Need your recommendations...

Greetings!

I am a private pilot looking for some recommendations on an LED based flashlight that meets my finicky and exacting specifications. Your suggestions are most welcome.

Here are my nit-picky requirements:

- Very small size / lightweight. The smaller and lighter the better, but *definitely* no larger or heavier than, say, a pair of AA's side by side.

- Dimmable. Must be able to select from either at least three or four brightness settings. Gradual dimness preferable, though.

- Colored or filterable. Red is most desirable, but green is acceptable, assuming the light is dimmable. Ideally, this would be a removable filter, and not just single color LED's.

- Clipable. I typically fly wearing a baseball cap, so I want the ability to clip to the bill of a cap (and still have the thing pointed the right way,) or directly to my headset frame or mic boom. (I like the Pelican L1, but the clip goes the wrong way for mounting on the bill of a baseball cap and I'd like to be able to use this as a headlamp (on a baseball cap) for non-flying situations, as well.) The clip / mount must be sturdy enough not to slip or slide during a bumpy flight, but small enough not to get in the way. This is also the reason that the whole rig needs to be as lightweight as possible.

- Cord / Battery pack free. I like the "Lip Light / Mic Light", for example, but I want no more cords to tangle / get in the way. Unit must be entirely self-contained. (LR44 batteries or similarly small batteries would be optimal.)

- Long battery life. At *least* three or four hours of use at a time. (I assume any LED based light should last much longer, I'm just saying.) Brightness / range will probably not be an issue, as I want to be able to dim it down anyway. I just need enough light to see instruments and read charts by.

- Easy to use. Relatively simple, one-handed operation is a must. If I have to futz around with two hands in the dark to get it to do what I want, it really won't be of much use.

- Durable. Probably not an issue, but since size and weight are bigger concerns, plastic is probably better than aluminum or other metal. Should be able to withstand dropping without breaking, though, as well as being tossed around in a flight bag. Water resistance would be nice, as well.

I guess that's it. That shouldn't be so hard to find, now should it? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Let me know what you all think...any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

David

P.S. These *almost* perfectly meet my criteria:

http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/pho1.htm

or

http://ledmuseum.thefire.us/sneak1.htm

...but dimability, a removeable color filter, better battery life, and better durability / water resistance would be nice.

the new and upcoming LRI Proton may be of interest to you.(do a search here for 'proton')

Also, the Nuwai 1xAA 0.5 watt with 2 brightness settings may also interest you, i say "may" because it does only have a hi and then a lo.

review of the Nuwai here:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/amart_tm317x.htm

How about a couple of Photon Freedoms, one red and one white?

They have a nice user interface: press and release for bright, or press and hold, then release to ramp up starting at the dimmest setting. Attach something different to each light to tell them apart by feel.

http://www.photonlight.com/products/freedom_micro/index.html

Scott

Guess the Proton will be your ticket. All the other lights I can think of fail more or less at one or more of your requirements.
bernhard

If you liked your pelican L1, then I would suggest an Arc AAA. I had the pelican L1 and the backwards clip use to bother me too. The Pelican L1 is a tad brighter than the Arc AAA, but only for the first five minutes or so, the Arc AAA will burn bright for 5 hours, at 5 hrs it will be at 50% of original brightness. There is a new Arc AAA rev 4 in the works it will be 80% brighter than the original check the manufacturers forum for more info, even if you buy another light get an Arc AAA for back up.

I went ahead and ordered one of the Photon Freedoms. The dimmable feature is nice. Would be cool if I could get the white and put a red filter over it, but as suggested, if I like it enough, I'll just have to buy two.

Thanks, and let me know if you all think of anything else.

Though it may not clip well to the ballcap, the Inova 24/4 may be a possibility.

It has red led's (high only), White LED's (low and high) and multiple flash functions (SOS, yellow/red/white flash, strobe etc.). Very easy to turn on with one hand.

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/inova_24-7.htm

Bob

The whole time I read your specs, I was thinking the same light, the Princeton Tec Impulse. It's just a bit fatter than a little Photon, but it's got all the fuctionality including multiple intensities, available in red LEDs and White. The feature that really convinced me however was that it's designed to clip to a baseball cap, a clip is included with this use in mind! Runs off two lithium coin cells and will run for 12-36 hours according to PT. The hat clip also works on a swivel, so you can adjust the angle a bit to point straight at your instrument panel, so you don't have to move your head as much.

See the PT site for info on the Impulse www.princetontec.com

**Note, this product appears to be under a new name. It used to be called the Eclipse 2. The original Eclipse had no baseball cap clip, the Eclipse 2 had it. Retailers online may still list it as the Eclipse 2.
EDIT: Upon further research, the Impulse also appears to have another difference. The Eclipse 2 had a 7.5 minute auto-off function to prevent the light from burning inside a gear bag or whatnot if it should be accidentally turned on. The Impluse does not mention this feature, which I imagine would be quite annoying for your application!

There's no filtering options, but if you get two (one red, one white) the baseball clip will work for both. The Impluse also includes a carabiner-type attatchment, so to swap between red and white you could just exchange their positions, by having the spare unused colour hanging at-the-ready from a pocket or zipper etc.

Princeton Tec also makes a light called the Pilot. It's the same idea just even more compact. It doesn't run for as long, and is really designed to attatch to a strap on a headlamp. The Impluse is a better bet in your case I'd say, but to keep the weight down even more, a Pilot would do the trick.

SUREFIRE L1, it has two stages, you can get it in red, it has a clip, it is durable, great battery life on high and low, here it is:

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/surefire_l1gen2.htm

-David /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Nice try, Cheapo, except the L1 is DEFINITELY larger than a pair of AA batteries, side by side. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif It has about 2 hours of runtime on high, and low'll get you a bit more than that.. but I'm not sure how much usable light you'll have after 4 hours.

Hey, its the effort that counts right? Oh yeah, low beam gets at least 15hrs of runtime, and its only 4.6 inches.

-David

While it may be a tad bigger than 2 AA's side by side, the EternaLight Derrenger is still pretty small and light (plastic), and seems to fit your needs (except the clip, but the shape isn't so unwieldy and you could get creative.) Otherwise, its got the white and red light built in (and using a red LED is more efficient than a filter), fully dimmable with LONG runtime on easy to come by batteries. Additionally, its pretty cheap and available now. Check out the info here: http://www.techass.com/el/derngr/index.php?techass=06531ae393a86ee7c5fc426013427c72

Also, there is a sale on these that should still be active here on CPF: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1001763&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=all&vc=1