationalization?" Thank the Lord, for rationalizations!). Further rationalization came when it is said that the blue light these lamps emit is reflected very well by rain--I live in Portland--‘nuff said (and no, we don’t "luv" the rain!). So the search continued. Finally, I decided to go with the lamps that Hal is using, those projector style lights that are all the rage for accent lighting, available at Home Depot for a very reasonable sum. They come in two flavors, wide and focussed beams. Perfect! Use the wide beam for recognition, and the focussed one for landing. So now two lights are required, in each wing of course.
There are two major efforts in this construction…
My brother took care of the lenses. On one of his trips out here, we made forms of the leading edge where the lens will mount. Upon his return to South Africa, he made a mold and formed the lenses. This resulted in a bona fide offshore manufacturing facility for Weston Aerospace and Storage, and as a result our name is now Weston Aerospace and Storage International, known in the circles as "WASI." I believe Alan, my brother, can be persuaded to build lenses for other intrepid ES builders, folding green stuff will be his motivation. He can be contacted at alansky@iafrica.co.za
In Hal’s implementation, he cut a hole in the wing, built a flange, upon which to mount the lens, and drilled holes through the Plexiglas, the same way Lancair suggests one mounts the lens for the nav. and strobe lights on the wing tip.
Thanks to Ralph Hudson, the local EAA technical advisor, I attached a flange to the lens itself, through which the mounting holes are drilled. Ralph did the same on his Glasair. He said it was just a question of time and the holes through the Plexiglas would start cracking.
The lamp-mount was tackled by making a temporary "lens" out of 4 BID. This was cut to the size of the final lens plus flange. A hole was then cut into the wing to accommodate the temporary "lens." We cut a hole into the temp. "lens" to allow access to the inside of the wing. A 4 BID flange was formed and bonded to the inside of the wing and trimmed into the hole for about ½" all around the hole.
The lens was then cut to about ¼" smaller than the hole now in the wing. A flange was then bonded onto the outer surface of the lens proper. This 2 BID that attached to the Plexiglas about ½’ all around. Then a 2 BID was attached to the inside surface also extending onto the Plexiglas for about ½". This 2 BID tape then bonded to the first 2 BID and completed the flange.
The resulting 4 BID of flange was then trimmed to fit into the hole in the wing and mated to the flange in the wing.
The above drawing shows a cross section of the lens and then the lens mounted to the flange in the wing.
The lamp-mount was cut out of aluminum about 1/16" thick..
The lamps themselves are mounted in fittings purchased from Variety Lighting Supply part number 005-QLV-1 (socket for MR 16). They were riveted to the mount.
The mount is then screwed to the bulkhead mounted in the wing and the focussing will be achieved by inserting washers between the mount and the bulkhead.
I will carry out temperature tests once it’s all wired up. Results will be posted here anon.
TAKE NOTE!!
The lights are mounted 6" in from the inboard edge of the wing tip. DO NOT mount them half way down the wing as in the Columbia. The ES’s wing was not designed to have a hole cut into it at mid span.