Beacon help

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Beacon help

F-19 Beacon light

[bashibazouk]

Re: Beacon help

Thanks Mark.

[waltermrich]

Re: Beacon help

As reguards to position lights, I know that the FARs when I last checked [in the late 90's] stated that older antique airplanes only required position lights to fly at night, I do not think that reg has been changed requiring a strobe , but I might be wrong. Some one knows for sure let me know.

[3Dreaming]

Re: Beacon help

91.205 (c) (3) No one may operate an aircraft in VFR night flight unless it has,
An approved aviation red or aviation white anticollision light system on all U.S.-registered civil aircraft. Anticollision light systems initially installed after August 11, 1971, on aircraft for which a type certificate was issued or applied for before August 11, 1971, must at least meet the anticollision light standards of part 23, 25, 27, or 29 of this chapter, as applicable, that were in effect on August 10, 1971, except that the color may be either aviation red or aviation white. In the event of failure of any light of the anticollision light system, operations with the aircraft may be continued to a stop where repairs or replacement can be made.

[NY86]

Re: Beacon help

91.205 (c) (3) ....

And now the circle is complete....


BTW, the reason you see all those newer planes with their strobes going during the daytime is, if you got them, you have to turn them on, even if it's on your old BC12.

[Frank DeBartolo]

Re: Beacon help

OK,

So the way I see it, if you have a BC12-D with functioning position lights only, you cannot fly at night without anti-collision lights or beacon but you can legally fly between sunset and the end of civil twilight. Am I correct in how I understand the regs.

Frank D
N43684

[jim cooper]

Re: Beacon help

The reason you see late model aircraft, or those with strobes .....turned on in the daytime, is that they don't want to have a midair! The Baltimore area on a nice day is LOADED with aircraft. Strobes are much easier to see in daytime than no strobes! For the same reason cubs were painted bright yellow. Stearmans also. Its pretty self explanatory.JC

[3Dreaming]

Re: Beacon help

The reason you see late model aircraft, or those with strobes .....turned on in the daytime, is that they don't want to have a midair! The Baltimore area on a nice day is LOADED with aircraft. Strobes are much easier to see in daytime than no strobes! For the same reason cubs were painted bright yellow. Stearmans also. Its pretty self explanatory.JC

That, and it is the law!

[NY86]

Re: Beacon help

That, and it is the law!

§ 91.209 Aircraft lights.

No person may:

(a)...

(b) Operate an aircraft that is equipped with an anticollision light system, unless it has lighted anticollision lights. However, the anticollision lights need not be lighted when the pilot-in-command determines that, because of operating conditions, it would be in the interest of safety to turn the lights off.

[bashibazouk]

Re: Beacon help

I really didn't intend to start the argument over regs again. My question was one of how guys are complying with the requirement. The automotive flasher is one solution and it's a whole lot cheaper than this, but:

(Click on the picture for the link to Wag Aero's catalog)

But it does only draw 0.6 amps (peak of 1.2? I wonder if that's every time it flashes?)

Thoughts?

(Other than "you're an idiot to fly in the dark" and "old airplanes weren't meant to fly at night," etc!)

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Beacon help

Josh,
That looks like a great beacon if you can get it approved. Very similar the the F-19 in shape.

I have position lights and a tail strobe. Not exactly legal because of the coverage, but I have gotten stuck time wise and at civil twilight I was a lot more visible.

The position lights draw 1 Amp each and the strobe draws 1 amp - so total of four amps. With an 8 amp hour battery I could get theoretically 2 hours out of it, but realistically I expect 1 hour running all lights and that is only if I must due to poor time planning.

[NY86]

Re: Beacon help

...With an 8 amp hour battery I could get theoretically 2 hours out of it, but realistically I expect 1 hour running all lights and that is only if I must due to poor time planning.

A battery's amp hour rating is typically what they call the 20 hour rate, i.e. if you can draw 1 amp for 20 hours you give it a 20 amp hour rating. The single hour rate is usually less than half the 20 hour rate, which jives pretty closely with your experience. To get the 8 amp hour performance you would have to draw 0.4 amps for 20 hours.