Bright is Not Always Best

[FlightLight]

I'm A Marine student pilot. Yesterday was the first time I preflighted at night, no moon night. I bought an Aviator A2 red lens some time ago and I was excited to use it as intended. I love the light but the white is so bright any night vision I had was gone. We have to use white because hydro fluid is red. Is there a white bulb that is less intense, or another red and white lens light that is fully dimable?

Thanks

 

[reppans]

Try sub-lumen lights.

Magnetic infinitely variable ring lights (Sunwayman, Jetbeam, Nitecore) allow you dial in exactly what you need but the rings consume battery power. Peak QTC are also infinitely variable and power efficient, but can be more finicky to set at lower lumens. Foursevens Quarks, Zebralights, Eagletac D25s, Olight and Thrunite make efficient, low lumen and sub-lumen lights. Lots of choices depending upon your other criteria.

I collect sub-lumen AA lights and personally like Quarks the best for its battery chemistry/config versatility, accurate/truthful specs, great warranty and US-domestic customer service.

 

[arcadesdude]

I'm A Marine student pilot. Yesterday was the first time I preflighted at night, no moon night. I bought an Aviator A2 red lens some time ago and I was excited to use it as intended. I love the light but the white is so bright any night vision I had was gone. We have to use white because hydro fluid is red. Is there a white bulb that is less intense, or another red and white lens light that is fully dimable?

Thanks

What reppans said. It's called moonlight or firefly mode in some cases. Not all moonlight modes are sub lumen (<1 lumen).

If you check runtime charts on the lights they might list the lowest mode available for the lights there.

Sent from my ThL W8 using Tapatalk 4

 

[BenChiew]

Try the HDS Rotary HCRI if you can get one. It has a 24 level rotary dial.

They also have a HCRI clicky which max out at 120 lumens. You have 4 banks that you can program the levels you want.

 

[TronPlayer]

If you'd like something small I can recommend the Zebralight SC52 or the olight S15 as they both have very low moonlight/firefly modes. The zebralight can go lower than the s15 and you can access moonlight mode in both lights directly without having to cycle through higher modes.

 

[yellow]

EVERY "modern" Led light, offering multimode
- beats the A2 by far

So - as You have that model and thus supposedly "need" ;) "quality" - get a 6P host light
(f.e. from shop oveready, with the following upgrades: bored to accomodate 18650 Li-Ion cell, McKlicky swich (black hard press), bezel ring (delrin or metal, Your choice))

+ a P60 multimode led insert, 5.000 Kelvin led, low-med-hig, Cree XP-G2 (runtime) or Cree XL-M2 (sheer output) from member nailbender or member vinhnguyen54 (see their order threads in sub forum CPF custom & modified)


or one of the "ready made" lights You read from in the Led-Sub Forums in here.

 

[TronPlayer]

If you need a light that has red you might also want to consider the Nitecore SRT3 or SRT7. I have the SRT7 but I'm not sure if the low would be low enough for you. Also, it's a bit finicky to activate the lowest setting with the control ring and there is no direct access to it unless you set it beforehand. If it's bumped it can easily adjust upwards killing your NV. I assume the SRT3 is similar but maybe someone can chime in who owns one.

 

[yellow]

or You could also get a white led ring (warm white for the same tint than the main bulb) - f.e. from member calipsoii
... if You want to stay with the battery and bulb eating A2.
but I am not sure, if the led will be bright enough for the task described.


PS: You know that You are wrong on the night vision topic?
it is general agreement, that ANY bright light ruins ones night sight, even when red
--> get low output but white - for that "colors" universality
--> when really needed :rolleyes: close one eye while using whatever light at hand

(means again: multimode white led light)

 

[FlightLight]

PS: You know that You are wrong on the night vision topic?

Not really. Here is a way too heady but amazing article on the topic.

http://www.telescope-optics.net/eye_spectral_response.htm

You could skip a lot of the words and go the table "Relative Spectral Sensitivity of the Eye." At 760nm the Rods are blind and the Cones still function. Anecdotally, if you had a light that only put out above 650nm and it was as bright as the sun your night vision would not be effected. The down side is you would be left with a crippling after image. None the less, your cones would still function as well as they did before. The more reasonable answer is though your light is closer to 650 and above. Still little to no rod sensitivity, but well within the function of cones. Meaning your fovea is full speed in seconds and when the light drops out NV is quickly regained. Also notice green light is horrible for night vision. Enough to see your work will kill NV.

Thanks for all the input. Off to research

 

[StarHalo]

+1 for a light with moon mode; you'll find a red light that's high enough in frequency and low enough in output (it should be so low that you can't tell it's red, it should appear roughly brown) is way too much time and effort for a light that doesn't render colors and no one actually builds anyway. Good moon mode lights are fairly common and let you differentiate colors to better discern what you're looking at.

 

[braddy]

I'm A Marine student pilot. Yesterday was the first time I preflighted at night, no moon night. I bought an Aviator A2 red lens some time ago and I was excited to use it as intended. I love the light but the white is so bright any night vision I had was gone. We have to use white because hydro fluid is red. Is there a white bulb that is less intense, or another red and white lens light that is fully dimable?

Thanks

A lot of pilots swear by LRI's Proton PRO , it has white and red leds, and both are dimmable, it is a low key single AA light good for pilots.

Google it and shop for a price.