Radio Control Jet International - April-May 2018

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http://www.unilight.at

was very bright indeed.

First to be fitted were the left and right

nav/strobe lights. The aluminium plate cool-

ing sections required slots to be made for

these in the wingtips of the Avanti XXL, using

small router bits and Permagrit tools, enlarg-

ing the slots carefully until it was possible to

slide the units into place. The leads fitted to

the units were too short to reach the wing

root, so extensions were added to these, with

a locking plug at the wing root end. Once the

units had been checked to ensure they fitted

accurately they were glued into place, after

which the supplied and very neat polycarbon-

ate moulded clear covers/fairings were fitted,

these then having small fillets of silicon to

secure and waterproof.

The powerful fuselage strobe light came next,

and here a suitable sized clearance hole was

carefully made just behind the rear canopy

mount, and a liteply lower mount made up.

Once the raw edges of the hole had received

a quick lick of paint to match the red of the

model, the liteply mount was glued into place

in the fuselage, after which the light unit was

carefully installed, this being glued only to

the liteply mount, allowing for easy removal if

required. Leads from all three units were

then run through the fuselage and to the con-

troller, which was installed in the forward part

of the fuselage, whilst the Rx and power

leads were quickly connected up to the

receiver and battery.

Programming of the controller proved to be

straightforward, and I was quickly able to get

the light sequences I wanted for the model.

The nav lights are nice and bright and can be

seen from a significant distance, whilst the

wingtip and fuselage strobe lights are very

powerful and are visible from an even greater

distance. Unfortunately, due to the very poor

weather in the U.K. over this winter it has

been impossible to fly the Avanti XXL since

the lights have been installed, but I am look-

ing forward to doing this as soon as the

weather improves, and am sure that they will

make the model far easier to orient on in

flight, particularly in the murky, overcast con-

ditions we seem to suffer so often in the U.K.

This advanced and very powerful package

from Unilight comprises an easy to install and

program set of lights complete with a very

sophisticated and advanced controller, which

offers a huge range of lighting programmes

and options. I am delighted with the outcome,

and look forward to using more of these high

quality Unilight lights in future models.

A test of the lights on a typical murky and wet winter’s day in the U.K. – the power of the LED’s is

very impressive; they will show up clearly in flight, even at a significant distance from the pilot.

The controller was fitted to the main equipment tray under the

canopy, with the leads tucked away underneath the tray.

batteries, but come supplied complete with

resistors that are used if 3 cell (11.1v) Li-Po

power is preferred. The maximum combined

current of the lights is around 5.4Amps, how-

ever this is the current when all 5 lights are

powered up, and of course only the naviga-

tion lights will be constantly lit, these drawing

only 1.0Amp across the 2 lights, so as the

strobe lights will be operating intermittently

the effective average current will be much

lower, allowing a relatively small battery pack

to be used. Alternatively the light system can

also be powered by a battery already being

used for another purpose, for example tur-

bine ECU or electric retracts.

A quick test of the lights was made before

installation, and as expected they are

extremely powerful, and as per the warnings

in the instructions, not to be viewed directly at

close range – even the reflection of the lights

Review - UNILIGHT AVANTI XXL LIGHTING SET

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