Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 17:32:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Gunrider@aol.com Subject: COZY: LANDING LIGHT O.K. guys, what is the best overall combination of weight, size, heat, lumens for a landing light in a Cozy MKIV and where can I get it? Thanks, Hugh Farrior Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 23:32:45 -0400 From: Jim Hocut Subject: Re: COZY: LANDING LIGHT I doubt if there's going to be any concensus at all on the one and only "best". My 2 cents though (and I'll admit my idea's only in the tinkering stage still). It looks as though a standard automotive rectangular headlamp ought to be able to squeeze into the nose, and then a nifty clear cover like Marc describes on his web page to finish it off. With the high/low beam headlight you can have both elements on at once if you so desire and you're covered for final, flare, and rollout/taxi. Like I said though, I haven't proven that this will fit yet, it's going to be close. Jim Hocut jhocut@mindspring.com Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 10:47:36 -0400 From: wilhelmson@scra.org Subject: Re[2]: COZY: LANDING LIGHT Auto type sealed beam head lights are glass and very heavy. If you check the auto catalogs you will find identical units molded from impact resistant clear polycarb that are very light. These units are for off road vehicles where glass gets broken by flying rocks. I have been using one of these in my airplane with no problems. Jack Wilhelmson N711CZ Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 00:42:39 -0700 (MST) From: "Dr. Doug Ashby" Subject: COZY: Landing light test After reading the more recent comments from the Cozy group and viewing Marc's and Brian DeFords webpages on the use of automotive halogen driving lights in their Cozy Mark IV noses as landing lights I went out and purchased a set from AutoZone to do the same. I happened to mention this to a friend (he asked to remain anonymous- he doesn't need the praise or the blame on mods) who is a professional at homebuilt airplane composites {has contract built 2 EZ's and a Defiant and helped Nat with various project stages} and now is working on molds for the kit production of a composite twin engine seaplane which has a huge wing span. He said he had often wondered how these auto driving lights might compare with what he has used of the aircraft landing light variety. I didn't think much of a comparison test until later I was talking to Ed Neilander who asked what the candlepower was of these auto driving lights. The c.p. was not listed on the box or instructions, so curiosity got the best of us. Using my AutoZone lamps (return receipt in the box) and the help of the 'Masked Composite Marvel' and his extra landing light...... We/ he ran a simple test on two lighting systems: 1. "Pilot" PL-1010B (O.E. Pro Series - High Power Halogen Driving Lamps) ($59.99 from Auto Zone) This contained two 55 Watt, 12 Volt halogen. "Pilot" also sell a $37 pair (also 55 Watts @) that looked identical to the one Marc and Brian had pictured in their web pages, which are halogen driving lamps (but don't say "High Power"). I suppose (hoped) there was something special in the "High Power" besides an extra $20. 2. "GE" Q4509 (sealed beam long life aircraft lamp) This contained a circular lamp (~ 4" dia.) similar to a car headlamp- 100 Watt, 13 Volt from Aircraft Spruce, $24.75. We positioned the systems directed out across acouple acre lots at some trees in the foreground and some higher trees beyond. My guess was about 50 - 75 yards in the foreground and 100 - 125 in the distance. Using a 12 volt car battery, we connected the pair of 55 Watt "Pilot" driving lamp units which were already mounted in their styrofoam shipping box about 3 - 4 inches apart. They were a little narrower than might be positioned in the nose cone, but both were aiming in the same direction, while the single "GE" aircraft lamp was mounted/ attached to it's own smaller 12 volt battery like is used in camping with an adjustable hinge for aiming. The two systems were illuminated separately (and simultaneously) and the difference was dramatic. End of test. No point going on. The aircraft "GE" lamp cast a beam that maintained a narrower rectangular beam disbursement well beyond the first set of trees and easily illuminated the second set of trees off in the distance. The auto driving lamps displayed an immediate scattered illumination pattern. They did light up the first set of trees in a much weaker and diffuse pattern (at less than 50%) while not even illuminating the second set of trees. Their combined beam seem to become disbursed immediately, while the aircraft lamp maintained an almost rectangular beam out past the first set of trees or on anything you aimed it at. The '96-'97 Spruce catalogue (page 321) says this new GE Q4509 has a narrower beam disbursement, four times the life (100 hrs. vs 25 