HID Lamps; Your opinions and experience

I don't do enough night flying to matter, but I DO fly in compressed,
crowded, uncontrolled, airspace. I like to fly with my landing light on
for increased daytime visibility, but they are only good for what? 50
hours? If HID lamps put out the same amount of light as stock lamps, but
lasted indefinitely so that they could be always left on in flight, the
increase in daytime visibility alone would be worth the price of the
upgrade.

Along these same lines, I recently installed AvTek's Pulsar. It pulses my
wing landing lights in a wig-wag fashion, making the plane look like a UFO
coming in to land.

Because the unit never turns the lights completely off between "wags", their
life is supposedly extended tremendously. I've read AvTek customer reports
that claim hundreds of hours on each landing light.

We turn 'em on during our preflight checks, and don't turn them off till
we've reached cruising altitude. We then turn them on again during our
pre-landing checklist, and leave them on till we park. People comment on
how visible we are all the time.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"