mprather(at)spro.net
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 Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:51 am Post subject: AeroElectric-List Digest: 11 Msgs - 02/17/09 |
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Too bright? It should be relatively easy to make LED's any "dimness"
desired - just by controlling peak current.. To some extent this is
possibly true with tube style strobes, but I think they will have a
minimum brightness floor, below which they just won't flash. Whether
that's dim enough, I don't know. LED "strobe" manufacturers could easily
incorporate a "night ground" mode which would dim them enough to not be
disruptive but be bright enough to still draw attention and increase
visibility.
Regards,
Matt-
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Paul,
When I bought my Cessna a few years ago, the very first thing I did
was install Whelen wing tip strobes, the brightest multiflash ones
they offered. My purpose was to increase my visibility during day vfr
flight to minimize the risk of collision.
I later discovered the strobes had little effect. I was visiting the
local control tower and asked the controllers what made an airplane
most visible. They said in all cases they can see the aircraft before
the strobes become apparent. I watched some arrivals and sadly, it is
true.
So now my objective with strobes is night vfr visibility. Although
nav lights are visible from a great distance, something that flashes
is far easier to identify as an aircraft. Unfortunately, the strobes
on my Cessna are so bright, I can rarely use them at night, even
though the tubes themselves are not directly visible. So I fly with
them off most of the time, defeating the purpose 
Also, the glass covers over my strobe tubes always have condensed
moisture on the inside. I suspect this dims them somewhat.
I also tried to do a brightness comparison of LED versus strobe tubes.
The manufacturers are not co-operative, providing data in a form
difficult to compare.
My conclusion was that if you want the brightest possible, strobe
tubes are it, especially when fired by higher-powered electronics.
The Aveoflash LED units slightly exceed the FAR requirements
horizontally, but are not as bright in other directions that don't
matter.
At night, the Aveoflash units should be excellent, since super-bright
is perhaps a disadvantage. During the day, it doesn't matter anyway.
There is a huge savings in installation effort and runtime current, so
these are what I will be using.
Jeff Page
Dream Aircraft Tundra #10
> From: Paul McAllister <l_luv2_fly(at)yahoo.com>
> Subject: LED Strobes & FAR Requirements
>
> I noticed a lot of manufacturers offering LED Strobes at Airventure
> last year.
>
> I was wondering how do I determine if the light output meets or exceeds
> a T
> SP'd Xenon strobe.- I seem to recall that there was a minimum
> requirement
> stated in Joules, but I can't be sure.
>
> Does anyone know how I could go about making such a comparison ?
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