sellener

I have been flying a PA28-181 but never at night. I am also very new to aviation. I joined a club and have been looking over the PA28-181 and am having trouble locating the appropriate aircraft lights requried for night flight. Specifically, I cant find the white tail position light. It has strobes on each wing. It has red and green position lights on the wings. It has a red beacon light on the tail. For the life of me i cant find a white tail position light? Am I missing something? I have seen many PA28's with the white position light on the rudder. Would their be any onther place they would stick the white position light?

jban642

I know on the one that I like to fly it is on the back just above the rudder. I don't know if this is the same for you however then one I fly was made in the 70's.

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Geronimo4497

What year model is it? Some of the later models had the white position lights (2) on the back of the strobe/red or green nav light assembly on each wingtip.

Kilgore Trout

Howdy Sellener,
There are some installations of aircraft strobe light systems on aircraft wingtips that replace the need for a white tail navigation light.
Have attached a link to the Supplemental Type Certificate for the Whelen Company's strobe lighting system. Ask your flight school's mechanic(s) about the installation just to make sure the aircraft meets the requirements for lighting for night flight, but I'm pretty sure that's what's up in this case.
Supplemental Type Certificate

sqwkvfr

They're likely on the wingtips facing aft.

Kilgore Trout

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Kilgore Trout

Hey Sellener, does the light assembly out on the wingtips look like the top assembly at this link?
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/...onlightass.htm

I gotta admit, I think I spoke too soon. The more I look into PA-28 light installations, the less I know.
I've seen a whole bunch of different set-ups since your initial post while googling PA-28-181's.
Have attached another link to Whelen's catalog, the explanation of exterior lighting is similar, but a bit clearer I think than the above links I provided.
Safest bet for you, to make sure that plane has what it needs legally for night flight, ask your school to explain their plane's lighting setup. I worked at a place that had Cherokee Sixes a long time ago, all day VFR in AK, and they had different installations. Some had strobes, some did not.
Good luck!
http://www.whelen.com/pb/Aviation/20...on_Catalog.pdf

AZFlyer

The -181 that I fly is an '02 model and has the position lights on the wingtips facing aft in the same housing as the nav lights. Yours could be the same way.

freeze3192

Too lazy to look up it up right now, but could you legally fly at night with one of the aft facing wingtip position lights INOP?

rotorhead1026

Kilgore Trout:

No offense, but I don't know of any!

The STC you linked to mentions a replacement for existing anti-collision light systems. There's no mention of position lights that I can find. For a lot of reasons it's very unlikely that such a substitution would be allowed. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. A position light needs to be, and can be, on 100% of the time at night. It's often not safe to do this with a strobe (fog, proximity of other vehicles on ground, etc.)

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freeze3192:


Unless it's some sort of a redundant installation, no (unless you had some sort of a ferry permit).

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OP:


Turn the master and position light switches on (only those switches) and walk around the airplane looking for steady white light (s).