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Charles, Your right #4509

Interesting issue, the landing light.

Mary Lou doesn't have strobes (yet) and whenever I fly, even outside of the taffic pattern, I have the LL on as well as the red beacon and nav lights.

I might use up the LL faster than normal, but it's cheap insurance.

Yep. Lightin' up the sky.

I always fly with the landing light on. It goes on right before I take the runway for take off (Lights, Camera, Action).

I hear a lot about landing lights and their propensity to burn out rather quickly and am wondering what experience folks that fly 150s and 152s have with theirs . . . how long does your landing light bulb usually last ?

I have close to 150 hours on mine. It is the same bulb that came with the plane so I'm not sure how long it has been since it was last changed. So far it has been very reliable. . . hope nothing changes as far as this goes.

I too fly with the landing light on. I turn it on before takeoff and after touchdown. I keep track of how long they last. On average, about 6 months. The longest was 11 months; shortest was 3 months (the cowling was removed during an annual; light bulb went dead after that). They seem to be affected more by the number of landings, less by number of hours in use.

I had a PulseLight installed on my 150G. Since the landing and taxi lights are together on the wing, only the taxi light pulses. My last bird, a Musketeer, had a wing landing light and a nose taxi light -- they both pulsed. Either way visibility is greatly enhanced, bulbs last much longer, and installation is simple. I never had to change a bulb on the Musketeer and I flew it for years with the Pulse Lights. I've only flown the 150G for about 30 hours with the Pulse Lights, but I don't expect any bulb failures for quite a while.

Any time I'm within 10 or even 20 miles of an airport I turn on the Pulse Light. Even at night (they REALLY show up at night!) Turning on the landing and/or taxi lights overrides the Pulse Light for a normal night approach.

When I bought 84G, she had an unauthorized mod to the landing/taxi light circuits. The previous owner, noting that the bulbs were rated at 12v (not 13.8v normal operating voltage) used Ohms law to discover what size high current resistors he needed to drop the voltage at the bulb back to 12v. He then installed these resistors in a small box mounted near the (wing mounted) bulbs, electrically connected between the bulbs and their switches. He claimed this eliminated frequent bulb replacment, and did not affect intensity enough to notice, day or night. I used his system for a short time before removing it and sending it back to him (part of the deal) and found his intensity claims to be true. I do not fly with the landing/taxi lights on, except in higher traffic areas (I've installed strobes), and do not have to frequently replace bulbs, but his system does seem to have some merit, if I wanted to build one and get it approved.

Ok I feel like I want to research lights and stuff I only carry an Informational Manual in the car for preflight stuff and it doesn?t have any landing light info. Does anyone know what the part number is for a 1983 152 landing light or a place I can find it? The plane is far at the moment... I tried calling Airplane Spruce but they told me they need the part number to place an order...

I always keep that thing on when within 15 miles or the Orlando airport area and it burned out last week. I wanted to see what other options excited besides the GE lamp...

A few weeks ago, I picked up 4 bulbs for about $25.00 including shipping on Ebay. I think he sells them in lots of 2 or 4. It can't hurt to have a spare in the glove box!

My '80 152 uses a GE-4596 landing light (28v, 250W). It's $16.50 each, plus shipping, at www.chieftaircraft.com [chieftaircraft.com] . I usually order two at a time, bundled with an order of oil filters, to save on shipping costs.

Please take note............ Hung has posted the p/n for the 28v bulb for the 152. The number above is for the 14v 150's and NOT the 152. Be careful which airplane you are asking for p/n's for and which aircraft you are giving p/n's for. Just don't want anyone to order the wrong bulb.

If you have a Illustrated Parts Catalog (which I consider a must for the aircraft owner) the bulb numbers are in the parts book.

Charles