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Installing a second landing+taxi light cluster - N-reg Socata TB20

In total darkness one cannot turn right onto an unlit taxiway. The same is probably true for all other types which have only one light cluster…


In the early 2000s, a UK pilot I know well, then based in the USA, got a Field Approved mod on a TB10 for installing a duplicate cluster on the other wing. He lent me the whole design package (a thick ring binder) in 2005 but stupidly I returned it to him without making a copy. He has since given the package to someone who for sure isn’t going to let me have it

How could I proceed?

I should be able to get a copy of the 337 from the FAA, for some nominal fee. That Field Approval should be usable to support a new Field Approval. The wing structure is identical to the TB20.

I do know which company (in Florida) did the original FA. They are still there; Fort Piers. They didn’t use a DER, AFAIK. They did consider doing an STC (so they could sell the design afterwards) but didn’t go down that route.

Then one would need to fabricate some metal. Obviously one can fabricate “anything” but buying that piece of plastic and the piece of metal with the two big holes would save a lot of work.

From the TB20 IPC:

Curiously, that 2005-dated page is about the last time Socata edited the IPC for any TB

I would appreciate any tips or suggestions.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

one would need to fabricate some metal. Obviously one can fabricate “anything” but buying that piece of plastic and the piece of metal with the two big holes would save a lot of work

What metal to be fabricated? Looking at the pictures, I only see a curve of transparent stuff (Lexan/Makrolon? Plexi/Perspex?) and a single layup of fibreglass, would need rather thin cloth though with all those curves so perhaps 3 or even 4 layers might be required. The form is rather complex, creating the mould would easily take a couple of days here. Still, it looks like being quite doable.

The only metal to probably add might be rings of alu behind the lamps, threaded to accept the lamps’ mounting screws. If desperate for weight, one could use epoxy with a lot of flox instead of alu. Much more delicate to create the threading, though; and if it breaks the whole piece must be redone.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

Could you not salvage components from a TB10 that has been scrapped and use them on the right wing? Theres one sitting at Leicester in the hedge!

London Area

There’s an idea! Do you have a contact for the owner?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

I should be able to get a copy of the 337 from the FAA, for some nominal fee.

Yep, $10. You just need to know the aircraft’s FAA tail number to order a copy of all the records (including 337s) on that acft.

Takes about 3 weeks before it shows-up on a CD in the post, otherwise for $20 you can get one of the local service companies to pull it up and send it to you via e-mail.

FAA A&P/IA
LFPN

Peter wrote:

The same is probably true for all other types which have only one light cluster…

Not for a high wing type (Cessna 172).

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Give swift air maintenance at Leicester. They might have some involving with it as i believe the aircraft is now de-registered! The Reg is G-RIAM! You’ll see some pictures on Google.

London Area

Peter, I see that you have LED lights fitted to your lovely TB20GT. Do your console annunciator lights work or are N reg planes simply exempt from the requirement to have them work? (As you doubtless know, EASA regulations forbid the installation of LED lights on a TB20 because the current drawn is too weak to drive the console annunciator lights….and looking over to one’s left to see if the lights on the wing are turned on is not allowed in EASAland…. (raises eyes to the ceiling))

I’d love to have them fitted to my plane, but I’m told I can’t. This safety feature (brighter lights) is forbidden because the plane’s annunciator lights, designed for less bright bulbs, don’t work with the safer, brighter external lights….

Howard

Flying a TB20 out of EGTR
Elstree (EGTR), United Kingdom

Mine work; there is a simple solution to it

EASA regulations forbid the installation of LED lights on a TB20 because the current drawn is too weak to drive the console annunciator lights

I have not seen a reference to that – have you found one? The opinion of the owner of the Socata owners’ group web server is indeed as you say, I will admit

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Mine work; there is a simple solution to it

You use 12V lightbulbs instead of 24V ?

EDxx, Germany
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