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Light for the Cockpit / head torch

Vladimir wrote:

What do you use as a light for night flights when your plane doesn’t have any integrated ones (or they don’t work) or as a backup?

A headlight.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Peter wrote:

The TB20 has very good cockpit lighting but if you get a total loss of that you have had it…

I got my night rating before there were LED lamps so headlights were not practicable. My instructor simulated a total electrical failure by turning off the master switch and asked me what I would to. I said “I ask my passenger to hold the flashlight for me”. Then he waved his hands and said, “No, I’m panicking”. So I had to hold the flashlight in one hand and do everything necessary to land the plane with the other one. It did work.

Last Edited by Airborne_Again at 27 Oct 09:31
ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden
fly2000

Slightly off topic, this reminds me of some of the SR71 stories I read, where they turn lights off even with no moon, and still can see everything.
There’s another one of the pilots having to turn the lights on, as the Northern lights are too strong and they fear might impact them.

One moonless night, while flying a routine training mission over the Pacific, I wondered what the sky would look like from 84,000 feet if the cockpit lighting were dark. While heading home on a straight course, I slowly turned down all of the lighting, reducing the glare and revealing the night sky. Within seconds, I turned the lights back up, fearful that the jet would know and somehow punish me. But my desire to see the sky overruled my caution, I dimmed the lighting again. To my amazement, I saw a bright light outside my window. As my eyes adjusted to the view, I realized that the brilliance was the broad expanse of the Milky Way, now a gleaming stripe across the sky. Where dark spaces in the sky had usually existed, there were now dense clusters of sparkling stars Shooting stars flashed across the canvas every few seconds. It was like a fireworks display with no sound. I knew I had to get my eyes back on the instruments, and reluctantly I brought my attention back inside. To my surprise, with the cockpit lighting still off, I could see every gauge, lit by starlight. In the plane’s mirrors, I could see the eerie shine of my gold spacesuit incandescently illuminated in a celestial glow. I stole one last glance out the window. Despite our speed, we seemed still before the heavens, humbled in the radiance of a much greater power. For those few moments, I felt a part of something far more significant than anything we were doing in the plane. The sharp sound of Walt’s voice on the radio brought me back to the tasks at hand as I prepared for our descent.

Flying at nigth, I personnaly like the least amount of light possible. iPad to the absolute minimum (and off when not in use), G1000 at about 1% or less of brightness, and enjoy the night.
Of course, I still carry a head torch (already on my head) and a flashlight but that’s for the ground and emergencies

I use a Petzl LED headtorch but I find it too bright even on the lowest setting. I had to stick some white electrical tape over the LEDs to dim it down a bit. Batteries last forever though.

Fairoaks, United Kingdom

Wonderful SR71 description.

One good thing about those Zebra lights is that they dim right down, and that makes the battery life hundreds of hours.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

One of my favorite topics (As an amateur astronomer, night vision preserving lighting is a constant challenge.)

Generally I share the opinion expressed here: http://stlplaces.com/night_vision_red_myth/ In brief: The red lighting originates from the early ages of photography when black and white films were insensible to red light. This associated red lighting and darkness and when aviation came along, the red lighting was simply carried along. Personally, dimmed white or orange light (as suggested in that article) works fine for me, a compromise between the ability to read small print and preserving night vision at best. Most modern aircraft (the commercial ones at least) have this kind of lighting.

For emergencies, any torch will do for me. At work we have two (that’s a requirement around here) small LED flashlights stowed in clip holders next to the oxygen masks. So far I never had to use one other than doing my outside checks at night. When I go flying with students I take any small flashlight from my (growing) collection with me. I really have the whole bandwidth, from keyring torch to 100W battery powered searchlamp…

Mainly for my astronomy I have been experimenting with variable colour, variable brightness and self-adjusting lamps for some time (I already showed one of my prototypes in another thread). This is my latest headlamp version still in it’s breadboard stage. As soon as my 3D printer is up and running, I will make a housing for it and start testing (the CAD model is already there). It uses a “Neopixel ring” with 60mm diameter an 16 RGB LEDs as light source which can be adjusted to any colour and brightness individually. Two of the LiIon rechargeable batteries depicted in the image will last for many hours. The little tube in the middle contains a sensor which measures ambient light brightness and colour and can adjust the lamp automatically. The Serenity keyring is only there to show the dimension. It cost more than all the parts of the lamp together!

EDDS - Stuttgart

That’s a great project, what_next.

We did a bit of this here

It is especially interesting if one can combine a hobby like electronics with aviation. Unfortunately the possibilities are limited to removable stuff

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I also use an LED headlamp (I think the Petzl one which has been mentioned here already), but only as a backup, because I find it too bright for prolonged use; otherwise I try to use the light sources from the plane, which will be dimmed as much as possible. I also carry two other lights (one little mag lite which was a present for subscribing to Pilot & Flugzeug and another LED headlamp) as additional backup and also for the walkaround.

Ever since an “interesting” experience during my night VFR training, I take care to actually wear the headlamp at night. We went for one of the mandatory cross country flights with an instructor and my friend, and I did the outward flight. After landing, we changed pilots on the apron, with the engine running at idle, and the two lights (IIRC) (landing & taxi light) on. Only that on this plane (C177RG), there was some glitch which made the lights draw a lot of current when on. So we ligned up again for take-off and departed into the pitch black night (no lights on the ground at that airfield and overcast sky further above). On climbout, my friend selected gear up, then the radios went out, and very soon afterwards everything went dark! The hydraulic pump had drained whatever life remained in the battery and that was enough to make all electrics go off. We scrambled for the torches and it took an eternity (probably more like 10 seconds) to find one and put it on. On the way back, we switched off as much electrics as possible and when we arrived, we had enough power for a normal gear extension. But that moment on climbout were the longest 10 seconds of my life, and since then the light goes onto my head, not in a pocket, backpack, glove box or anywhere else where you would first have to get it from.

Last Edited by Rwy20 at 27 Oct 12:45

An interesting Q is how many people actually wear theirs when flying at night. It would be hard to locate if everything suddenly goes dark….

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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