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Light for the Cockpit / head torch

I wear a Petzl Tikkina during every nightflight. With three separate white intensities and additional red light capability it does everything I need.

EDAQ, Germany

I have this one

ESMK, Sweden

When nightflying in the Jodel DR1050 I always had several torches, on my clothing. I sometimes needed one. Too much use of landing light in the circuit depleted the battery. EdoAire Radio then transmitted, but did not receive, as the solenoid which switched between them had transmit as default. Warning was slowing of the strobe.
(Last Jodel night flight was in 1998)

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

I have about 25 hours at night and I always wear my Petzl Tikka. Very good product. In fact, I use it for the preflight inspection (planes are parked outside) and post flight to gather my stuff so keeping it on my head is natural.
It doesn’t seem to scare my passengers
I also have a white light in my pocket at all times (everyday).
Depending on the Cessna I rent, the cockpit red light is more or less effective.
On my last night flight (LFAT to LFPT), it was pretty useless so I used my headlight every 5 minutes or so to check engine instruments, and back in the dark again Same with the Ipad, which can’t be dimmed enough (don’t know why).

The altimeter and ASI are readable from ambient light with their white arrows. Compass and CDI have their own light so I can say I work on my partial panel skills

One option for an aviation handlight (not head light) is this one : Surefire Aviator

LFOU, France

@Jujupilote, you are right, I mixed up my kids’ Tikkina headlights with my model, which is indeed the Tikka lamp with the additional red light option

Last Edited by slowflyer at 02 Mar 20:48
EDAQ, Germany

I started with a liteXpress Liberty 116 on recommendation of my NIT instructor, flying the club planes where you cannot count on any light working (not any ambient light, not any panel light); it has two buttons, one for colours and another for white so that you don’t have to cycle through white to get the colour you want.

Flying a plane where I can make sure the lights work, I now switched to a Petzl Tactikka +RGB. It has only one button, white is one of the four colours in the cycle.

ELLX

One more for the Patzl Tactikka, mine is an earlier Tactikka XP with Adapt Kit. I prefer not to use it in flight as head lamp, but clip it in front of my chest. By this I am able to move my line of sight and the light direction separately. Backup is the LED clip red rear light of my folding bike on board. For emergency light sword I went for a Klarus XT12GT – don’t start that one full power for in cockpit lighting ;-)! A small LED light is always on the keys as well.

Last Edited by at 09 Mar 08:50

I’ve just bought this and Ithink it is the best one I’ve seen so far – even better than the Zebralight ones mentioned above, which used to be US-only but this place sells them.

It has loads of brightness levels, which is key in most applications, whether flying with failed electrics, working on a plane, or reading a book in a tent

It will run on an AA for a long time.

They also do a 18650 battery version which is obviously better but is a lot bigger.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

An American instructor recommended the LipLite for night flying, which is a tiny led light that sits under the the headset microphone, and is switched on and off by touching it with your lip. It’s very handy for quickly looking at things without using your hands. The same company also does a tiny finger light in the same vein.

The downside of normal led lamps is that it’s hard to find a dim one, and they’re too bright to use in the cockpit. I guess a few sheets of coloured plastic on the lens would work too.

EGHO-LFQF-KCLW, United Kingdom

The downside of normal led lamps is that it’s hard to find a dim one

That’s indeed true, but all LED lamps nowadays are brightness-controlled via PWM (pulse width modulation) so doing an infinite brightness range is trivial. Not offering that is just a marketing decision.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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