Color scheme for rotorblades

[Kevin_Richey]

On the old Rotorcraft Conference John Landry and a few others posted comments about painting rotorblades in order to help to be seen by other aircraft from the usual invisible rotor disk.

Has anyone saved what was mentioned before the R.C. went down?

I remember basically what J.L. posted about using black (and yellow?), but wish to see again the color scheme that somebody posted that the Forest Service found to be most noticable for their helicopters.

It had yellow stripes in some sort of pattern IIRC...

Any archivists here that saved this?

[Al_Hammer]

...but of course. :)

[KevinKing]

I once saw a video of a helicopter that had a similar paint sceme on it's blades, but the colors were in the opposite positions on the opposite blade. This made the rotor look as if it had a very severe wobble. It would definitely draw attention.

[Aussie_Paul]

Yellow is the last colour that disappears with speed.

Aussie Paul.

[Kevin_Richey]

Thanks Al for the diagram, and the rest, for your comments!!! :cool:

I'm trying to decide what design to go with eventually on my rotorblades.

[Jonvee]

I think you need more contrast in the "brightness" . White and Yellow are to close togehter in brightness. Blue and white, Red and white. Also stagger the scheme on each blade. I remember a guy at the Middletown Convention a few years ago with one red and one white blade. Looks strange but very visible.

[KenSandyEggo]

When I had my sign shop, I got chart from a school of optometry or ophthalmology showing the relative contrast of colors. According to the chart, the 2 best colors to use are yellow with black. When someone wanted a banner or sign to stand out, I usually did a black background with yellow letters...or vice-versa. Alternating black and yellow on a blade should make that puppy stand out. But our blades are so delicately balanced, couldn't a paint-job like this cause balancing problems and 2-per lateral vibes?

[Jonvee]

After getting the balance correct the next thing to think about is how well the epoxies in the blade construction can hold up to the heat absorption on the dark colors when the blades are left out in the sun.

[rwr]

USAF studies found that painting one blade from the tip to a few feet from the hub a stealth color (flat medium gray for example), and then painting the remainder of that blade, and the hub, and all of the other blade a hi-viz color (yellow?) was the most visible. The paint scheme makes the rotor appear to have a violent wobble. I've seen it on a helo before. You can't not look at it.

[MikeBoyette]

One blade black one white. When up to speed the black blade disappers to the eye. This makes your brain only see the white blade. The result is it drives your brain crazy because you think " that thing is going to shake it self to pieces". Just my 2 cents.

[Screw]

Screw-In

Hey Mike, Can your Dad anodize the blades?

Screw-Out

[MikeBoyette]

John,
No he can not. Most people don't realize but anodizing takes some of the strength away from the aluminum. I am not sure how much. He also warns againts painting his blades. I am noot sure why,but I will find out and let ya know later.

[scottessex]

John, anodizing is VERY EXPENSIVE, especially for small batches. I checked on getting some motorcycle parts done, and they wanted $5000 just to change the color in thier tanks! It is kind of like a controlled corrosion process, not a plating, it actually penetrates the aluminum slightly, It does have a fair resistance to corrosion, and the colors are cool, but I don't know what it would do to the strength of the blades.
You could always just paint them with a Candy topcoat and the aluminum would show through and they would look anodized..But again, it seems that painting rotor blades is a touchy subject.

[Screw]

Screw-In

I agree Scott. I was just exploring the subject because gyro visability is difficult looking down.

Screw-Out

[barnstorm2]

Mike, Did you ever find out why your dad recommends not painting the blades? As I was flying around at Mentone the other gyros were hard to spot execpt an ?RAF? style machine with white blades. I could pick him out over any surface from 1200ft AGL.

[MikeBoyette]

Tim,
He seems to be dead set against it. I will work on him though.

[scott heger]

My helicopter had one white blade and one black and white blade. It is very noticeable from above the aircraft. As mentioned before, it looks like one blade is ready to "fling" off, but is very distintive, without adding much weight.

Scott Heger, Laguna Niguel, Ca N86SH

[Harry_S.]

Years back, when I was flying Bensen's, my paint scheme on the rotor blades was red and white.

One blade was 2 ft. of alternating red/white with red starting at the tip end.

One blade was 2 ft. of alternating red/white with white starting at the tip end.

When rotating and viewed from the top, the rotor disc looks like a red/white checkered tablecloth. Very visible...and attractive.

Don't paint the bottom like this. Would probably cause vertigo.

[Dean_Dolph]

Yeah, Scott, while walking away from the flight line at Mentone this year, I looked back to see a single place machine take off with what looked like one white blade and the other of another color. It provided the same effect that I use to see on Doug O'Connor's SnoBird and his two color McCutcheons. The white blade was so dominant that it looked like the machine was flying with only one blade! It was an attention grabber.

