My club recently had its first wingtip damage from a runway light. These lights stick up about a foot or so and are sometimes hard to avoid.
What solutions have other soaring clubs found to deal with them?
I was thinking that it maybe a good idea to put a deflector in front of the lights. If the wing is going to hit, it would hopefully deflect the wing up and over the light.
I was hoping the right design might not obscure the light any more than a tall weed. What are chances of getting something like this approved or accepted by either an airport authority or the FAA?
My first two concepts we
1. form a steel rod that goes over the light, and then front and back ends form spikes that could be hammered into the ground.
2. A wedge shaped cut plexiglass/acrylic sheet that the light could pass through. The bottom would have flanges heat formed to a allow it to be secured to the ground.
Please post any feedback or thoughts on if there is some solution to help protect glider wings.
I made simple sketches here, Please forgive the really crude drawings:
https://docs.google.com/presentation...it?usp=sharing
a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DhfbsEk49m-3LS-Vzs8YO-487Gv1YDjZNICBma72tlE/edit?usp=sharing"concept drawings/a
Chris