Seablade
Veteran
Location: floating around
| Cannibalizing LED flashlights for Nav Lights.guess it depends on where your at 
The flashlight is right in front of me where I have no clue to where the nearest Radio shack is or any store locally that will have the LED's. I could find one on the website for RS, but doubt if there is one local for me to get to. I'm not living a residential lifestyle so to speak so getting them mailed to me will not work because more often then not I will not be where I was when I ordered them. I'm usually on the move, I live/work on a yacht. FedX and UPS are my friends, but they are not fast enough most of the time. Their expensive friends though...I do have a UPS shipment coming to me that had better get here in a few daze otherwise I will not see it. That's costing me 80 euros for 150.00 euros worth of parts for maybe a guaranteed delivery. It will probably get here, but we might leave early too! 
The flashlight on the other hand has the LED's already mounted in a relatively small reflector which is great for someone who hasn't got the TIME or skills to make a mount for them. You could mount this inside a canopy and light it from within which might not look too bad.
The cost of the mass marketed plastic LED flashlights that are popping up in stores are relatively cheap compared to your time in assembling all the parts needed to make a light. This one cost $39.00 which isn't that cheap, but I know I've seen light for under $20.00 that would work.
You are right though about the cost of buying the parts needed to make the light, it is cheaper. However, having used the LED's marketed as NAV lights in the LHS's being advertised as ultrabright...they are bright, but one single LED just hasn't been that effective at a distance for me, especially when it's mounted so that it has to be pointed right at your eyes to be bright. They are great for scale heli's, but the average pilot is not going to fly their "labor intensive" scale heli at night. I want a lot of light so it is easily seen to keep orientation. That's why I'm tempted to put this inside the canopy to see how well the opacity of the canopy shell would work to make it a useable light instead of being too bright for practical use. This would make one hell of a landing light pointed straight down! 
"Vini, Vidi, Velcro" |
