The International Cessna^® 170 Association

A guy at our airport just finished work on a C140 project, and has offered to sell the rotating beacon he replaced with an LED drop in. Anybody have any idea what a fair price to offer would be? I love the look of the old beacon on my airplane, and would like to have his as a spare. It was working when he took it off. I don't know what to offer, and he doesn't know what to ask.

Oops I think those beacons are made by Grimes not Whelen. We were talking on the phone about the replacement whelen and I had Whelen on the brain. I'll edit the topic.

I'd say about $100 to $125 for a working old beacon.

Why can t some small hobbyist re furnish these old grimes rotating beacons.

I knew of a person that rebuilt old GE fans from 1930's.

Is there a limiting factor?

MoonlightVFR wrote:Why can t some small hobbyist re furnish these old grimes rotating beacons.

I knew of a person that rebuilt old GE fans from 1930's.

Is there a limiting factor?

In a nutshell parts is the problem.

You would think these lights are all the same and use the same parts. And there would be interchangeability. NO THERE ISN"T

i once had 4 rotating beacons. All Grimes. I only needed one to work but I could not use parts from any of the others to make one good one. They were all different. What goes bad are brushes in the motors which are not replaceable by normal means and the bushings or gears get sloppy and bind.

OK if you set it as your goal to refurb a Grimes light at any cost in dollars and time, had lots of tools like a lathe to make bearings and gear cutting tools for gears and you where also a clock repairmen, sure one could do it.

If there was ONE thing that an originality nut could throw in the trash with good conscience....it would be those old motorized rotating beacons. They are DIM. UNreliable. HEavy. Draw WAY too much electrical power. And they're Noisey. (YES, NOISEY! They can be heard over the engine, and they make electrical noise in some audio systems which unlike strobes, cannot not always be silenced.)
They are also expensive to repair. The little motors are usually unobtainable for less than $200 and last anywhere from 40 years to 40 days.

If you really like yours....then when the motor quits, simply replace the motor with an automotive turn signal flasher to flash the lamp and no one will likely ever know the difference. (But install wingtip strobes so you'll truly have some valid anti-collision lights.)

Well, my Grimes rotating beacon was showing signs of distress so I looked around at the options. The Whelen LED beacon model 9052055 is one popular option but they are pretty large, almost the same size of the Grimes you are replacing. These are pretty spendy at $618 from Spruce plus you have to buy their adaptor too.
A relatively new player on the market is Aveo Engineering. http://www.aveoengineering.com/index.ph ... edbaron-xp They have developed a small LED anticollision light that is called the Red Baron XP. This light exceeds C-96a TSO requirements. This is a very compact and light unit at 2.52" in diameter and weighs in at 5.3 oz. It is waterproof, vibration proof and has a lifetime warranty. I sprung for one of these to replace my ailing Grimes along with an Aveo built adaptor/riser unit. I then cut out a 5.125" circle of 0.050" 2024 T3 aluminum to adapt the whole unit to the airplane and match the diameter and screw holes of the base of the Grimes adaptor. I had to drill one hole through the fuselage for the wires as they do not come down from the Red Baron from the center to match the existing wiring hole in the airframe but otherwise no new holes were drilled in the airplane. I tried using 0.032" thick aluminum initially but it flexes a bit too much when screwed down making the installation not as clean and watertight as I liked so redid it in 0.050" sheet which seems about perfect. The unit has 3 wires; Yellow for hot, Black for Ground to airframe, Blue to sync the unit to other Aveo units like wingtip and tail lights (should you ever install them) so in this case it is left unconnected. They are not cheap of course but what else is new with this hobby? $575 from Spruce and the Aveo adaptor is another $70. My A&P approved this under a Minor Alteration 337.

That is a nice installation and a good looking unit. However, there is no logical reason for something so simple to cost that much Due to the simplicity of the components and their costs that unit shouldn't (IMO) cost more than $100, but no doubt the cost of getting the STC/PMA and profit drives the price out of site. Thank you FAA

The less expensive method is to gut the old unit and install an automotive flasher in it. Foolproof!

gahorn wrote:If there was ONE thing that an originality nut could throw in the trash with good conscience....it would be those old motorized rotating beacons. They are DIM. UNreliable. HEavy. Draw WAY too much electrical power. And they're Noisey. ... They are also expensive to repair.

There's one thing the "Originality Nut" forgot to add to this list and that is that the rotating beacon is not original! Take a look at the electrical diagram in the parts manual. There is no rotating beacon on this or the later s/n electrical diagrams. It's not even listed among the optional equipment.What was an option was a Narco navigation light flasher unit.But this had an AD on it--when installed on other Cessnas anyway. (The FAA apparently overlooked the fact that this was an option on the C-170 when they wrote this AD.)

59-10-03 CESSNA: Applies to Cessna Models 172, Serial Numbers 28000 Through 36003; 180, 180A, Serial Numbers 30000 Through 32991; 182, 182A, Serial Numbers 33000 Through 34500.

Compliance required by July 15, 1959.

The Narco Model 300 position light flasher is of non-fail-safe design and to comply with the Civil Air Regulations a three position switch should be installed to permit steady operation of the lights in case of flasher failure. In addition, a means should be provided to enable the pilot to tell when the flasher has failed. Plexiglas reflectors at the wing tip lights or a monitor light on the instrument panel are acceptable means. The Van Dusen flasher (Cessna P/N 0511309-1) is acceptable as a fail-safe design.
(Cessna Service Letter 180/182-41 (sic -- it's actually SL 180/182-31) covers this same subject.)

I managed to find one of these Van Dusen units at Duncan Aviation. I'll be installing it in accordance with Cessna Service Kit SK 172-9. The plan is to take out the stop on the nav light switch which limits the three position switch to a two position switch. Up will be for blinking nav lights and down for steady nav lights. I'm still debating whether the Whelen rotating beacon stays or goes.

170C wrote:That is a nice installation and a good looking unit. However, there is no logical reason for something so simple to cost that much Due to the simplicity of the components and their costs that unit shouldn't (IMO) cost more than $100, but no doubt the cost of getting the STC/PMA and profit drives the price out of site. Thank you FAA

Yes yes, they cost at least twice as much as they should but what else is new in aviation? I say that about almost everything I buy for the airplane. These really are nicely made little units though. They appear to be better engineered and constructed compared to the Whelen LED beacon in my opnion. Also, In this case, I reasoned that this new fangled anti-collision light is on all the time you are operating the airplane and is about 100% more reliable with a lifetime warranty. And it is at least twice as bright and noticeable as the old grimes, maybe more.

Combined with the lower drag profile and lighter weight I also will gain another 5 knots of cruise.....<joke>.

n2582d wrote:[...]There's one thing the "Originality Nut" forgot to add to this list and that is that the rotating beacon is not original! ...]

I never claimed the rotating beacon was original. I said an originality nut could agree to throw it in the trash.
(It was contemporary to the period aircraft, however, and many of the heavy things were installed by Cessna dealers at the request of owners. I seem to recall a Cessna dwg that provided instructions for the install....but maybe I just dreamed it.)