High Vis Markings

I was at a Nationals at Caesar Creek, OH one summer and was running in the mornings. Like everyone else, I knew bright orange was highly visible (duh) so that's the color of the shirt I wore. One morning at the pilots meeting, a competitor commented that he hadn't seen me alongside the road that morning until he was almost on top of me. "Wear white," he suggested, "it's more visible against the trees and vegetation in this area." So I did, and he confirmed my greater visibility the next day.

The trouble with conventional wisdom is that so many people assume it's true because it seems logical--but without ever checking. There's another category of experts who continue on with, in essence, "don't confuse me with the facts; I know what I know," evidence from experimental studies to the contrary.

For the record, the Big Sky theory works very well. 99%+ (probably high 9s) of aircraft in flight don't collide. But it's not perfect. That's why we keep our eyes open, look for ways to make our gliders more visible in the environments in which we usually fly, and rely increasingly on electronic anti-collision technology to improve the odds still further.

The studies on glider conspicuity I've seen were all performed in Europe. It would be interesting to see the results of a similar study in an area like Nephi, or Hobbs, or Uvalde, or Minden on a typical summer soaring day. I've flown at the latter three sites but not at Nephi.

Chip Bearden