I've always been a believer in turning on some kind of flashing beacon on the ground, to warn bystanders of impending engine start. One of the things that used to bother me about my RV-9A was that it didn't have a flashing beacon, only strobes. I didn't like to use the incredibly bright Whelen strobes on the ground, because that's kind of distracting for other people in the area who're trying to, you know, land or take off and stuff. The airplane I'm building now will without a doubt have a Whelen (or equivalent) strobe system for in-flight use, but I still can't let go of the idea of the red flashing beacon for ground ops.
Okay, so since this is my very own airplane and I can build it however I want, let's see what we can do in the way of a red flasher for the belly (or on top of the fin, I haven't decided yet). Whelen sells several different models that look like the image below, for prices in the low-hundred-dollar range. A hundred bucks might seem a little steep for a blinking light, but this is aviation; anything less than about $200 just disappears into the background noise. Sad but true. Anyway, this one is relatively affordable and would get the job done, but boy is it ugly. I mean, it's about the size of a juice glass. I may have had one on my slow little Grumman, but no way am I hanging one of these out in the breeze on my 200+ mph RV-7.
I did some research and found that Whelen also sells this streamlined red flashing beacon, which is designed to bolt to the belly of the airplane:
Gee, this seems tailor made for my application. Too bad it costs $800!!! No thanks. Just because it's certified and you can bolt it onto a bizjet doesn't mean I'm going to pay eight hundred bucks for a blinking light. I even called the local airplane junkyard to see if they had one for a better price: "Oh sure, we can get you one o' them for five hundred bucks." Well, that's an improvement, but how about no.
Then I got wise and stopped looking at certified airplane parts. I found this little company called Kuntzelman Electronics that makes small strobe systems for ultralights. Among their offerings are a strobe head with a clear, streamlined lens, and one with a red lens in the traditional juice glass shape, but no streamlined red lens. They also sell strobes, not flashers, and remember I was concerned about using strobes on the ground because I don't want to blind or distract fellow aviators. So, thinking it was a long shot, I got in touch with them:
Me: Hello. I like your streamlined strobe head, but I need something in red and I don't want it to be as bright as a regular strobe. Can you help?
Them: You are in luck. A while ago we made a batch of red streamlined lenses to see how they would perform, but they weren't as bright as regular strobes so we didn't put them into production. We have two left.
Me: I wish to purchase these items.
So, I bought one Kuntzelman strobe power pack, one red streamlined strobe head, and one red streamlined replacement lens, all for less than the magical $200 aviation psychological purchase price barrier. This stuff all arrived today:
The strobe head is really small and cute fetching.
When I get the rest of the kit, I mean. Latest information is that it will arrive the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'll be out of town then, but Matthew has graciously volunteered to manage the QB kit's arrival and unloading. Other friends from work and elsewhere will supply additional manpower. I suspect this means I will be purchasing many beers in the near future.
Update: Somebody at work objected to the use of the word "cute" to describe a piece of aircraft hardware. He should be glad I'm not restoring an Ercoupe, or I'd be throwing that one out in every post.
Another Update: I found a good deal on a Whelen 70821 with a red lens; this is a more robust, certified strobe head that I feel a little better about attaching to the outside of my 200mph airplane. I'm going to try to drive it with the Kuntzelman power supply, which hopefully will give me less light output than a full-on aircraft-grade power supply would.
