OK how good is your eyesight ?

lake_flyer said:
Black on the underside (for high flying against cloud or sky backdrop) and a signal color like yellow (for low flying against a green/grey backdrop) on the topside works really well for visibility. A bright white headlight certainly helps to determine front from back. But in bright sunlight it is still practically impossible to see where you're quad is heading when over 300m out (I don't wear glasses for distance). In the dark I can see the lights for about 450 m before they hide between the stars.

OK respray done. I will leave the props for now. No prospect of a test flight for a while because of the winds.
 

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Monte55 said:
I can see the sun....how far is that?

Keep staring at it and it will put your eyes out! At least my Mommy told me that when I was young enough to call her Mommy. My best friend was cocking his BB rifle, over his left shoulder and the BB hit me in the center of my forehead. He made me promise not to tell, but she happened to notice the trickle of blood. BUT, she told me a BB gun could put my eye out too. I just wished she had told me what bad things women were capable of doing!

Sorry, we ole folks tend to have wandering minds. When we get even older, we might wander too. At least I can still use my GPS tracker!
 
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Hughie said:
Hughie said:
Thanks for your replies gents. I think I may need to add some super-flashing lights front and back and paint it black

For those who have already painted their quads black can i assume this is a step forward in aiding visibility in the sky??

Can you hear the rattle of a ball bearing in an aerosol tin of matt black as you read this :) . . .

Mine will be fluorescent Orange on the bottom, but I'm to chicken to paint it. So, I'm using strips of adhesive backed vinyl, in that color.

I am in the process of adding VERY bright automotive wig wag strobes top and bottom. I will have lower intensity navigation strobes, then the multi-color LED wrap, with a 44 key remote controller. It should look great at night, but I'm sure the lights will help in daytime. I can make the whole darn thing strobe all over! A daytime UFO. (Or a rifle/shotgun target as Popular Science recommends.). GRRR!
 
jason said:
At any given distance and size colors tend to turn gray. Next time your out for a drive see if you tell what color the oncoming car is at say 250m and it's much larger than a phantom.


The human eye sensitivity peaks at around 550nanometers so yellowish green colour - There's a reason those High Vis jackets are the colour they are !! :D
 
+1

And many birds vanish in the backdrop of the sky because of their colors.

Only if the lighting is from behind, you get a dark shadow (of course!). But if the sun is behind me and hits my (still)white P2 I can see it as a very bright white spot against a grey cloud. Against a white cloud I lose view totally. Yellow is always somehow visible and black is much darker than just a shadow on a grey backdrop. Black is very visible (in daylight of course), grey isn't at all (that's why navy vessels and sea birds are grey and white.)
Actually I did some research about the best visible colors and yellow, orange and black (and white as well) are quite on the top of the list. Blue, green, brown, grey, all seem to blend into grey at a certain distance.

I would suggest matt paint since glossy paint will mirror any light that hits it and blend totally in the background. Another reason why a glossy car of any color seems grey in the distance. Matt will stand out in bright sunlight.
 
BobUnplugged said:
My response will be "Of course I can see it. It's right THERE. Can't you see it?"

An intriguing answer :D

Or. I could see it fine, until you distracted me, asking me if I could still see it ! :eek:
 
Hughie said:
OK respray done. I will leave the props for now. No prospect of a test flight for a while because of the winds.


A quick test flight done yesterday against blue sky with the odd white cloud. Flew up at 100m and out for 300m and the black underside makes a massive difference to maintaining LOS. What was most noticeable was that when I looked up to find the quad after looking down at the FPV monitor, it was much easier to visually locate again.
 

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On one mission, I could see mine at 600 meters (actually 595 meters or 1952 feet verified with Flytrex fight data recorder). I believe that the lighting and reflection of light from the Phantom were just right as well as the angle of the sun relative to me and the phantom. No special colors are applied to the phantom. As others have said the sky, clouds or other background have a lot to do with it. I can regularly see mine out to 450 meters (500 yards) or more when not flying with clouds as a background. I would say the max visual range is 450 to 600 meters out during the day. I do not fly that much at night, but would believe that you could easily see it much further.

How far can you hear the drone? I would say about 450 meters depending on the wind.
 
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Yesterday a storm was passing through and a 180 rainbow was visible against the dark sky. The sun was lighting up the foreground. I took my Phantom 2 for a spin and could easily see it 1600 meters out or about 0.995 miles. The white shell was lit up by the rays of the sun against the dark stormy skies. It was not that I could just spot it, I could see it as i conducted some maneuvers left and right. I'm not sure how far I could have gone with it still visible, but the conditions yesterday were perfect.
 
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