[Echo]

All yellow ? :confused: ( powder coated , & very easy to keep clean )

[Caribean_gyro]

how can you powder coat a fiberglass blade? dont you need continuity?

ChuckP

[bbushong]

Old thread, but interesting ideas...

Powdercoating that I've seen done has to be baked at about 400 degrees F or so... How would that work if there were ANY composites involved? It'd take a pretty large oven! I HAVE seen IR lamps to do smaller sections of large assemblies, but it doesn't seem practical for a rotor blade...

Ben B

[Rene Genest]

With an electric prerotator, has anyone have ever experienced a dropout of the battery power with lead acid "gel" type? I mean, after some prerotation the battery seem to have no power at all at least to glow a light bulb and the full power come back after several hour whitout rechargin. Because of charging as for decharging a lead acid battery also producing small bubbles of hydrogen and oxigen, my tehory is that on a normal acid battery, thoses bubbles just get free and reach the surface very quickly because the regular acid is more fluid than the gel but with gel may be the bubbles get stuck on the lead plate electrode and have more difficult to leave the battery, those bubbles acting as an isolant on a big part of the electrode and then decreasing temporary the battery power. It happended twice to me. The firs time I thauth of an electrical malfunction but now I think I will discard my gel battery and get a standard acid battery

[Dean_Dolph]

Rene, I suspect that to get any type of response to your note it will require posting somewhere besides this thread. Not many people are going to find a post about 'batteries' in a thread about 'Rotor Blade Color'! I would suggest starting a new thread.

[Ga6riel]

yellow is the best colour in all light spectrums
it also contrasts against the ground very well
black tends to disappear in motion
you need not paint the entire blade, just the tip
tips in contrasting colours might be good, but I have never seen it

[Master Roda]

What the heck?

Changing the color of rotor blades is not VOODOO.

If you must, and your worried about weight, just get some vinyl sticker material. I like yellow and red. Apply the sticker to the last foot of each blade...BINGO.

RE-Painting the entire blade is just silly. It really isnt worth the time or effort.

[gyropilot]

Mike, Did you ever find out why your dad recommends not painting the blades? As I was flying around at Mentone the other gyros were hard to spot execpt an ?RAF? style machine with white blades. I could pick him out over any surface from 1200ft AGL.Tim,

One drawback I could see when painting a set of Dragon Wing blades is upsetting the spanwise blade balance and then being unable to easily adjust for it. I can tell you from personal experience that adding paint to rotor blades will very likely affect the spanwise balance... not to mention the tracking!

The Dragon Wing blades I own don't have any provision to adjust the spanwise balance at the blade tips, so I assume they're all made this way. Of course since they're test flown and adjusted perfectly by Ernie before being shipped, no field balance adjustment feature is usually needed.

The Rotordyne blades I once used had threaded cavities in the blade tips where small pieces of lead shot could be added to change the balance. If you wanted to go through the trouble, I'm sure this same feature could be added to the tip weights of Dragon Wing blades... but I'm sure Ernie wouldn't approve. :)

Best regards,

John L.

[Master Roda]

Here at Sportcopter, I paint EVERY blade. The acurracy of the weight in the paint is astonishing, not to mention I balance them to within 1/10 ths of a gram. No mumbo jumbo.

Eat your heart out. WHAT COLOR YOU WANT?

Jon

[scottessex]

Hey Jon, do you use an epoxy self etching primer? Then the blades are single stage poly right? or do use arcylic urethane.

I have custom painted motorcycle for years, is it really that different other than the balancing? Thanks

[Cobra Doc]

Ben B,
The average composites can't be powder coated. The usual epoxies and glass resins can't take the heat. Powder coating blades would be a real weight and balance nightmare. That stuff is usually thick and heavy. When I was in B Co 5th Trans (little hangar on the south side of the tower) we had a P&R guy that would use two different white paints to balance Slick and Snake blades. He said one was lead based and the other latex. Since he was a Master Sergeant and I was a lowly Speedy 4 I never questioned the master at work!

[Master Roda]

Powder coating isnt feasable. Period.

Scott,

No, We dont use etching primer. Yes, it is a single stage polyurethane enamel.

The reason we paint the blades is for corrosion protection, and they look great!

I have not had any problem balancing because the paint is applied very precisely.

Jon

[Chuck Roberg]

Jon,

My gyro is in a shared hangar and my Sport Rotors have suffered some "hangar" rash. What type of paint could I use for touching up some spots.

[Master Roda]

I can send you touch up paint if you E-mail your information. The office might bill you for 10 bucks, but it's the same paint.

If you just want to put a band-aid on it then get a quart of cheap polyurethane from your local automotive store.

Be sure to prep the area to be painted with acetone or similar cleaner solvent.If you scratched it to bare metal then i suggest a primer of any kind. Painting over bare metal wont last long.

Good luck!