High Vis Markings

At 05:03 28 January 2016, Ramy wrote:

Not intending to offend anyone, just to solicit thought, not rote
acceptance. Show me the beef. (by way of full disclosure, I not
not eat beef).

Assuming no one is considering wrapping their whole glider in
orange glow,
=
only the wing tips, part of the rudder and maybe part of the nose.
How
coul=
d this possibly act as camouflage?? By reducing the visible wing
span by
le=
ss than 5%? This sounds like a myth. Worst case scenario it will
have no
im=
pact, base case scenario the small orange surface will catch your
attention=
and save your life. So instead of debating it to death, best is to
just
pu=
rchase a stripe of orange vinyl (less than $50) and stick it to your
wing
t=
ip/winglets/rudder. It will make your glider look prettier, more
unique,
an=
d maybe even safer. And if you dont like it - remove it...

Ramy

Camouflage works by breaking up the outline of a familiar object so
that the eye/brain does not recognise it, or alternatively confuses
the eye/brain.
British soldiers in your war of independence wore red coats,
because red made it difficult for the enemy to count the number of
soldiers, to camouflage the size of their force . Ships in WW1 were
painted in garish zig-zag patterns which broke up the outline so
they were less likely to be recognised as ships and made range
estimation difficult. It is not as simple as it seems.
Sticking it to your rudder is a bad idea, as has been pointed out
earlier. Altering the mass balance of a control surface, even by a
small amount, without comprehensive testing, is unlikely to end
well.