LED Landing light for 172M

Jimmy_Norton

Jimmy_Norton

Well-Known Member
I'm trying to convince the flying club that I am in to replace the current stock landing light in our 172M with a LED landing light, and I am trying to see if there is anyone here with some real world experience with them. The light on this vintage of 172 is the giant pie plate sized light mounted in the nose. It burns out a few times per year, and costs $35 or so to replace. A new LED replacement is $229 from Aircraft Spruce (I'm sure I could find one cheaper somewhere else, but that is what I found with a quick and dirty search). The reasoning of the club members is that it is too much money to spend, and I'm trying to convince them that it will pay for itself after a few years, and we won't have to worry about it not working when we need it to.

My questions are: Is it just a plug and play replacement, or will there be significant labor costs to install this light? and Will it truly last 5000 hours like they say it will?

Thanks
 
I once maintained a 172M that had horrible problems keeping the landing light on (kept burning out). The owner finally replaced it with the LED. It doesn't have the same lighting ability as the incandescent, but it doesn't burn out. He's had it in the plane for several years, and not one problem. Installation shouldn't be more than an hour, I would think.
 
My flight school has converted all of the Cessna 172Ns to LED landing lights. The incandescent lights would literally burn out every other flight. The LED lights are rated for 1000 hours but I'm sure they'll last much longer than that.
 
Before I left the flight school, we replaced the landing light in our Seminole (had the nose inlet style light) and the landing/taxi in our 172RGs. I watched the Mx guys replace them, took all of 2 minutes after they had the covering off. The seminole was just a straight plug and play. It's much easier to see, lights up really well compared to the older lights and none have burned out yet. The seminole had a light that would die every 10hrs of use, not even joking.
 
Jimmy_Norton said:
I'm trying to convince the flying club that I am in to replace the current stock landing light in our 172M with a LED landing light, and I am trying to see if there is anyone here with some real world experience with them. The light on this vintage of 172 is the giant pie plate sized light mounted in the nose. It burns out a few times per year, and costs $35 or so to replace. A new LED replacement is $229 from Aircraft Spruce (I'm sure I could find one cheaper somewhere else, but that is what I found with a quick and dirty search). The reasoning of the club members is that it is too much money to spend, and I'm trying to convince them that it will pay for itself after a few years, and we won't have to worry about it not working when we need it to.

My questions are: Is it just a plug and play replacement, or will there be significant labor costs to install this light? and Will it truly last 5000 hours like they say it will?

Thanks
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Since we started replacing our landing lights with LED ones we haven't had a single failure, I used to change two or three a week. It's been 2 years. Do it, you wont regret it. We use these: http://www.whelen.com/pb/Aviation/Product Sheets/Parmetheus_Series.pdf
 
It should be a direct replacement. Takes all of 10 minutes and replacing bulbs is something an owner/operator can do.

By the way, PAR36 LED lamps are available for about $50. The $300 lamps are PMA'd, but guess what, the $15 incandescent bulbs that have been put in Cessnas for the past 60 years are not PMA'd either.
 
Thanks all....I think some of the members think it's a "blingy" thing, I argue it will improve safety, cause I know there are some people that don't turn it on unless they really need it. We have a meeting this weekend, we'll see if I can convince them it's a good idea.
 
rframe said:
It should be a direct replacement. Takes all of 10 minutes and replacing bulbs is something an owner/operator can do.

By the way, PAR36 LED lamps are available for about $50. The $300 lamps are PMA'd, but guess what, the $15 incandescent bulbs that have been put in Cessnas for the past 60 years are not PMA'd either.
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Can you point me at a place to get the $50 lights? I can only find the PMA lights.
 
LED lights are great as recog lights, though I've heard that the HIDs (which are more expensive and more paperwork intensive to install) do a better job as a landing light.
 
I seem to remember the 172M also having a problem with the wiring going to the landing/taxi light coming lose/off as well. I've landed one at night more times that I can count without lights, after they checked fine on pre-flight.
 
Jimmy_Norton said:
Thanks all....I think some of the members think it's a "blingy" thing, I argue it will improve safety, cause I know there are some people that don't turn it on unless they really need it. We have a meeting this weekend, we'll see if I can convince them it's a good idea.
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I used to tell people to only use the landing light if necessary at night, with these I tell them to burn them all the time if they want.
 
trafficinsight said:
I used to tell people to only use the landing light if necessary at night, with these I tell them to burn them all the time if they want.
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I always run landing lights unless there's a real good reason not too, cheap visibility and anti-collision tool, I dont care if I burn up a $12 lamp sooner. On that note, in Cessna's, paying a few extra dollars for the Q4509's will last 200+ hours while the standard 4509's are total crap and can die in 10-20 hours.
 
rframe said:
I always run landing lights unless there's a real good reason not too, cheap visibility and anti-collision tool, I dont care if I burn up a $12 lamp sooner. On that note, in Cessna's, paying a few extra dollars for the Q4509's will last 200+ hours while the standard 4509's are total crap and can die in 10-20 hours.
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They're 35$, but it's not about the cost of the bulbs. The landing light only gives marginally better visibility during the day, unless it's hazy. In a club setting where the airplane flies 20 to 30 hours a week it was likely that you would show up to fly and never have a working landing light at all, so many people were burning them needlessly and you never had one when you really needed it. That's what makes the LED bulbs such a great safety improvement. I never flat out told anyone to not use it if they thought it was necessary, just to use it sparingly. Not a problem anymore.

So 35$ for a bulb and a 1/4 hour of labor to change it each time and the LED bulb pays for itself in about 200 hours. Avoiding a 15,000$ prop strike because someone drove off a taxiway in the middle of the night because the landing light was burned out... priceless? ;)
 
trafficinsight said:
They're 35$, but it's not about the cost of the bulbs. The landing light only gives marginally better visibility during the day, unless it's hazy. In a club setting where the airplane flies 20 to 30 hours a week it was likely that you would show up to fly and never have a working landing light at all, so many people were burning them needlessly and you never had one when you really needed it. That's what makes the LED bulbs such a great safety improvement. I never flat out told anyone to not use it if they thought it was necessary, just to use it sparingly. Not a problem anymore.

So 35$ for a bulb and a 1/4 hour of labor to change it each time and the LED bulb pays for itself in about 200 hours. Avoiding a 15,000$ prop strike because someone drove off a taxiway in the middle of the night because the landing light was burned out... priceless? ;)
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Oops!
 
Roger Roger said:
LED lights are great as recog lights, though I've heard that the HIDs (which are more expensive and more paperwork intensive to install) do a better job as a landing light.
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We have the LoPresti HID's an they are amazing. They also don't pickup rain or snow at night for the warp speed effect, but they aren't cheep.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 4
 
The 172S' I flew had the stock HID's in them. I didn't notice that big of a difference between those and the LEDs we put in the Seminole and 172RGs. The LED lights were a little more "crisp", but either worked just as well.
 
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