Electroluminescent Lighting

"Chris Kennedy" wrote in message
...
dave wrote:

Anybody use Electroluminescent Lighting for their instruments/cockpit?

Yep. Big strips of the stuff on the underside of the glare shield.

Pro's, Con's ...

Pros: Runs cool, has a nifty "emergency" position on the inverter than
allows it to run for several hours off of its own nine volt battery
should ship power fail, easy on the eyes once dark acclimated. IMHO it
beats the hell out of post lights from hell, but YMMV.

Cons: It's decidedly more of a glow than a point source, making it
difficult for those not familiar with the aircraft to read the legends
on all of those switches mounted at knee level. Haven't quite figured
out what I'm going to do about _that_.

Anybody notice any RF noise or other problems from the power inverter?

No, not on anything ranging from the 430 to the ancient 121 #2 nav to
the 141 ADF.

Cheers,
Chris.

One more "con": EL panels have a "half-life" -- that is, they gradually get
dimmer over time. On interrmittent usage as in panel lights, that's
probably not a problem. But I used to work for a company that used them as
back-lighting on alarm panels where they were on every night, all night.
There, it was a problem.

Tim Ward