Conspicuity Tape / Visibility Markings

On Sep 11, 9:34*am, Morgan wrote:
I'm not convinced that "High Vis" markings really make a huge
difference. *My experience with the few gliders out in CA with
markings is that I see the glider and then after getting closer, I can
see the markings and determine which glider it is. *So I can identify
pilots based on their high vis markings, but I have always spotted the
glider well before being able to discern the markings.

One glider that has more effective markings is Peter Deane's. *He's
got wide, 1 foot or so, flourescent orange material wrapped around the
wing about 4-6 feet in from the tip. *Compared to the typical chevrons
at the tips, I find it breaks up the silhouette much more
significantly giving 3 distinct areas along the wing profile. *Again
though, I have only noticed that I can identify his glider from a much
greater distance. *I haven't had a situation (I don't get to fly with
him much) where I thought the markings led me to see him sooner. *If I
were going to install some on my glider, I'd follow Peter's lead as it
seems to be a more noticeable change than just having something at the
tips.

On Sep 10, 2:51*pm, AGL wrote:







Hi;

We spend a lot of time discussing electronic collision avoidance
devices, and advice to keep a good lookout. * To help the situation we
could also make our aircraft more visible to those what are keeping
that good lookout. *Isn't some sort of visibility marking required in
Europe?

A search of the group reveals that this was discussed extensively in
the 90's, and mentioned occasionally since, but is anyone aware of new
technology that is useful? *These days you can get holographic,
prismatic, and various coloured reflective tapes, almost all of it for
trucks, industrial equipment, or decoration, but most of it doesn't
seem too useful in daylight.

I have searched high and low and found a lot of mediocre products for
our purpose.. *The people at the link below have selections from 3M
and just about anyone else in the business. *(no connection etc)http://www.identi-tape.com/index.html

Has anyone found anything really good?

Martin

I can think of only one situation where bright, colored markings
really work and that is when a white glider is seen against snow.
When seen against a dull, cluttered background, the markings tend to
break up the glider's outline making it harder to see.

Keep in mind, the human eyeball, judged as a camera, suffers from
chromatic aberration - it doesn't focus on all colors in the spectrum
at the same time. If the background is predominately blue, the eye
will be focused on that end of the visible spectrum making red dots at
the other end of the spectrum appear fuzzy.

I've recently learned of another human vision limitation. As we age,
our eye's color sensitivity shifts to the blue end of the spectrum.
As a youngster, I disliked blue Christmas tree lights since they
appeared fuzzy. At 70, red LED displays seem difficult to focus on
and red cars seem dull while blue is luminous and crisp.

Taken together, IMHO, there isn't much to be gained from color
markings - especially red ones - except in special situations.

The one thing which does render distant, otherwise invisible aircraft
visible is a collimated beam of light aimed in your direction. (Think
landing lights) Ultrabright LED's and diode lasers might offer clever
gadget designers an idea for enabling quick eye contact with FLARM
identified intruders.

FLARM obviously works well and is well worth its cost.