hrs) and double the candlepower of the standard GE 4509 sealed beam lamp of the same wattage and amperage which sells for $9.85. I guess the best comparison has to come in the air on approach, but my friend who shared his aircraft bulb and his opinion but NOT HIS NAME indicated he would not use or recommend this pair of 55 Watt auto driving lamps after this comparison. We didn't discuss exact clearance dimensions from the glass/ foam for installation but he wasn't worried about over heating.... but I know he wouldn't do any modification without careful temperature testing. He thought it would fit just below center in the nose cone (repositioning NG 31 bulkhead higher). He said he didn't see any reason to have two directed beams; that one in a slight downward position could serve both purposes and he has installed the single GE Q4509 lamps (or similar) in the noses of several planes. I hope this will be of help to you and others. I won't be using the auto driving lamps and I may stick with the system in the plans if I can't find enough room with this bigger lamp taking up space for ballast, tie downs and a set of golf clubs. Marc, I appreciate all your work at displaying your project and moderating, coordinating and controlling the Cozy builders forum. My thanks also to Ed Neilander who originally questioned the subject of candlepower and 'kemo sabe' (sp?) for conducting the test before I started cutting on my nose, ouch!!! Thanks, Doug Ashby From: "Charles F. Wolcott" Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 11:51:15 +0000 Subject: COZY: Landing light in nose??? Something to think about before you mount the landing light in the nose--- I have to put 50# of lead shot in my nose when I fly solo to stay near the center of c.g. Almost all of the space inside the nose is taken up, with room, at the most, for another bag or two (5 # ea bag). I know you can locate ballast further inboard, but the weight increases as it is moved aft. Chuck Wolcott chuckw@qnet.com 185 hrs on MKIV #154 Chuck Wolcott chuckw@qnet.com From: Marc J. Zeitlin Subject: COZY: Landing light test (fwd) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 97 10:58:52 EDT Doug Ashby writes: > We/ he ran a simple test on two lighting systems: >The two systems were illuminated separately (and simultaneously) and the >difference was dramatic. End of test. No point going on. The aircraft >"GE" lamp cast a beam....... This is a great test - thanks for doing this and reporting on it. Got a couple of comments: While it is now obvious that a couple of 55 watt halogens doesn't hold a candle (bad pun) to a 100 watt landing light, this doesn't _necessarily_ mean that the twin 55's are inadequate (although they might be). The FAR's (part 91.205) don't even require a landing light for night flight unless you are operating for hire, and they don't specify the strength of the light even then (although it does have to be electric - I guess they don't want any acetylene lamps :-) ). Anyway, I'll find out, as I'll be keeping my system for the time being - if it's inadequate, I'll switch to something stronger - my lamps are easily removable and switchable. >Marc, I appreciate all your work at displaying your project and moderating, >coordinating and controlling the Cozy builders forum. Yeah, yeah, yeah, shoot my landing light system all to hell and then tell me I'm doing a good job :-). Thanks, Doug - great work on the testing. -- Marc J. Zeitlin Email: marcz@an.hp.com From: "mel" Subject: Re: COZY: Halogen lights Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 16:40:36 -0400 hallogen lights (lsd) ive changed the 55 watt bulb out for a 100 watt bulb (sold in same parts store as light fixture) seems bright enough to me. my 2 cents worth norm cozy IV #202 ---------- > From: Gunrider@aol.com > To: Cozy_builders@hpwarhw.an.hp.com > Subject: COZY: Halogen lights > Date: Thursday, June 19, 1997 8:33 AM > > I was just nearing the conclusion of someone's interesting story on light > compaarisons when I was knocked off line and lost the email when I got back > on ( which happens often on AOL). I had just purchased the auto halogens. > Could someone please tell me which was significantly better - auto halogen or > GE aircraft? > Thanks > Hugh Farrior Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 14:15:48 -0700 (MST) From: "Dr. Doug Ashby" Subject: Re: COZY: Landing light retest >Are the lamps you used egg shaped with a black plastic case and 2 >inch focusing lens ? If so did you remove the light difuser thats >inside the housing ? EAA technical adviser newsletter discribes this >light and how to modify it for aircraft use. It was in a 96' letter >reporting on it's use in a lancair aircraft. I don't have the >newsletter, but J.D. at infinity should have a copy, as thats where I >read it. > >Lou Lauriello >Chapter 11 > Doug, Did you happen to take the driving lights apart and remove the relective diffuser bars