I’ve been contacted by another TB20 owner for views on this.
The main HID players are [LoPresti](http://speedmods.com/boom_beam/boom_beam_systems.htm) and [Precise Flight](http://preciseflight.com/general-aviation/shop/hid-lights-general-aviation/).
The main LED players are [Alphabeam](http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/teledynelandinglight.php) and probably [AeroLEDs](http://www.aeroleds.com/shop/category/faa-certified-landing-lights/).
Can anybody offer views on the relative brightness of these two systems?
The LEDs are 10x the cost of normal GE halogen lamps but are still much cheaper than (and trivial to install compared to) HIDs.
The LEDs are [much brighter](http://www.euroga.org/forums/maintenance-avionics/216-led-lighting?page=5) than the normal lamps and I would be suprised if they were not as bright as HIDs but I don’t think I have ever seen HIDs here in Europe.
I had installed LoPresti HID lights in the wingtips of my former arrow.
[Look here to see them in action](https://www.icloud.com/photostream/de-de/#A1JtdOXmJfrGkL)
Landing light was LED.
Sorry – not clear to me. Which one do you think is brighter?
The HIDs. But I won’t buy them again as they are quite expensive. LEDs are fine.
I had to replace my Lopresti HID lights on the Jetprop with LED’s after they kept blowing due to condensation forming on the inside of the external lens, when parked overnight with full tanks with a large dew spread.
In fairness, I am in an extreme climate.
I also found that the HID’s degraded over a 7-8 month period when used extensively in pulse mode during flight.
I replaced my wing taxi lights with LED’s and have not looked back. They are brighter than my 35w HID’s, draw less power, and two years on have been install and forget.
I would never go back to HID.
E
It tells me something that Cessna choose to put LED landing, taxi, and recognition lights on their new model Citations.
I would go for LED every time, there is a whole lot less to go wrong too, the ballasts on the HID’s are not straightforward to design.
Just out of interest I’m trying to replace the landing light at the moment in a Piper Arrow (lower engine cowling) with a Teledyne Alpha Beam and I would say that without filing the mounting hole it will not fit easily. Also, the bezel is not a good fit. Anyone else tried this?
Yes – see the link I posted above.
The LED lamps are not an exact mechanical replacement. In the TB20 it was a case of bending the spring clips a bit but I can imagine on some planes it would need more work. Then you have to consider the possibility of somebody putting the old type lamps back in and finding they are too loose 
But the result (see above link) makes it massively worth doing!
I changed to LED after I had to change my conventional landing light 4 times in 3 months. No problems whatsoever since and the LED’s are massively brighter than the normal lamps I used before. Now in there since 2 years and working fine.
We did have to fiddle a bit to get them to shine onto the runway sufficiently (more downwards than the old mount) but it worked very well.
Shortly after the LED was fitted, some of my pilots did NIT training out of ZRH. I got some comments from the controllers that they at first were startled by the light as it from their perspective was MUCH brighter than the ones normally used. I did see it for myself one evening when I was on duty and my aircraft came on the frequency returning from NIT training, The light was visible very clearly on a distance much further than I would have expected from the normal lights I see.
Yes, LED is more expensive but for me it already paid up as the previous 4 lamps I had to replace together were worth more than this light. And since then, no problems.
This is what Paul Bertorelli wrote in the April 2009 issue of Aviation Consumer, comparing 3 types of landing light: standard, HID and LED. I do not know if the picture have changed since then.
“All three products produce a different quality of light. The Q4509’s beam is hot, yellow and narrow and produces high, almost harsh contrast in objects it illuminates. Because of the narrowness of the beam, close-in objects such as taxiway edges are poorly illuminated. The HID has a similarly tight beam, but it’s a cooler blue and less contrasty. But it’s noticeably and measurably brighter. Of the three, it does distance illumination best, but has to be aimed carefully.
The LED is measurably the least bright of the three, but we were surprised at the quality of the light. While the HID practically torched the 300-foot target, the LED illuminated it minimally. But it was still visible and, moreover, because of the wider, diffuse beam, the LED lamp showed close-in detail better, including the taxiway edges. When viewed from down range and off axis, the LED’s wider arc appeared more bloblike than the other two, which we think makes it a better recognition light. The built-in-flasher improved this."
