Was up flying tonight getting current again in multi engine aircraft and what I saw on the instrument panel reminded me of this thread. While the cockpit's overhead light was red, most of the instruments were side lit with green light. Keeping the red light down and having the green glowing in front of me made for an interesting atmosphere. The green light worked pretty well (I would have preferred the green to be a bit brighter) and was certainly less glaring than the red. Patrick Richard Tenney wrote:
Hi Chuck,
Not long ago I made my own LED light from Radio Shack parts, red at one end of the case, green at the other, and a toggle switch that would let me select either color. I did this with the intention of seeing for myself which one worked better, having heard the same arguments for/against that you have. I much prefer the green; it's dimmer than the red, and because the human eye is much more sensitive to green wavelengths, works as well or better, with better overall results, and does not seem to cause any significant impairment to my dark adaptation (and definitely less so than the red). Plus it's overall dim enough that I've not had anyone observing near me complain about it so far...
Green is also what makes the display on my Sky Commander DSC's so nice; LCD backlit in a soft green glow. The backlight intensity is kept quite dim and still shows off the data no problem, without sucking batteries dry as rapidly as the LED-displays do.
BTW, a pencil is a much better instrument for note taking and especially sketching; I find myself frequently erasing, and it doesn't malfunction when the temp gets cold!
-Rich