Thorp Air Command - T18.net

I’m thinking recommissioning the landing lights on GABY. I’m curious where others stand on night flying in the Thorp.

Used to fly at night quite a bit but my night vision isn’t what it used to be.
Steve Hawley

I cant think of anything different about flying or landing the T18 at night as compared to any other airplane.

Landing at night isn't a problem, in general. My home field is a 3000 foot grass strip in a rural area. We have decent edge and end lights, but it still is a bit exciting trying to touchdown gracefully into a dimly lit black hole.

I have two landing lights, one narrow and the other wide. The narrow helps gauge altitude during the final approach, and the wide keeps the ground lit throughout the flare.

I have been wanting to install the baja squadron pro's that everyone over on VAF says is so good, but at $300, I just cant bring myself to crack open my wallet. I have a couple of small landing lights inside my cowl inlets. They are just fine, but not a flood of lights by any means.

I seldom fly at night but I do get caught out after dark on occasion and I like to get night current about once a year. The only thing That bothers me about landing my Thorp at night is the way the landing light on the cowl reflects off the back side of the wood prop I have. It pretty much kills my night vision but I see less without it on.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

By the time the sun goes down my head is usually hitting the pillow . I use my LED landing light for recognition in high traffic areas like SOCAL .

RB

This is a cool survey. I like option 4, haha. My Thorp has no landing or interior lights, so not an option for me.

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

We practice engine out and no flap landings. Unless a person never flies at night, I think it’s a good idea to land at night without lights occasionally. I believe the most common failures in aircraft are electrical. I know that has been my experience (although oddest failure I experienced was a manual flap system failure when the link between the button and the locking pawl let go).

For our purposes, the only required lights at night are nav lights and strobes/beacon. I am typing on a light I can and have used to check instruments with although it isn’t my first choice.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

I have no landing light. I fly at night with it. I can't say I'm 100% comfortable but the night part iwthout lights isn't the issue. My biggest issues is not being able to see the wind sock with my fly over. That's my only confidence issue. Most small fields I land at do not have weather info so I'm coming blind into the wind situation

I just broke down and installed 2 baja squadron pros.....now I gotta go fly at night to test out these suckers.

I installed this light a year ago - one bolt to the baffling just just inside the port air intake. It does a nice job. I then went to Checker air parts and bought a red $19 LED adhesive strip and installed it just ahead of the roll bar out of direct line of sight. It lights up the panel well.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinf ... ight/1782/

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Fraser MacPhee
N926WM
Serial #279-1
Angel Fire, NM (KAXX)

I just flew at night with my baja squadron pro lights ( 2 of them). They are awesome.

Where and how did you mount your baja lights? Any pics?