Looking for recommendations on wing-markings that would aid in SAR-detection of a downed aircraft. You see a lot of wide stripes on high-wing planes that are purportedly for this purpose. What is the best pattern/ color/ placement? Should they wrap around to the underside of the wings in case of a nose-over on landing? Specific recommendations for Cessna-white wings? For a plane operating on snow half the year?

Thanks, -DP

Black and white stripes all the way around would be a good all season contrast.

denali, My recommendation is: the words in 4 foot letters "Help" on the bottom left wing in orange and the word "ME" on the bottom of the right wing in orange, ...for the nose overs. For the top side, better use the stripes..

patrol guy wrote:denali, My recommendation is: the words in 4 foot letters "Help" on the bottom left wing in orange and the word "ME" on the bottom of the right wing in orange, ...for the nose overs. For the top side, better use the stripes..

"If you can read this..."

Look at my avatar.

The guy who painted that airplane believed in being visible in any season, hence the somewhat equal quantities of red, yellow and white.

MTV

denalipilot wrote:Looking for recommendations on wing-markings that would aid in SAR-detection of a downed aircraft. You see a lot of wide stripes on high-wing planes that are purportedly for this purpose. What is the best pattern/ color/ placement? Should they wrap around to the underside of the wings in case of a nose-over on landing? Specific recommendations for Cessna-white wings? For a plane operating on snow half the year?

Thanks, -DP

Saw a 210 chase plane for CDF that had red and white stripes (about 30 degrees to the leading-trailing edge ) on top that was hard to miss .Orange tail
with big numbers on top of Horizinital tail.

The military has done decades of research on this as part of researching camo to prevent you from being seen. This research also included what factors make airplanes easier to spot. If I am remembering this correctly from a magazine article 20 years back, it is the breaking up of large outlines or shapes that makes a difference more than color contrast. The newer USAF camo on fighters has a solid color airplane (gray) with a soft edge "airbrushed" perimeter (lighter gray) around the wings and fuselage. Apparently it is the sharp leading and trailing edge shapes that draw the eye.

Bearing that in mind, I think it makes sense that the longest continuous stripe of a contrasting color, with straight edges, will do the best in the "find me" department.

So IMHO a standard airplane wing should have a wide SPANWISE stripe from tip to tip, perhaps 2/3 of the chord wide, and halfway between leading and trailing edge. If you have a white wing then a bright orange or red thick spanwise stripe on top and bottom, and perhaps on the sides of the fuselage, would be ideal.

Since your life is potentially at stake, I'd do a quick and cheap experiment to be sure. Make several white paper cutout silhouettes or top views of your airplane. Color them differently using my idea and everyone else's ideas. Put these "models" out in the snow, or out in the gravel, or grass, bushes, etc. and look at them from 20 feet away. It should be very obvious pretty quick which ones are easier to see from a distance and why.

I suspect you could actually have neon purple and orange zebra stripes (invasion stripes, polka dots, etc.) all over and at some distance it would disappear just like camo because the major shape of the airplane was broken up regardless of color.

I think I remember seeing the Coast Guard C-130 rescue airplane was white with spanwise orange bars on the wings???
I'll bet everyone else here would be curious to know what paint schemes seem to work better than others.

I was at a talk by a CAP SAR guy and he said that Blue (like blue tarp) stood out best. He suggested that there are no Blues in nature ( maybe with the exception of some wild flowers) and blue "yelled" at SAR spotters.

I have no idea if this is true or not, just passing it on.

You may note my plane is not blue.

TD

All this of course depends on where you are flying. There are several shades of blue in ice fields and glaciers I think. Not much in the desert. Yellow would stand out on multi-colored ice better than blue I think. Bright neon blue would probably do good in desert. Like I said before, make a dozen small paper cutouts and the answer will become pretty clear for whatever type of flying you do.

Keep in mind that searchers will be looking for an airplane. That means an airplane shape. Any color patterns you use that break up the shape will make it less likely to be spotted. A bright "Lemon Yellow" stands out well in both bright and low light conditions. White reflects the most light and works well until the snow season when it becomes "Winter Camouflage". Reds and some orange shades tend to actually blend in with green trees and undergrowth, (something to do with red/green colorblindness and how our brain resolves these colors I suppose). Blues are duplicated by every small pond and lake reflecting and darkening the color of the sky. Black and brown mimic shadows. The problems with green are obvious. On your next few cross country flights look at every airport parking ramp as you pass over and see which planes you notice first. These are the planes you want to emulate. Hopefully you will be able to test this theory at "High Noon" and at dusk and in between. If you have flown much with other airplanes you already know that some planes are easy to spot in the sky and become nearly invisible below the horizon line. Polished aluminum airplanes are about the worst to spot once they get below the horizon as they reflect all of the colors around them. Best bet is to make sure you are always a searcher and never a searchee!

I'm in CAP and I am going through my SAR mission pilot training now. They teach that 4/5 times that downed aircraft doesn't look like an aircraft at all and if you are lucky they to be alive just hope you have a PLB or your ELT was not crushed. But assuming that it wasn't a major crash and are still alive, the thing I've heard in all the CAP briefings and in SAR exercises is that refection is best/easiest to see from the air. If that means Polished aluminum airplanes works best I don't know. but flying scanner on SAR its hard to really see any thing in the trees. but a reflection well catch your eye before any thing else.

Although most people don't realise that according to the charts that CAP uses, that a person the ground only has about a 10%-20% chances of being seen by an airplane flying at 1000ft. AGL.

I would say if you are down have a signaling mirror or make a fire and as much smoke as you can. lighting your plane on fire should do the trick.

Trevdog
I was thinking the same thing. Remember Burk, Fossett and Sparky (TWICE!!)? I think my paint scheme should slide down the survival strategy list.

YB

After thinking about what Trevdog had mentioned about reflection from the air, may not be a bad idea to carry some heavy duty aluminum foil in the baggage compartment. Might be useful in many differant ways after a crash if you can get to it. You can also buy aluminum tape. Or maybe a small disco ball . That would put off a refliction from many differant angles. Hang it from a stick or antenna??

Or even carry a can of bright orange paint to mark "HELP" on the plane somewhere??