Blade colour for orientation

[tomatwalden]

Hi all,

I've been thinking about the two times I've crashed my 450. Both times were caused by me losing orientation in the sky - ie. my brain interpreted the helicopter as pointing one way due to limited visual clues. Again, both times were where I had zero forward movement meaning another source of orientation info was lost to me.

Now, I've just been watching some vids of the "magic night blades", which are cool in their own right, but I've noticed that the underside LEDs are green as opposed to red on the top of the disc. I can only assume this is to aid orientation in an environment where visual clues are really at a premium!

So here's the question! - Why don't we have different coloured blades for daytime flight. By different coloured, I mean underside versus topside? One of the reasons I have orange blades on my 130X is to help me see it! How much better would it be if the topside was say, green such that the chances of me mis-interpreting orientation were drastically reduced.

PS. Despite the reference to the 130X - I'm thinking 450 sized blades and above here really ...

T

[tomatwalden]

Addendum : A less colourful alternative might be to have a different black/white pattern on the bottom as the top? Most CF blades use a mix of black/white anyhow ... ? Perhaps white underneath, black ontop?

[heli]

One of the reasons I like Edge blades, it creates a nice disc to aid the visual keys. You get a sort of bullseye effect.

[tomatwalden]

So are they different underneath from ontop, or simply that they produce a very visible presence in the sky?

[SaneAdam]

Get a bigger helicopter.... best way to cure that problem. I dont fly 450's for that very reason... once your ten foot up in the air its invisible. It will limit your progress having to work hard to make sure you can tell which way the heli is pointing. Or just don't fly far away from yourself. Once your 3 mistakes high with a 450 your guessing... i was anyway

[tomatwalden]

I am about to get a 500 - probably Align 500 EFL. I still think however that a different pattern or colour on the underside of the disc would make a beneficial visual cue as to the orientation of the heli. Not saying a large heli isn't easier to see, but surely anything that aids safe flight (and saves expensive crashes!) is a good thing?

It would be such a simple thing too! - Can't believe it hasn't been done!

[SaneAdam]

Use tracking tape maybe? That gives a nice solid disc within a disc if you know what i mean which helps a lot

[trillian]

There are a few types of blades that are all white on the bottom and have some kind of logo or markings on the top. The Align blades and the 'Pro 3D' ones being two that come to mind.

I do remember a time when I thought white or light coloured blades were helpful for orientation but these days it doesn't seem to matter as much to me so I must be using other things as references.

I find that a bright sunny day is the biggest help when flying the 450 as it becomes a grey/black dot pretty fast otherwise (and I have the brightest orange canopy I could find).

You might also ask Coolice about the reflective sticky vinyl strips he does for blades.

[mattscupoftea]

I've had exactly the same problem with my 450. . .

Just in case your issue is identical, I lost orientation at the 2 o'clock position on a circular circuit (if looking top-down, with me standing at the 6 oclock position), about 50 metres away from me. So the heli was around 45 degrees from nose-in.

I spoke to Dave, the guy that I'm having the occasional lesson with, about that problem, and it seems not so uncommon. I lost the roll orientation (thought the heli was leaning into the turn but in fact it was leaning out) and corrected the wrong way - ploughed the heli into the floor! I almost did the same on my first solo flight on the logo 500 with Dave looking over my shoulder, but luckily, his calm 'left. . . LEFT!' got me back in order!

He suggested that it was probably because I am tentative on the rudder in my circuits and should just give the tail a little kick round which will give me a better sense of orientation (and will not affect the roll angle of the heli) from which I will be able to make a better judgement of the 'next move'.

The only other thing is to try to make sure that you don't let a 450 size heli get too far away from you! They're powerful little beasties, and it's so tempting to blat them about the sky but they can be out of sight in moments if you don't rein them in!

Hope that helps.

[tomatwalden]

@mattscupoftea - sound advice, and yes, your situation sounds very similar to me. I got thinking about this the other day with my 130x. I was flying "square circuits" if you know what I mean and I got to the point where I knew I'd turned the heli right (to face towards me), but my brain saw the heli as having turned left away from me. It's a classic case of optical illusion - with insufficient visual cues, the brain interprets the best it can - in this case wrongly! Now this time, I KNEW which way the heli was facing as my logical brain had turned it that way. My visual perception however showed me something different.

This is how I came to think about my 450 crashes which were both a similar event insofar that my eyes were telling my brain lies. So I figured, surely the more info I can have in terms of visual perception the better! The rudder trick makes sense and I'll certainly try that.

Like the idea of vinyl strips or tracking tape mind, but if some of the larger blades are different underneath as trillian mentions then I'll definitely look into that too!

[Swashbuckler]

Blade colour helps a bit, I always use white, but as you advance you will find that its more about making your brain override what your eyes are seeing. Just about every manoeveur that involves repeating the same thing but in different orientations has a point where it looks "wrong" and you have to force your brain to keep moving those sticks in a set rhythm. Get used to that feeling and your blade colour will cease to feel that important.

[Baldie]

Blade colour helps a bit, I always use white, but as you advance you will find that its more about making your brain override what your eyes are seeing. Just about every manoeveur that involves repeating the same thing but in different orientations has a point where it looks "wrong" and you have to force your brain to keep moving those sticks in a set rhythm. Get used to that feeling and your blade colour will cease to feel that important.

+1 to this.

pure stick time will help

[heli]

So are they different underneath from ontop, or simply that they produce a very visible presence in the sky?

Because of the black carbon section you end up with a circle on the Edge but they are the same top and bottom. White blades are easier to see IMO.

Colored fins can help and even painted skids I've seen used. But like others have commented it's just training your brain to look at the heli and understand what it's doing. The thing I seem to have picked up with out trying is not to panic. If you don't know what's going on, zero the collective and from there is not going to hurtle off in any direction due to pitch and then small cyclic inputs and watch. Ok this has to happen in a matter of seconds but your brain will start to sort things out automatically for you.

[Varelco]

I dont think it matters much, to be honest unless im in bright sunlight I can barely see the disk anyway let alone determine what colour it is.

[SamS]

I have Orange blades on my 130X, it shows up soo well, even in the dark