Strobes

Some years back there was an article (maybe several?) in SOARING magazine about installing tip strobes on gliders ...

Anyone remember/know what issue(s) that was in? I'm researching collision avoidance stuff (again, still . . <gr>

(Boy, do I wish there was a good INDEX to Soaring! I've got every copy since 1966 and a few going back to 1937, making a fantastic resource that's darn near unusuable because there are no complete indices (and the few that were printed back in the seventies and eighties are poorly organized . . .))

Jim Kellett

We tried it at our field last year. The result was that we consistently saw the glider long before the strobes... The problem is that you don't have enough energy to power strobes that would really be seen.

Has anyone thought to try (very) reflective tape, perhaps covering the nose area and leading edges of the vertical fin?

We would need to use a malleable material to adapt to the curvaceous shapes but the sun glinting off these curved surfaces might just work, thus saving on the energy required to use strobes, LEDs and the like!

Cheers,

Jim Kelly.

Some years back there was an article (maybe several?) in SOARING magazine about installing tip strobes on gliders ... Anyone remember/know what issue(s) that was in? I'm researching collision avoidance stuff (again, still . . <gr> (Boy, do I wish there was a good INDEX to Soaring! I've got every copy since 1966 and a few going back to 1937, making a fantastic resource that's darn near unusuable because there are no complete indices (and the few that were printed back in the seventies and eighties are poorly organized . . .)) Jim Kellett |

Hi

Solarfilm, the heat activated model aircraft covering does a chrome finish film. A couple of sections of this would probably be more effective than 'orange dayglo' that we currently use. The BGA did some empirical testing and remarked that reflective film ( 3M mirror ) seemed the best solution. ( S&G Aug/Sep 2003 )

Perhaps we should all be flying polished HP18's!

Ian

Of course. Our club has equipped all gliders with chrome tape. The opinions vary from 'it doesn't hurt' to 'we will be able to claim that we tried everything'.

Yes. Reflective tape, and if you repaint a glider, paint the wingtips white or reflective. It seems I've seen quite a few with dark wingtips. Sure makes it easy to hit one's head...

I also wrap my portable ELT in reflective tape. Saves having a separate mirror...

On 5 Dec 2003 16:38:12 GMT, Robert John ... text removed...

This may not be simple, but most of the real signal mirrors I am familar with have a hole in the backside that is surrounded with a circle of retroreflective material (like 3M Scotchlite), typically red in color. The sunlight is reflected off the mirror surface normally. Where the sunlight hits the Scotchlite, it is retroreflected directly only the incoming path. A small portion (about 4%) of this reflected sunlight, now colored red by the Scotchlite, is in turn reflected backwards again by the front surface of the mirror (toward the user looking through the backside of the mirror). The usual optics rules for mirrors (angle of incidence equals angle of reflection) means that this retroreflected (red) radiation appears to come along the exact angle as the outgoing reflected sun light. The bottom line is that when you look outward through the small hole in the backside of the mirror, all you have to do is put the small red spot you see on the target you are trying to signal. The Scotchlite properties and the rules of optics reflection assure that the red spot and the reflected sunlight are pointing in the exact same direction.

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