AA-5 Grumman camouflage

brien23

brien23

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
May 31, 2005
Messages
1,496
Location
Oak Harbor
Display Name
Display name:
Brien
Real good camouflage on a AA-5 Grumman on final, blended in perfect to the sky, could not see him. Did not hear the final call on the radio and could not see him, perfect camouflage in the sky.
Is their something about painting aircraft camouflage so you can't see them in the sky?
 
I recently saw a Lake amphib that was painted in a blue and gray camo scheme that would have made him invisible in the air and water. Redneck cloaking device.
 
I sometimes think blue and white might not have been the smartest pick.
 
The factory painted some Grummans in camo colors, but that was 40 years ago, I would be surprised if any of them still had the original paint. It would be expensive to reproduce.

n9562u.jpg
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I sometimes think blue and white might not have been the smartest pick.
Click to expand...
Choosing a paint scheme for a plane is an exercise in compromise. I think there are 4 criteria to be fulfilled:
1. Look good to the owners eye
2. Be visible from above and below
3. Not make plane incredibly hot (for us southerners)
4. Resale (look good to the buyers eye).

Lots of planes hit 2 or 3 of these. Those that hit all 4 are a minority, if not downright rare.

Sometimes im jealous of british aviators who can use dark colors on their planes. I just think anyone who did that here would regret it in summer.
 
luvflyin said:
While were on the subject, what are the best 'I wanna be seen by other pilots when I'm the air' colors?
Click to expand...
My personal opinion is yellow or orange. I dont have anything to cite to back that up.

I know the green and tan citabria i rent totally disappears below the horizon.
 
jkaduk said:
What color are emergency vehicles? There's your answer.
Click to expand...
Police cars are emergency vehicles....here, they are black and white for the highway patrol, or painted to look like other cars that aren't police. But I understand what you really mean.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Police cars are emergency vehicles....here, they are black and white for the highway patrol, or painted to look like other cars that aren't police. But I understand what you really mean.
Click to expand...
Yea I was thinking along the lines of "Fire Engine Red" etc. Dayglo anything would probably be good. Hideous, but visible.
 
Red in low light situations fades to gray.
 
FormerHangie said:
The factory painted some Grummans in camo colors, but that was 40 years ago, I would be surprised if any of them still had the original paint. It would be expensive to reproduce.

n9562u.jpg
Click to expand...

I have seen some of these at Grumman fly ins over the years. Yes, they are still around, but of course less of them.
 
SoonerAviator said:
No color at all: polished aluminum.
Click to expand...

Might have something there. Seems like in bright daylight I see reflections of the sun first, like off the wind screen before I see the airplane. Of course at night I see the lights first.
 
luvflyin said:
While were on the subject, what are the best 'I wanna be seen by other pilots when I'm the air' colors?
Click to expand...

You're looking for contrast against a background. So, dark colors on the underside and probably leading edges, and light, bright colors on top.

Black and neon yellow would be near ideal. As would be black and neon pink.
 
The joke at RIPON is "white RV rock your wings.... no... not all of you!"
 
The USN NATRACOM has the right idea. Though the full up underside being orange is a bit of overkill for a civilian who has to cover the cost of the two tone paint job, bright orange tip features or otherwise bright orange marker stripe(s) would suffice to create the kind of contrast that your non-central view would be attracted to, while leaving the rest of the aircraft to be painted to the owner's content.
upload_2017-11-8_11-26-52.png
 
jkaduk said:
Don't all colors fade to gray in low light situations? Why are some cockpit lights red?
Click to expand...
Red seems to loose its brightness earlier - look at cars at dusk and dawn - reds seem to fade into background

Red cockpit lights are to preserve low light vision.
 
No matter what color the airplane is, there will always be some backgrounds, sky or terrain, that will cause it to blend in. In Alaska, for example, bold colors are popular, instead of the usual base white paint which would be invisible in the snow, but easy to spot against green forests. Cessna used to offer "Alaska" paint schemes, swapping the white and one of the trim colors. Not always an aesthetic triumph:

Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 12.26.22 PM.png

Cub Yellow is good; maybe a combination like this even better:

Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 11.35.44 AM.png

In the late 1950s the CAA proposed a rule requiring all civil aircraft to have large areas of day-glow orange paint. Some light airplanes were painted in that manner, usually around the outboard portions of wings and tail surfaces. But the day-glow paint faded rapidly and looked ... awful.

Sweden, I understand, requires civil aircraft to have areas of red or orange, either in the paint scheme itself or in added patches, as on the leading edges of the wings and horizontal tail of this 172:

Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 11.40.24 AM.png
 
Last edited:
Polished aluminum is the worst for air to air visibility, mirrors whatever is around it. I fly a polished bird, and all my buddies gripe about how hard it is to see. Recently, added aero led nav/strobes, pulsing taxi, and HID landing light to help. Was a big improvement, but still get stuck in the back of the formation for that reason though. Considering painting the wingtips/tail orange to help, thinkin that won't look so great though...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I would think bright yellow might be best.

Following motorcyclists, it’s often the bright yellow helmets that stand out, especially in low visibility.

Following my own advice:

37177671304_89507e0965_z.jpg


As an aside, that’s me on my new TW200 earning my dragon, hustling through Deals Gap a couple weeks ago.
 
luvflyin said:
While were on the subject, what are the best 'I wanna be seen by other pilots when I'm the air' colors?
Click to expand...
If you look at land based 'high vis' environments you see a lot of fluorescent yellow. I wear it when I'm riding my bike and know it helps. If I owned a plane, that would be the color; I want that sucker to blind you! If I could make the wings blink, I'd do that too.
I'm still learning and the whole process of picking some tiny dot out of the background is more difficult that I imagined.
 
You could see the old NAVY orange and white a long ways away. they called it day-glo orange and it had glass beads in the top coat, just like the highway white lines.
 
luvflyin said:
While were on the subject, what are the best 'I wanna be seen by other pilots when I'm the air' colors?
Click to expand...

We chose bright glossy AgCat Yellow with some large fuselage stripes and wingtips of glossy burnt orange for the Highlander Amphib. When mentioned to a pilot during a hangar tour he asked, "On purpose?"
So harsh. I want to make it easy on the Coast Guard and SAR!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top