Nose Light

[Lowlevldevl]

Just curious. Has anyone mounted a light in the nose of their ez?
If so, where'd you put the pitot tube?

[Joe Dubner]

Lowlevldevl,

Here's a picture of Michael Carra's very sanitary Long-EZ installation.  So you can see that the answer to your second question is "in the usual place".

--
Joe

[GlennBob]

I'm thinking of mounting my landing light right in the very front of my nose.

I remember reading an article by the infamous " Wild Bill James " from Texas, . .in which he references a conversation he had with an aerodynamicist. He had asked the dude " Should my nose be pointed or rounded ? "  The answer was : . .( another question ).  Will you be super or subsonic ?  Answer : Sub. :  subsequent answer :  Make it rounded.  So if you check out Bill James' EZ, . . .you'll see that his nose resembles a basketball.  

SO . . . . all that to say . . .that it appears it is not critical to be pencil sharp pointy on the nose, . .so I am thinking about puting my landing light right out in front, and putting my petot tube out diagonally and then bent forward like you see on the military jets.  There it will have excellent visibility and also cooling.  If you use the mega expensive Xenon light, it should cool nicely.  Now, . .gotta figure out how to mount and aim the thing.

Glennbob

[cloudman]

I installed a round halogen PIAA light during this past winter. I have a few construction pictures, but will take some additional pictures this week and will post them soon.

I installed a inexpensive Wicks (trimmed down in size) pitot tube under the canard and low so it is just at the floor line. This was per Ken Miller's advice. And it seems to work just fine in that location. Dimensions will follow with the pictures.

Original heat testing showed that the light does get very hot, but didn't seem to smoke any epoxy/fiberglass or light any paper when tested. ...but was too hot to touch. So I installed fiberfrax covered with aluminum tape on virtually all surfaces in the cleared out area in the nose. Also, I included a small v-shape vent on the bottom of the nose that goes into the light compartment and vented out thru the nose gear box.

Considring the heat I try to be careful and turn the light on last thing before take off and turn it off right after clearing the runway on landing. The light is a 55 watt that PIAA says is an effective 85 watts and can be seen very well from a distance. I am thinking of adding a pulse system at some time, since those I have seen really stand out extra well.

About the hardest job was to cut the nose off! However, there was quite a few dimensional 'adjustments' as the project progressed. My hanger partner installed the other light in the set on his battery cover on the nose and it was a much easier installation, but not as nice looking or clean.

Cloudman  Varieze N725EZ

[Lowlevldevl]

Hi Cloudman,
That sounds exactly like the kind of information I'm looking for and I'm looking forward now to seeing your photographs.
Some of the Buell motorcycles have a 'projector' type light that I think would look great on a Long-ez nose and I'm hoping to be able to fit one of those.
Thanks for your rsponse.
Cheers,
Don

[cloudman]

Don,
Here is a picture of the PIAA 1100X Platinum Dichroic  light in the nose. It is sort of egg shape at 3 inches in length amd fits in very nicely. I had done a quick search for motorcycle lights, but didn't find anything too promising. Also the xenon lights were way too expensive for a 'test'.

I am only attaching a single picture of the nose and one of the pitot on the fuselage side. You (and any others interested ) can email me for many more pictures....... including some ugly ones during construction. Terry Schubert has asked me to write an article and I am sort of waiting to see how the light installation holds up.

My first cut was 3 3/4 inches back from the nose and then cleared out and additional one inch to the rear of that cut.

email at : santee2602@hotmail.com

Regards, Wayne  Johnson....cloudman

[mikeydidit98]

I just purchased my Varieze and am going to mount a single landing/taxi light.  Both of these ideas look interesting.  May I please get some pics of the construction of them, as well as some advice on how they have faired over use?

Thanks.

Mike_westendorf@yahoo.com
Mike Westendorf
816-500-7074