People who have been following my landing light adventures have been
expecting a comparison. As you recall we last left our adventurer with
hid's on the wingtips and quartz to install on the nose strut.

Well I put the Q4509's on the nose and I finally got around to night flying.

The Q4509 is certainly brighter than the normal 4509 incandescent and
worth the modest increase in cost.

The hid's are waaaaay brighter than the Q4509's. This is a bit of a
surprise, but shouldn't be really, because of a report on a website
claiming the Quartz was actually brighter.???

Well having flown them, the hid's, which still need some aiming, are, as
Jay suggested, orders of magnitude brighter. Under various taxi
conditions the hids appeared to be alot brighter, to super brighter.
This was a dark night, at a dark airport.

Wife thinks I should wait a year before getting some for the nose strutt.

Anybody who is thinking about getting the hid's go ahead, they are
incredible!

John

With the light output and low current drain, you must love it? Did you
make it yourself or are they sold for this?

B A R R Y wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Mar 2006 20:04:57 -0500, The Visitor
> > wrote:
>
>
>>Anybody who is thinking about getting the hid's go ahead, they are
>>incredible!
>
>
> I can't find anyone who's ever _used_ HID lighting for much of
> anything that can honestly say they aren't fantastic.
>
> I've been using an HID strapped to my head while night mountain biking
> for years, after riding with incandescent's for years. No really, no
> kidding, people really do ride trails at night. <G> The woods are
> typically very dark at night! The HID's really make obstacles in
> rough terrain stand out. To make them any clearer would require
> painting them fluorescent colors.
>
> The only downsides I've ever seen to them is cost, and when the other
> guy has them on country roads.

What I should have also wrote...

With all four lights on, 2 hid, 2 quartz; you really can't tell that the
quartz are turned on. Unless you really look. With just the quartz I was
thinking, this is sure a step up from the straight 4509's.

John