This is something I've spent some time on, as my 57 year old eyes need lots of
help at night.

The best "conventional" solution I have found is to velcro a red Photon III
Covert microlight to each side of my headset. Set to medium brightness and
aimed to get a sort of horizontal ellipse pattern, you do not even need
instrument lighting. The light goes where you're looking and it is there before
you turn on ship's power and after you turn it off. Dual redundant, almost zero
weight, and the batteries seem to last forever. This solves your yoke light,
kneeboard light, panel light, and area light problems all in one whack.

Note 1: The "covert" part of the light is a little snout that shields the LED so
the light only goes forwards. Without the snout, there are distracting
reflections from the side window. Note 2: The Velcro mounting is not super
stable. 3M Dual Lock is much better if you can find it. mcmaster.com carries
it, as do others.

The lights do tend to get knocked off when the headset is in its bag. Photon
sells a little leash, about 3" long, that can be used to clip each light to the
headset frame. Then the little things can't wander too far.

One other thing learned: You want the light to be as high as possible, ideally
above your eyes. Otherwise, when you are writing on your clipboard, the shadow
of your hand will cover the where you are writing. That is the reason I don't
think the cute little mic boom lights are too great.

I am now using one of the Clarity Aloft headsets (which, BTW is spectacular in
all aspects) so I have made a sort of wire loop gadget that is effectively a
pair of red LED headlights that are more or less in the same position as the
Photon lights were on my standard headlights. An elastic band headlight would
probably work as well, as long as the brightness was adjustable.



On 12/20/04 11:59 PM, Josef Burger wrote the following:
What do you use for extra and backup lighting in the cockpit for IFR
flights at night? Some airplanes have pretty decent lighting built in.
Others can have decent cockpit lighting and poor panel lighting.
Others have shadows in poor locations, or areas of the panel/cockpit
you'd really like to have illuminated, but aren't.

Myself, I keep a LED flashlight around my neck, and other flashlights
nearby and handy. I keep on trying other items and discarding them.
Perhaps .. I've just never found the right item.

Things I've been thinking about ...
A yoke/yoke-board mounted light, such as a flex-lite or some LED
bar might work well for lighting the panel either in normal flight
or when the lights go out. Some velcro on adhesive strips, stick it
to the cockpit ceiling, and put something like a pelican VersaBrite
II up there to provide some area illumination.

Some better lighting for a yoke/knee board would be nice, maybe a flexlite,
or same flood light on velcro mentioned earlier. Of course, some
sort of backlit timer/counter/stopwatch would really be great, but I
haven't found a good one in many years of looking.

That's some of the considerations I have, was wondering what other people
use.

Thanks
Bolo -- Josef T. Burger