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| Alexis Park Inn & Suites |
| 1165 S. Riverside Drive |
| Iowa City, Iowa 52246 |
| Toll Free: 888-9ALEXIS |
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(888-925-3947) |
| Local: 319 337-8665 |
| Fax: 319 351-4102 |
| Email:AlexisParkInn@mchsi.com |
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Skycraft Landing Lights |
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| New Info 9/11/07: Since Skycraft owner Al Snyder's death, these lights have been unavailable. I just received word that Woodstock Air Services will now be selling them again. The price as of this writing is $895. Their phone number is 845-583-5830. |
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| One major deficiency of the Piper Cherokee is the single, nose-mounted landing light. This 100 watt bulb casts little usable light, is susceptible to vibration and early burn-out, can only be aimed *either* for taxiing *or* landing, and represents a single point of failure during night landings -- arguably one of the most critical phases of flight. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thus, we began our search for additional landing light. One popular option is to replace the Cherokee's fiberglass wingtips with new versions that incorporate integral landing lights. Unfortunately, our Cherokee 235 Pathfinder has 17 gallon gas tanks in the wing-tips, which eliminated that option. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Really the only choice for tip tank-equipped Cherokee owners is the Skycraft landing light kit, which cuts the landing lights right into the leading edge of both wings, similar to the Piper Comanche's lights. Unfortunately this is "major surgery" that requires many hours of labor, but the kit is very high quality and the results, as can be seen in the pictures, below, are spectacular. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The kit price is not cheap, however, and I had pretty much abandoned the idea when I was contacted by a fellow Cherokee owner who told me that he had a complete Skycraft kit, still in the box, that had come along with his plane when he bought it. He was willing to sell it to me for half the price of new, if I was interested? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Well, of course I was, but I was leery of buying something in that condition -- the date on the box was from 1989! Anything that had sat for 15+ years could be missing parts, instructions -- you name it -- so I called Al, owner of Skycraft Corp., and asked him what he thought. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| He told me to have my seller ship the kit directly to him, and he'd check it over, make sure it was complete and up-to-date, and then send it on to me with an STC (Supplemental Type Certificate -- basically a "license" to use the kit) for my aircraft. He said he'd do all that for $50, which sounded like a great deal, so that's what I did. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A few days later I called Al to see how it looked, and he allowed that it was complete in every way, and in perfect, unpacked condition. He said he'd update it and send it on to me -- for $100. I paused at this 100% price increase, but -- still thinking this sounded pretty good -- I thanked him and waited for the package to arrive. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A few days later it arrived, with an STC for a PA32-300 -- and a bill for $112. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I called him, reminded him that I owned a PA28-235, and that the supplied STC was unusable. He apologized and said he'd get the correct paperwork in the mail "right away." Three days later, still sans paperwork, I called Al again. He again apologized and promised to "overnight it" to me. Three days later, STILL without paperwork, I called him -- and he again apologized, but said he had "just mailed it." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It arrived later that day, just as my mechanic was putting the finishing touches on the installation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The pictures below show each step of the
installation. The kit is very complete and of extremely high
quality, but my mechanic (Keith Roof, owner of Iowa City Aircraft Repair)
found the supplied instructions to be somewhat lacking. Luckily, being
an award-winning home-builder, Keith devised a few improved
installation techniques, and had them installed quickly.
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