Having essentially resigned myself to doing my own paint, and then starting to research available paint colors and the like, and then possibly having to reconsider my planned paint job*, I started wondering...
How important is the paint scheme/color when it comes to visibility (i.e. making yourself seen) in small aircraft? I'm fairly aesthetically challenged as it is, and trying to come up with what seems a "high vis" paint job without duplicating USCG or USN trainer paint, or using eye-watering safety yellow/orange, is challenging.
Are there colors that prove particularly easy or difficult to see, particularly close to the horizon? Have you noticed aircraft that were noticeably easier or harder to pick out visually? Or have you found that having good strobes/other lighting makes a bigger difference?
Part of me wants to go reasonably high vis (or at least colorful), but another part of me wants to buy a couple gallons of semigloss haze gray polysiloxane, or just overall darker gloss blue. I don't want to camouflage myself but I also want to keep the eyesore to just the quality of the finish and not the color choice/design too.
*I'm trying to keep it DIY simple and use existing stock (non custom) colors. Non-glittery GT gold is hard to find...
How important is the paint scheme/color when it comes to visibility (i.e. making yourself seen) in small aircraft? I'm fairly aesthetically challenged as it is, and trying to come up with what seems a "high vis" paint job without duplicating USCG or USN trainer paint, or using eye-watering safety yellow/orange, is challenging.
Are there colors that prove particularly easy or difficult to see, particularly close to the horizon? Have you noticed aircraft that were noticeably easier or harder to pick out visually? Or have you found that having good strobes/other lighting makes a bigger difference?
Part of me wants to go reasonably high vis (or at least colorful), but another part of me wants to buy a couple gallons of semigloss haze gray polysiloxane, or just overall darker gloss blue. I don't want to camouflage myself but I also want to keep the eyesore to just the quality of the finish and not the color choice/design too.
*I'm trying to keep it DIY simple and use existing stock (non custom) colors. Non-glittery GT gold is hard to find...
