The International Cessna^® 170 Association

We are putting a Sportsman STOL kit on our 55 170B. Looking at the new wingtips it seems now is the perfect time to upgrade our Nav lights to LED. The new wingtips have a 1 3/8" diameter hole predrilled for the lights. Anyone have any recommendations as to a particular Nav light that is a simple upgrade with the Sportsman STOL kit? I only need Nav lights, not the Nav/Strobe combination.

If it was my money I would install old-school (cheap) incandescent fixtures and aftermarket LED bulbs. Plenty of people are of the opinion that the bulbs don't need any TSO or PMA. I use LED turn signal bulbs that were $10 apiece and have been going strong for 7 years. If you insist on having something "approved", then Whelen makes TSOd bulbs for the low low price of $150 each.

I have read reports that the cheap LED bulbs can cause radio interference in some installations.

A number of years ago (in these Forums) I posted about installing automotive LED lamps in/behind the aviation red/green lenses on our wingtip nav lights.

I found that a White LED… behind a RED lens… produces an ORANGE color. And a White LED behind a GREEN lens produces a BLUE.

Therefore I used a RED LED and a GREEN LED…. and they were PERFECT.

I’ll try to find the article and post a link here. (unfortunately a website-software update a decade or so ago Dropped many photos that are now lost to history) viewtopic.php?t=6576&hilit=led+nav+lights

As mentioned, the most straightforward would be to get good quality LED bulbs to install in the existing light mounts. I’ve seen AeroLeds installed with good results, and of course the Whelen Chroma TSO ones are very nice as well.