Thread: Battery charging

I have a wire, looks like it is meant to be a static wick? In any case it is a positive ground that runs from the positive side of my battery and terminates below the lower cowling. I now expose the metal terminal on this wire to charge my battery while the cowling is on. I use the exhaust for the negative side.

I use the landing light to completely drain and a trickle charger to put a new deep charge on with very little effort.

How long can you run the landing light with the engine running and not drain your battery. My EMS shows negative current when the LL is on. About -11A

Hi Ed,

I'm not sure I quite understand.
Are you pulling your battery all the way down? It is not a deep cycle battery and will not tolerate that very many times. Why are you using the landing light to pull your battery down? It would be much easier on the battery to put a tender on it and keep it at full charge.

Hi Roger,

A FD dealer had done this twice before when serving my CT. He showed my how recently. It's even in my logs.

Guess he thinks its good for the battery.

Not a deep cycle battery huh? hmmmm....

Originally Posted by opticsguy

How long can you run the landing light with the engine running and not drain your battery. My EMS shows negative current when the LL is on. About -11A

I often leave my landing light on for the entire flight. It doesn't run down my battery.

I'm trying to figure out how to install a better landing / taxi light in the CT. The landing light is bright enough, but flying here in the DFW area, a wig-wag type light would be great - too many near misses in just my first 85 hours.

Since the Rotax alternator doesn't make a lot of power, I'm trying to find something that will work on 3-4 amps. This could be a pair of 35W halogen bulbs with a wig-wag. However, given that the CT is high tech machine, I'm looking towards a, well, more high tech solution.

I'm thinking about using a pair of Luxeon III LEDs on each wing, maybe at the tips, maybe under the inspection cover, connected to a wig-wag circuit with a progressive switch: OFF - ON - WIGWAG. The Lux IIIs are very bright - 80 lumens each, about what you'd get from a 10W to 15W halogen. They are also very small, never blow bulbs (no bulb to blow) and have low current draw - on a wigwag, this would be less than 1A current draw.

Parts would be less than $100. The trick is, of course, figuring out how to mount everything. I'll let you know as I figure this out between watching bowl games.

Doug

Hi Doug,,

I'd be most interested in your hi-tech solution as I have no LL at present but would like to fit one eventually! How would a fist full of these Luxeon LEDs arranged into a nice little cluster and faired into the cowl above the radiator intake hole work? Wouldn't that be a better / more conventional position to have the LL? I assume that your just trying to make yourself more visible rather than trying to fit a long piercing type beam that will pick out the runway from 5 miles back aka Boeing 747 LLs!!

How about using one of those 12 volt high-level LED brake light strips that cars have. They are really bright and come in various lengths........all you have to do is see if you can source some white LEDs for the red ones!! LOL!

By the way, for the benefit of us Limeys, what's a WIGWAG?!!!!

Paul
G-RILA