Safety foil

[Seibert]

Hi,

I just want to fix some of this special bright orange foil onto my 15 to be more visual for others and don´t know where are the best places for this foil? I am sure that the wings are a very good place and the front and the rudder also.
A lot of accidents happen when an airplane is coming from the back. Therefore the 15 need the foil on both sides also. What do you think? Are there any photos available?

Regards

Hans-Jörg

[Johan van Ravenzwaaij]

Seibert wrote:

A lot of accidents happen when an airplane is coming from the back.

You mean that an other plane is overtaking you? Is this really a big risk? By my knowledge a head on collision course is the most dangerous, because of the small profile and high combined speeds.

A good place for reflecting foil is, besides the rudder, the ailerons. In gliding they are constant in motion and  our visual system is build for detecting movements and not static objects.

[Seibert]

Johann,

yes, I meant the overtaking of a glider or whatever aircraft. I read it in an swiss report about using mirrorfoil on a glider. Mirrorfoil was also in discussion in 2006, but now none is talking about it?

Thanks for your recommendations regarding the reflecting foil. I will fix the foil as you mentioned it.

Regards

Hans-Jörg

[Johan van Ravenzwaaij]

Seibert wrote:

Johann,

yes, I meant the overtaking of a glider or whatever aircraft. I read it in an swiss report about using mirrorfoil on a glider.

One of the rules of "see and avoid" is having time to see things. For example: glider A has a speed of 120 km/h an and glider B 150 km/h. When A and B approaches eachother head on, they have a combined speed of 270 km/h. When B overtakes A, there is only a speed difference of 30 km/h. Ergo much, much more time for B to see A (A don't have a mirror installed ) In the head on situation A and B have equal chance to see each other.

So the dangers of overtaking are in my opinion less than a head on.

Post edited by: Johan, at: 2008/03/14 22:00