Brian Davies wrote:
> In the UK, homebuilts are daylight VFR only. I have never spotted an
> aircraft in daylight by seeing its strobes. I dont think they are an
> essential safety feature.
I have spotted several aircraft because they turned in such a way that
they reflected the sunshine for a short moment. Not so many planes
because of their strobes that I remember, but few airplanes have them
(switched on). Still, while looking for traffic in a circuit, I have
found the planes much easier when they had strobes.
And then, there are strobes and strobes... There are quite a lot of
pretty useless strobes. Cessna's, with their weak single flash every few
seconds. So we have installed very strong strobes, feeding the three
bulbs with the max they can handle in a double flash pattern, and even
in bright daylight they are sore to the eye. The very efficient power
supply draws 5 amps, anything less would not be visible enough. We feed
30 Watts to the tail strobe, and 16 Watts to each wing tip.
Frans
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