Peter, my engineer repeats what I quote above : Annunciator lights become u/s therefore installation of LED lights is not legal in EASAland.
How did you get your annunciator lights to work? Pray tell!
Howard
my engineer repeats what I quote above
Does he have a reference? I am not saying he’s wrong, and having INOP lamps is not right, but I can find you an engineer who will say anything and everything is illegal.
And if INOP lamps in the panel made the plane unairworthy then most of the UK PPL training fleet would be grounded instantly. As well as probably 90% of jets departing from LHR right now (though they get around that by having an MEL ).
I wish I knew if my plane was 12v or 24v but I don’t. It is TB20 serial number 1096, built in 2000. I’ll need to check the battery I guess to see what voltage the plane is.
There are simple screws holding on the plastic cover over the existing large filament bulbs in the wing. Can I just remove the plastic cover and try swapping in an LED bulb and see what happens?
Peter, can you recommend exactly the make and model of LED bulb that you are using please? (Does it matter if my plane is 12v or 24v for the purposes of purchasing LED bulbs, or do they self-regulate?)
Thanks
Howard
It’s not possible for S/N 1096 to have been built in year 2000. This suggests it was built in 1990.
A search on the user group (took me a while) says: … major change was to 28V electrics and bucket seats at s/n 948 (bucket seats were at 906). Note: s/n 823 to 849 plus s/n 888 are also 28V aircraft
I wrote up the TB20 LED business here – do a search on TB20 LED or similar. I am not sure about 12 v 24V models as there is more than one type on the market.
However, while LED lamps are better than the original lamps for the illumination, nothing will enable you to turn right onto an unlit taxiway – short of installing the second light cluster as per this thread topic. But on EASA that would be a Major mod which might cost a substantial % of the value of the aircraft to do in paperwork alone. On N-reg it will be hard enough but I do currently have a contact in the USA who for a fee can present a 337 Field Approval to his FSDO on my behalf. Without such a contact, Field Approvals would now be impossible in Europe.
Peter wrote:
But on EASA that would be a Major mod which might cost a substantial % of the value of the aircraft to do in paperwork alone
Do you care to explain why this would be a major mod?
A structural change? Cutting a hole in the leading edge.
The fact that the other wing already has this apparently doesn’t change that. Somebody looked into this some years ago.
If it was justifiable as Minor, I would be “all ears”
Yes, I meant 1990. Sorry. I wasn’t concentrating. I do know how old my plane is :-)
Thanks for advising me that it is 24v. I will now search for the TB20 LED thread.
Howard
If only I knew which email to check the spam box for! (I have too many email accounts…a few old ones dumped because of spam…) :-(