My personal thanks (to over 20 people) responding to my query regarding "Color/Visibility".
If you're interested in what colors I finally decided upon, you'll have to look me up at the Wood Crafters Reunion in late May (and) at the NATS this August. Look for my Challenger in the nostalgia class. :) Bill Rakozy -----Original Message----- From: Clarkson, Tom [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 5:22 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [RCSE] Color/Visibility One thing that I have found helpful is to match the color transmitted by special sunglasses to the colors on the glider. I use the Avian 515 orange lens from http://www.suntiger.com combined with some small stripes of neon orange krylon on the top of the wing. The orange really pops against the blue sky and it's ok against grey. Dark green is nice on the bottom of the wing though I usually only do the top for HL gliders. I suspect that there are other combinations of glasses and colors that could be interesting as well. Trap shooting web sites have lots of information about this as shooting glasses have similar requirements. I have not tried some of the shooting glasses since I need prescription and all the colors for each would get a little expensive though I do use a Seiko watch. Found some interesting facts when I was looking into this last year. To improve visual acuity you want to do two main things. 1) Limit the colors (esp blue) that is transmitted through the eye. It is a simple lens and suffers from chromatic abberation unlike a very nice camera or binocular lens. 2) Let the right amount of light through so that the proper balance between angular resolution (large pupil opening) good depth of field (small pupil opening) and light falling on the retina is achieved. The Suntiger people have this figured out. I can't remember the optimum pupil size at the moment. I tried really dark once thinking angular resolution was the key. It wasn't and that experiment was a big disaster. Maybe there are some experts out there on this that could comment further. I also found out that polaroid lenses are not necessarily the best. They got a reputation for being good for aviation because they were used in WWII. I found the real story interesting as the glasses were selected to not distort the colors of the panel indicator lights rather than provide the best visual acuity which is what I would have expected since one would think spotting enemy fighters would have been the main design goal. I have not tired eye exercises though they were highly suggested to improve acuity by sites that discussed it. Search visual acuity and you can find all kinds of interesting things. One last thing, since I don't see that well and had to get prescription sunglasses anyway, I had them over corrected by +1/4 diopter. I find that I really like this as it makes flying more relaxing and does seem to sharpen edges at a distance. Tom RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
