Flashlight...

Brinkmann LED in the drinkholder, Brookstone Astro on a lanyard, a penlight in my pocket, coin light on the keychain, lip light on the mic boom, iPhone flashlight.

The 2001 OSU basketball team was leaving CO in a King Air 200. Night IMC. They lost electrical power during the climb and the cockpit went dark. There was immediate spatial disorientation, a stall/spin leading to the graveyard spiral and crash that killed all 10.
 
phoenix 23684 said:
So what is D cell equivalent, in the eyes of the FAA?

The best I could come up was by looking up the ANSI Std. Looking at a 2 D cell mag lite ANSI, the two variables were lumens (19) and battery (10hr).

Now, looking at the modern flashlights with LEDs, most will surpass the lumens, but not necessarily the duration, unless you find one that has multiple settings. I did buy one where the lower brightness setting does indeed output more than 19 lumens for 40 hours I believe.

This may seem overkill on my part, but no one has ever been able to answer the FAAs definition of what a D cell equivalent is.
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I went with the lumen requirement and a reasonable battery life. I too researched this to not only comply but if ever I was asked I would have a valid response, as you know just sounding confident in your answer gets you pretty far in life...

Technology surpasses regs quickly and when those regs were written the standard flashlight had an incandescent bulb.

As you said, the original 2-D maglites had low power and fairly short battery life.

An LED is brighter and will in general destroy the battery life of the original mag lites. It's funny though, as most of the higher end brighter flashlights folks are discussing here last only an hour or two at their brightest setting.

Either way, I'd stick to a higher lumen output and reasonable battery life and I think you'll be OK. Just don't use the $1.47 specials if you want to remain in the clear, although as someone said, has an inspector EVER asked to see your flashlight?! :)
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
Well since it is already in my pocket...

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Of course when I saw the thread title I started to boogie



I'm too funky
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Dammit, I was just about to post that Parliament video!
 
tomokc said:
Brinkmann LED in the drinkholder, Brookstone Astro on a lanyard, a penlight in my pocket, coin light on the keychain, lip light on the mic boom, iPhone flashlight.

The 2001 OSU basketball team was leaving CO in a King Air 200. Night IMC. They lost electrical power during the climb and the cockpit went dark. There was immediate spatial disorientation, a stall/spin leading to the graveyard spiral and crash that killed all 10.
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Yeah, I hear you. There was a Citation that went down in Lake Superior a few years back so now, no matter where I fly, I carry a raft, a water rescue ring, wear a professional skier's life preserver vest, and have a collapsible canoe paddle......ya just never know...........;)
 
...and a fingerlight. I may look like part of the Sound & Light crew from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but I'm not crashing because I can't see the panel!
 
hook_dupin said:
I have a Petzl head lamp that has a red and white setting. I wear it Flav-o-Flav style around my neck most of the time. It's especially hip when I forget it then go to the bar with a headlamp around my neck.
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I use the same. Mine has a flip up and down red lens, so I don't have to cycle through all of the retina scarring white light modes in the middle of a night x-country to get to what I want as is the case with many models.

Gotta have a headlight, imo. Last thing I want is to be trying to hold a flashlight with one hand and working/flying with the other if something interesting is going on in night IMC. Same goes for fleshlights.
 
I have one of those energizer LED head lamps. Has a red light, and then a bright white light. During a night flight I always have to remember to flip the switch to the left for red. On the off chance I flip it the other way everyone gets a nice blinding light in the cockpit... The white light works well for preflighting.
 
Harbor Freight AAA led. Done.

This is for an airplane where you don't need a kneeboard and if the cockpit goes completely dark, you did it to yourself.
 
Polar742 said:
Harbor Freight AAA led. Done.

This is for an airplane where you don't need a kneeboard and if the cockpit goes completely dark, you did to yourself.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^

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Completely agree. I have so many of these things around they are starting to remind me of Tribbles! (Google it youngsters!)

They are bright enough, battery life is fairly good, and the best part is that I don't care if I leave one on the plane!
 
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