inside them before testing? If not I think you will find you get much more narrow and far reaching beams and a better comparison to the single lamp. I think the driving lights are primarily designed to diffuse light immediately in front of vehicles for better visibility in fog, etc. I built my nose with the two 55W lamps installed side by side, but first I hooked them up to my truck's battery one night to test their effectiveness. Like you I was initially disappointed at how little candle power seemed to be thrown out in front. I took apart the parabolic housing and discovered a diffuser bar right in front of the bulb. On mine the bar is just a lightweight, shiny strip of metal screwed to the plastic lamp housing. After removing these and reassembling the housings, I tried the lights again and was satisfied enough to modify the nose for them. Roger Shell N357CZ Chapter 19 Lou and Roger, That may be the trick! I'll try this tonight and again aim at those sets of trees and compare with the lens removed. My unit, however, does not have a diffuser bar or metal strip immediately infront of the bulb but it has a reflective circular ring (1/2" thick cylinder, 1 3/4" dia.) that narrows the chamber and beam as it leaves the bulb. To remove the lens in this unit means removing the ring. The model of driving light I bought is not the plastic egg shape style as you described (I saw that same model in the store). The housing with lens is almost round when viewed from above - down, but from the front and sides they are oval shaped. (It would be like taking a rubber ball and squeezing it from above down) The radii of lens conforms to those same shapes. The other model in plastic is round when view from the front and oval from above - down and from the sides, so it's lens is completely round and as you said with a 2" focusing lens. My lens is oval and therefore, a longer radius when viewed from above down (3+") and a sharper radius viewed from the sides (~2"). All you engineers should be able to comment on this beam affect. We'll see what happens. Thank for the advise, Doug Ashby From: "mel" Subject: Re: COZY: Landing light in nose??? Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 11:29:31 -0400 two cozy builders that use halogens in nose and strake both had plastic housings melt and had to find the steel housings, since there is no air flow to cool these items down in those locations, whereas the belly mounted light is in the airstream. norm cozy IV #202 ---------- > From: Charles F. Wolcott > To: cozy_builders@hpwarhw.an.hp.com > Subject: COZY: Landing light in nose??? > Date: Thursday, June 19, 1997 7:51 AM > > Something to think about before you mount the landing light in the > nose--- > I have to put 50# of lead shot in my nose when I fly solo to stay > near the center of c.g. Almost all of the space inside the nose > is taken up, with room, at the most, for another bag or two (5 # ea > bag). I know you can locate ballast further inboard, but the weight > increases as it is moved aft. > Chuck Wolcott > chuckw@qnet.com > 185 hrs on MKIV #154 > Chuck Wolcott > chuckw@qnet.com > Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 14:33:31 -0700 (MST) From: "Dr. Doug Ashby" Subject: COZY: landing light retest I retested the units I bought, ("Pilot" High Power Driving Lamps- PL 1010B 55w 12v H3 halogen) with and without the lens assembly. No difuser metal strip or plate present in this model and no appreciable difference in beams. I wouldn't use this type. The plastic egg shaped brand I saw is from "Blazer Internat'l". I thought it was another model from "Pilot", but I was wrong so it wouldn't be fair to judge my comparison with another brand. The 2" lens or housing could not be easily disassembled in the store to examine the bulb and see if it was also a H3 55w 12v halogen. For those who have recently installed this type, I would be curious if that bulb has a removable "difuser plate' and / or if the removal of the 2" lens might significantly change the distance, intensity, or narrow the beam dispursement. It's good to hear from those who have made similar comparisons and discovered ways to improve the use of these compact auto driving lights and also discovered some of the negatives with overheating/ melting of the surrounding materials, loss of ballast compartment space, etc. Doug Ashby Mark IV #435 chapter 13 Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 22:19:36 -0400 (EDT) From: CozyBldr@aol.com Subject: Re: COZY: LANDING LIGHT In a message dated 97-06-19 10:59:23 EDT, you write: << I doubt if there's going to be any concensus at all on the one and only "best". My 2 cents though (and I'll admit my idea's only in the tinkering stage still). It looks as though a standard automotive rectangular headlamp ought to be able to squeeze into the nose, and then a nifty clear cover like Marc describes on his web page to finish it off. With the high/low beam headlight