Landing Lights – RV-14 Build

Landing lights and wing root fairings

Posted on December 15, 2025 by Neal

Not much progress this week. I focused on switching out the connectors for the landing lights, and then installing the landing light lenses.

The original landing light wiring setup used molex connectors for the three wires providing power and ground to the Landing and Taxi lights. I was never very happy with the crimps on the wires, the poor connection, and the awkward angle of the wiring entering the molex connector.

I decided to replace them with DTM connectors, and re-route the wiring. DTM connectors provide better wire support, are water resistant, and have a much more positive connection and locking mechanism.

I removed the landing light clusters from both wings, brought them home and switched to DTM 3-wire connectors. Once I had them re-installed in the wings, I tested the lights and then installed the landing light lenses. The wiring setup is much more robust now, and I’m sure it will work out well.

I spent some time on the wing root fairings. Each fairing consist of two parts, an upper and a lower fairing. The upper is thicker and covers the area from the flap to just forward of the main wing spar. This is designed to be walked on when entering and existing the cabin. The lower fairing is thinner and longer, and covers the bottom of the wing, and wraps around the leading edge. Forming the curve around the leading edge was a bit time consuming. The plans explain the initial bend, which is easy enough, but then some careful manipulation by hand is needed to get the final shape. It took an hour or so to get the curve right on both sides.

There are a few more steps to finish these fairings, including riveting on a series of stiffeners.

Landing light bay with the new DTM connector visible.

Wing root fairings on the left wing. I was test fitting these, getting the bend right before installing stiffeners and dimpling holes etc

Bottom wing fairing where it bends around and forms the leading edge.

Lighting Test

Posted on June 13, 2024 by Neal

With the aircraft outside, we took the opportunity to test the lights and other systems. I tested the landing lights, taxi lights, navigation lights, strobe lights, wig-wag function, magnetometer, satellite reception, canopy fans, canopy flood light, comm radios, and GPS receivers.

There were some issues with the lighting which I’ll need to investigate and fix: one row of red nav LED lights were intermittent, the wing tip strobe lights were weak, and the right side, leading-edge, landing lights were in-op.

Aside from that, everything else worked as expected.

In order to test everything I made a wiring harness that was 7 feet long and allowed me to connect the wing lighting from both wings while they remained in the wing cradle. I positioned a couple of workbenches behind the fuselage so I could plug in the tail light, and the wingtip lights. It’s possible the extra 7 feet of wiring had an adverse effect on the lighting voltage, contributing to some of the problems, but I didn’t attempt to troubleshoot.

Magnetometer connected, but not yet calibrated. Note, all lights are on, and current draw is 16.5A

I had to drop the left wing down out of the cradle to connect the wiring

Nav light test. The intermittent LEDs are on the bottom left of this image, which is actually the top side (the top is upside down here)

Landing lights and fuel tanks

Posted on March 28, 2022March 28, 2022 by Neal

Tonight I installed the landing lights into the wings, and then started the process of dropping the tanks to seal and test them.

The landing lights were already built from the last set of wings. Before I installed them I spend some time rerouting some wires to avoid any possible chaffing. Once I run the wires through the wings I’ll install a clamp to hold the wiring. I need to check that these lights are still working, but skipped that step in my hurry to get the job done. I should be able to plug in my power supply and get it working.

Left wing landing lights installed in their cove

View from inside the wing showing the landing light installed in the left wing

Next, I started the process of dropping the tank on the left wing. There are around 80 screws, and 18 bolts, per tank to remove to get the tank off the wing. Access is a problem with the wing in the stand, so I will need to move the right wing somewhere to finish removing all the screws from the left wing.

My plan is to drop the left wing tank, install the fuel sender, then use soap and water to inspect for leaks. If it all looks ok, I’ll then reinstall onto the wing, and then do the right wing.