One Week Wonder: Help pick the paint!

As most of you probably know, we're building a "One Week Wonder", a CH 750 Cruzer at AirVenture Oshkosh this year. Some friends at Scheme Designers, Inc., came up with 10 ideas for the paint job, and we'd like you to help us pick which one to use based on the pictures posted below. We'll look at the results here as well as the results from a similar poll on our Facebook page, then post the top 3 at the build site during Oshkosh where we'll ask visitors to vote on the final design.

Attachment 3785 Design #1:	Attachment 3786 Design #2
Attachment 3787 Design #3	Attachment 3788 Design #4
Attachment 3789 Design #5	Attachment 3790 Design #6
Attachment 3791 Design #7	Attachment 3792 Design #8
Attachment 3793 Design #9	Attachment 3794 Design #10

Hal, what the heck? It looks like the good old mustard yellow and burrito brown didn't even get a fair chance.

Hal, to be serious for just a moment, and I promise not to make it a habit, one negative about # 2, 3 ,or 7, is that the pilots would be looking out over a bright shiny red nose and that might add glare or be a distraction.
That's why I voted for 6. My Bonanza has a grey panel on the top engine cowling from the factory and I assume that is the reason. You guys might want to put a sheet of bright red paper, even Christmas wrapping paper over the nose and sit in the cockpit and see what the affect is in sunlight.
My other plane is green/grey British camoflage in a semi gloss or satin finish and doesn't distract at all when looking out the front.
On 2nd look, I like #1 also. All of them seem ok, except not grey, #5.If it is going to be a trainer in busy or congested airspace the red might stand out a bit.
Good luck,Bill

A couple of thoughts. I'm presuming the schemes chosen continue on the wings.

#5 and #7 are pretty, but bad ideas in a VFR environment. The overall grey/bronze/whatever will blend with the ground, making it MUCH harder to see. We've got a grey-painted somethingorother at my home drome, and trying to spot him on base/final from downwind is almost impossible.

#7, while not a solid color, will give the same effect from a few hundreds of feet away. It also breaks up the outline of the plane (similar to the WWII splinter camouflage on ships) and makes it harder for the brain recognize what it's seeing.

Bill's comments about reducing glare when viewing forward is a good one. Depends on the plane design, but I think the pilot sits pretty tall in the saddle on a 750; consider a matte section in front of the cabin.

Ron Wanttaja

Next to the picture of option #4 on the FB page is a patriotic design that I like better than any of the given options.

I vote for number 3. The designs with white on the cowl will have even higher reflectivity than the red cowl of number 3. There's a reason why the big solar observatories (McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope , Big Bear Solar Observatory, and the Sacramento Peak Dunn Solar Telescope) are panted white. Its to reflect as much as possible of the incident sunlight.

A matte finish, regardless of the color, will help, since it will reduce specular reflection and, thus, the radiant exitance seen by the pilot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rwanttaja

Bill's comments about reducing glare when viewing forward is a good one. Depends on the plane design, but I think the pilot sits pretty tall in the saddle on a 750; consider a matte section in front of the cabin.

Ron Wanttaja

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Typical solution to improve forward visibility without sacrificing design colour choices is to purchase a Glareshield which would replace the covering found on the fascia above the panel. They're usually made of lexan and padded with a soundproofing foam and then covered with a a material like leather-looking non-glare vinyl.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BeagleOne

Next to the picture of option #4 on the FB page is a patriotic design that I like better than any of the given options.

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+1

Hal there are two Cessnas on our ramp with the scheme like #3, one in red/white and one in blue/white and they both look good.

But no yellow and brown Bill? Keep looking...! :)

I'm suprised to see #9 is in the voting lead. I would've thought blue & white would be the last choice. Personally, I'd like to have seen orange as an option.

For some reason I like the aircraft with red as the primary color.

Number 3! Don't forget the logo:

Attachment 3963

nice choices. i guess the big boys were wrong. lipstick DOES help.