High Visibility Aircraft Colour
High Visibility Aircraft Colour
What are the best colours to paint aircraft so that ATCO's can see them, and other pilots in the air can see them. Was thinking something like fluro yellows, orange, red etc.
Now of all the fleet wre the same colour, could he tails be given different colours so ATC could tell them appart, would that be helpfull.
Now of all the fleet wre the same colour, could he tails be given different colours so ATC could tell them appart, would that be helpfull.
AustralianMade
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Paint the front half bright pink, that would probably get you noticed.
Gets the local dogs excited too.
Gets the local dogs excited too.
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Many years ago, the National Safety Council had one of their birds (the Dornier?) tricked up in a half fluro pink scheme. Looked horrible, but you could see it from the tower when it was 2 states away!
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Black is the high vis colour for the UK - it stands out well against the predominantly light grey colour of the sky. I believe that in Australia it wouldn't work so well - yellow is probably better - perhaps with some black stripes to provide contrast. But that depends on where in Australia you're operating - what's the background? Desert, bush, trees, suburban?
A
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...the predominantly light grey colour of the sky...is one of the perpetual myths that Aussies love to push about the UK. You know they actually have lovely blue skies over there too - even in mid winter!
- I'm not an Aussie - I'm English
- I've just come back from 4 weeks of beautiful English late summer weather, with only 2-3 days of rain, and arrived back in Sydney to 2-3 days of cold, grey, wet weather...
- ...BUT, if you checked the stats I think you'd find the cloud cover in the UK more widespread with more oktas over more days than in, say, Sydney, which is predominantly a result of its maritime climate and the effects of the Gulf Stream.
- So a dark background would make more sense against a light background than against the dark
how about a full chrome paint scheme?
would reflect any light, easy to see in both day and night!
would reflect any light, easy to see in both day and night!
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Read a study about English gliders that recommended foil tape over the leading edges of wing/fin/tailplane & all control surfaces. The 'glints' made the craft detectable at significantly greater distances.
Probably look like **** though.
Probably look like **** though.
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Once you climb up through the clouds you tend to find that skies in the UK are just as blue as here, and black works fine against it. Harder to see at low level against a background of dark green trees, though.
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Colours
Some time ago there was a dark blue C152 at YSBK it was HCE the tower loved it because they could see it better than ony other aircraft. The problem was following pilots could NOT see the dam thing, it has since been repainted white and it works OK for following a/c and after all the tower is not going to crash into you are they?
I took one of the tower operators up and we followed HCE and he could not believe he could not see the little beasty.
Kickatinalong.
I took one of the tower operators up and we followed HCE and he could not believe he could not see the little beasty.
Kickatinalong.
Sounds to me like the answer is;
It depends on the background, i.e.
If he is above you, below cloud or blue sky?
If he is below you and the surfact is water, desert, forest or built up area?
Paint it a colour you like and put a transponder and TCAS on board, and turn them on.
It depends on the background, i.e.
If he is above you, below cloud or blue sky?
If he is below you and the surfact is water, desert, forest or built up area?
Paint it a colour you like and put a transponder and TCAS on board, and turn them on.
Almost by definition, following an aircraft is going to be tricky, whatever the colour is because the section area is designed to be as small as possible.
The most difficult part about spotting an aircraft in the circuit, at least at a training airfield, is they're usually pretending not to be...
(in the circuit that is)
A
PS: so black underneath and white/yellow/orange/pink on top seems to be the best option.
The most difficult part about spotting an aircraft in the circuit, at least at a training airfield, is they're usually pretending not to be...
(in the circuit that is)
A
PS: so black underneath and white/yellow/orange/pink on top seems to be the best option.
