I have a decent head-mounted one by Energizer (£20 at Halfords). It has three intensity steps of white light and one step of red (which you can use in most cases when white is too bright). Granted, it’s no substitute for a landing light, but for everything else on the ground and in the cockpit it’s been serving me well. It takes 3 AAA cells, which suffice for 20+ hours, and for those who wear belt and braces, the same company makes an AA/AAA charger running off a lighter socket.
The best head mounted torches I have ever seen are from Zebralight in the USA. Unfortunately they are not very available in Europe.
They can be dimmed right down to a very low level.
For inspection usages I use those with which can dim
Do you have any pointer? For night VFR I’ve been looking for one that can be dimmed, but so far those I’ve seen are still too bright at their minimum.
Some give a very high intensity. For inspection usages I use those with which can dim. If they can not dim they tend to give to much light causing over illumination and glare, which actually makes it more difficult to inspect.
Take your pick, I have never used anything else since they came on the market. never had one fail.
Link
Yes but that is like a thousand others – you have to keep a spare battery kicking around. Some of them are very good though, but the really good ones empty the battery in minutes. Amazing price though!
That’s a very good lead, Jesse. I found a few of them, but unfortunately all are very small and appear to have a single little LED.
This gets closest but has a 5V (USB) charging input, so there is a pretty obvious solution, with a 28V to 5V converter.
I have seen very small LED torches which fit and recharge in the lighter socket. They construction seems to be quite good as well.
Why not take a cheapo LED torch and always carry a few replacement batteries in the aircraft? That’s what I do and it works just fine…