you can have both elements on at once if you so desire and you're covered for final, flare, and rollout/taxi. Like I said though, I haven't proven that this will fit yet, it's going to be close. Jim Hocut >> That's exactly what I did except I didn't find a high/low beam combination. The fit is very tight but it does work. I mounted the light on a hinge assembly so that a cable could be attached to change the angle of the light. I will probably mount it at a set angle as I am more concerned with being seen by others as opposed to landing with it. I molded a piece of plexi (pain in the ass - five tries) by making a plaster mold of the nose cone, covering the plaster with a fine cloth and holding the heated plexi in place with oven mitts until it cooled enough. Instead of the one vertical bulkhead in the nose there are now two, one on each side of the lamp. The horizontal bulkhead has a small cover for access to the lamp which still gives me some room for ballast. I may have to carve out some foam on F-0 to get the correct angle. I also drilled some holes in F-0 and the horizontal bulkhead to aid in cooling. It gets warm but it doesn't seem unreasonable. I have gotten a lot of nice compliments on its looks and I discovered an added benefit. Since the pitot tube is directly above the lamp, I now have a heated pitot tube. Of course, I did design it with that in mind;-). If anyone is interested, I'll take photos, scan them and send them to Marc. Paul Stowitts Cozy Mark IV #200 Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 02:00:05 -0700 (MST) From: "Dr. Doug Ashby" Subject: COZY: Stretch-forming acrylics/ Plexiglas I haven't attempted or decided to make a lens for my nose cone yet, but here is a tip on stretch-forming given to me by my 'masked composite friend'. The technique was written up in an old issue of Sportsplane Builder by Tony Bingelis. Rather than try to shape the acrylic sheet over the male mold with oven mittens do the following: 1. Build a stretching frame with two 3/8" plywood (or something rigid) window-like 'picture frames'. Obviously the frame opening must be large enough to allow enough of the plexiglas to stretch over the mold. Depending on the mold or male plug used, it might need to be mounted on a stand to allow the stetching to be drawn beyond the bottom edge of plug since considerable downward force must be exerted to stretch the heated Plexiglas over certain forms. 2. Sandwich the Plexiglas between them with two bolts in each end. The ideas behind only two fasteners in each end was to allow the heated rubber-like Plexiglas to stretch in whatever direction it had to as it was being pulled down over the compound curves of a male plug. The minimum clamping technique also is to reduce the amount of thinning in the Plexiglas that normally results when you stretch the sheet over a sharply contoured mold. The two bolts on each end also must drilled through the Plexiglas. He says, to avoid cracking the Plexiglas, the holes for the bolts were drilled oversized with a modified drill bit that had the cutting edges (at the point) honed flat to keep from 'hogging in' (?). 3. Also, a contour restraining template is used immediately following the 'stretch' to keep the Plexiglas from pulling away from the bottom edges of the form. This is accomplished by quickly forcing a template (the actual shape of the edges of the finished lens) down over the stretched Plexiglas while it is still hot and soft. The contour restraining template must have a cut out opening duplicating the shape of the male plug with the additional clearance all around equal to the thickness of the Plexiglas used. 4. Place the frame with Plexiglas in the oven sitting up on two short 2 X 4's because the Plexiglas will sag. Set the oven for 350 degrees. The first sign that the Plexiglas is hot enough to be stretch-formed is when you see a few bubbles begin to appear in the Plexiglas near the edge of the plywood frame. You have to work quickly. Grasping the plywood stretching frame at each end with gloves and smoothly and positively force the frame down over the male plug until it is at or slightly below the bottom level of the mold. A helper can then, working quickly, force the plywood contour template down over the stretched Plexiglas causing it to hug the plug in all areas. 5. After a few minutes the frames and templates can be loosened and the Plexiglas should be allowed to gradually cool to room temperature. The final Plexiglas part can be cut away with a 3" abrasive disc to avoid cracking the lens. The heat generated along th line of cut makes the Plexiglas less brittle and less prone to crack or break. Final trimming can be done with a Dremel and fine tooth saw blades. Edges can then be smoothed with medium coarse aluminum oxide sandpaper on a smooth surface or sanding block. 6. It is suggested that while you are at it, make another replacement lens. Doug Ashby Mark IV, Chapter 13+