Paint Schemes for Low-level Ops
 

Should we be yellow/black or does anyone think there’s a better solution? The yellow/black (or dark blue if you want) was the result of a MoD study aimed at above-the horizon conspicuity. It doesn’t seem to work so well looking down or against many low-level backdrops.

Any ideas? Any other suggestions for making helos more obvious?

I seem to remember reading an article written by a (then ) RAE (Royal Aircraft Establishment,F'Boro)boffin. He had done a study of a number of Air - Ground gunnery ranges and concluded by scientific measurement that the then black and yellow chequerboard painted buildings, at a certain(??) distance are perceived by the eye as green. (What colour do you get if you mix yellow and black - Surprise, surprise).
I just thought this might be relevant?? :)

I reckon dayglo orange, added advantage, it matches your eyes.

How about painting the upper surface of one MRB a nice dayglo colour?

Works on the Sea King, but only if you attack from above!

The United States Forest Service (USFS) has a high visibility main rotor blade paint scheme that has been used succesfully for many years.
Alternating Orange/White blades, works very well.
In addition to strobes and combination strobe/position lights, landing light flash systems such as the Pulse-light are extremely effective in high traffic areas.

The so called conspicuity colours and whether they are effective is open to considerable conjecture. Ask people at Shawbury where several 350's & 412's have these paint jobs. One person even mentioned that he found it difficult to see when it was hover taxying past in front of a dark backdrop. What hope when you are low level! A combination of HISL's/Rotating Beacon/TCAS/MRB colours must be the best option.

It surprises me that some police air support units slavishly adopt this paint scheme but hesitate about spending more cash on a TCAS or a couple of HISL's. What is even more surprising is that one purely 'congested area' unit has this. Lots of low flying jets eh??

Marco, you obviously don't like the 'high conspicuity colour scheme', thats fine, but remember the matt black effect is the only one to come out of anything that was remotely like a scientific study. A straw poll of a number of pilots in some dark and dusty crewroom is certainly not a valid reason to discount the adoption of a yellow and black colour scheme (even though most of these are a b**tardization of the recommended colour scheme. That Police forces that operate over congested areas 'slavishly' adopt the same scheme is no surprise, there is no barrier that prevents them from going over the grass stuff during the normal course of events.
The fitting of TCAS to all police helicopters will certainly come but for the moment there is a limit, imposed by the CAA on the number of police aircraft that can have TCAS fitted, due to the very real problem of 'transponder saturation' (my phrase but I think it fits the bill!)
Finally, the choice of colour is a subjective thing but it looks a bit sexier than some crappy old jam sandwich style

Suckback 6 - Well well, obviously your aircraft is in this scheme?

The straw poll of a number of pilots in some dark and dusty crewroom is not correct. This opinion came from CFS(H) instructors during a deconfliction seminar hosted by BHAB at Shawbury.

Had you read AIC 135 (Yellow 353 dated 2 Dec 99) you would see there is no limit to the amount of TCAS 1 that can be fitted to helicopters. You are correct however when you state "transponder saturation". IFF/SSR policy on a TCAS licence states 'you shall not operate TCAS 1 if >3 similarly equipped aircraft are active within a zone radius of 5 nm'. Could be interesting at Silverstone??

Finally, if you want your police helicopter to be aligned to the military you may well find that you pick up some of their flack as well. Its up to what you want the public perception of your aircraft to be. I might add I wouldn't want a battenburg colour scheme though!!

Marco, as you are obviously an expert on this(although experts normally begin by announcing their credentials) - what is your favourite colour scheme and how are you going to persuade police units and the military to change to it?

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Fly safe!

I would consider painting a larger area of yellow on the upper half than reccomended. I saw the Devon police 117 last year and the 50/50 yellow/blue paint scheme looked quite good.

Marco, you're right, we do have a bit of a bumble bee job on ours (and actually getting to that stage was a bit of a performance) and whats more I'll come out and admit I like it. As to aligning with the military & getting other peoples noise complaints, tried the first and wasn't any good at it, for the second, here in the city (another clue there) we don't get many (yet). On the bright side, maybe we can blame some of our complaints on the military. On a lighter note, the fact that a goup of pilots /instrctors / gods from cfs decided they don't like the scheme just reinforces my view that it must be good! (not necessarily effective though).
Was this the five minute or the full half hour?

I have seen some excellent hi-vis schemes on r/c model aircraft which may work well for full-size too. One of the best was dayglo orange against black. Has anyone seen this in large scale? (as a possible alternative to the blue/black against yellow).

I certainly agree that the paint job is only part of the package. These days I prefer to fly around with as many bright lights on as possible, especially by day. Many years ago during a SAR I saw, heard and literally smelled (!) a Jaguar at 500 ft that narrowly missed us, just after we selected our landing light on to help another rotary aircraft see us. I am convinced that the Jag pilot had not seen us until then - he was pulling hard G to pass our port side. We certainly did not see his cam until too late to do much avoiding! We were bright red and white/grey at the time, not so good a scheme even as the current colours. Lucky day for all concerned.

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Fly safe!

If Units don't adopt the "reccomended" hi-conspicuity scheme, can their crews' families sue the Chief Constable when the collision occurs?

The same question could be asked if units don't have TCAS, HISL's or conspicious main rotor blades fitted. Several ASU's who have the yellow and black colour scheme don't have these extra items of equipment fitted. I'm sure they have valid reasons for not doing so. Cost won't be an excuse surely??

Speaking as a Mil QHI, I have to thank the civil police heli force for applying the yellow/black colour scheme. When the 350 fleet was used to replace the venerable Gazelle for tactical training for the AAC in Devon, the flying complaints dropped to zero, can't imagine why!
On a more serious note, a potentially serious airmiss was averted in LFA1A due to the late sighting of a 350 lifting from a "confined area". The GR7 pilot commented that the only incling he had was the flash of yellow that he saw allowing him sufficient time to react and avert disaster.
But this is just my experience, thanks for taking the time to read this missive :-)

neverinbalance
you said you saw the Devon 117, was that from the side, the ground, or from above?

Involved in a trial a while back, but I guess our eyesight has not changed. The best colour will be a compromise for use at Dawn, Day and Dusk, blah, blah, egg suckinggggggg.

Beware 'experts', it was experts who told us that the Hawk nose light would reduce incidents.......whereas in fact the light blotted out the aircraft and blended it into the sunny Welsh skyline.

EESDL,

Re your last para, I read somewhere that the Navy found (back before Radar) that a very effective way of camoflaging ships was to shine bright lights off them - made them less visible coming over the horizon. Presumably not overly effective at night, though !

Nice to see that past research is being put to good use. :rolleyes:

For the colour scheme, I always thought that if you painted an aircraft 2 colours then the eye can pick that up as 2 objects. Thus missing one part of the aircraft. I like the big yellow Sea Kings. All one colour and easy(ish) to see against the ground, but not so much against the air. The best (in my opinion) method of conspicuity is to keep moving. Take positive steps to make yourself visible. If someone spots you and thinks 'what the f*** is he doing?' means that you have been spotted. This involves manouvering, lights, radio calls and everything. Don't assume people can see you, make them see you.


Not a lot of help if you're hovering, winching etc. But then life was never meant to be easy.