Help, I need to light a Helicopter's Tail

Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

I need to light the logo on the tail of my TV station's helicopter so it can be seen on the tail mounted camera.

LED should be ideal due to long life, resistance to vibration, etc. I have tried my LionHeart, and I would like just a little more light, so I want to use a 5w Luxeon, and power it from the chopper's power supply, 12-14V DC. Any ideas?

Re: Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

I think you need to speak to some aviation experts. People on CPF are very smart but I would not want to risk something falling off and hitting the tail rotor, which may bring down a million dollar helicopter and endangering lives.

Re: Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

I am doing this for our station's "aviation experts". They will handle the mounting and provide power etc. I have been asked to assist in the selection of an appropriate light.

Re: Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

Sounds ideal for an LED. As pointed out already, need to make sure it's buttoned down. Rather than a Lux V, I think the prevailing wisdom recomends using 2 or 3 Lux III's.

Hey, buy 3 QIII's, hardwire them in series to the helicopter's power, then epoxy the heck out of them to a 2x4!

Re: Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

Make sure the voltage regulation is adequate. And perhaps optics or reflectors would help focus the light betteR?

Re: Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

Hi Mike,
Your station's aviation experts are bound to have heard of FAR (Federal Aviation Regulations). I would advise you for the sake of CYA to have them check into whether such addition would adversely affect the craft's "airworthiness". You and I know, as practical men and women, it wouldn't but we are not dealing with practical men and women; no, we are dealing with the federal government. I'm an ex commercial pilot and such little things are often frowned upon by the powers in the "black helicopters"

Surreptitiously,
vhyper007

Re: Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

I second the idea of multiple Lux IIIs, like the lights Elektrolumens makes.
nisshin

Re: Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

You don't need a heck of a lot of light for it to show up on camera. If the logo doesn't have to be seen as a particular color, you could always mount an electroluminescent sheet, then use a transparency overlay with your station's logo printed on it. Lightweight, rugged and low wind resistance.

Re: Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

Another vote for the 3-Lux configuration. It's hard to find a good LuxV these days, you can get 3 Lux3s cheap and if you are REALLY finicky (not necessary for this application but necessary for some flashaholics like me /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif) you can get good tints too /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

More importantly, 3 Lux3s will produce more light. You'll probably need to heatsink them, bolt them to some big metal surface. Should be more than enough to handle the power dissipation.

For the electronics, try www.taskled.com and use the nFlex step-down regulator. Wire the LEDs in series and fire up the nFlex, which will accept a wide range of input voltages and regulate as necessary. You can even configure how much current goes to your LEDs - if you don't need full blast pumping 1 amp to all LEDs, you can bring it down a notch to 750mA and still have most of the light with reduced heat.

Re: Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

Thank you all for your ideas and input. After talking with the Pilot, I feel this is over my head, and there is no way I could produce something that is flight tested. Oh well.

Re: Help, I need to light a Helicopter\'s Tail

One more idea for a night-visible logo that doesn't require any wiring or electronics - paint the logo on the tail using phosphorescent paint, then have the pilot charge it up with a handheld spotlight just before taking off. It probably won't be bright enough to be seen from the ground, but the camera will be able to see it just fine, and there's no "flight testing" needed.
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