Never mind the balloon Ginger look over your shoulder !!!

[Ginger.]

I was sat outside the Officer's Mess today.Watching a little aeroplane frolloking in the clouds.After my third pinkers it turned into an SE5!!!
At what range would an average pilot be exspected to see and identify a speck High in The Empty Blue?

[Richard_Schrader]

Ginger;
That is a tough one. I started flying when I was 16 years old. I don't really know how far I could see, but I know that this last May I could still see things in the sky that most others could not. In May, the blood vessel that supplys the optic nerve of my left eye burst. I am now blind in that eye. This has become the fight of my life, as the doc saids that it won't get better.
Richard

[Ginger.]

Richard
It was a jokey question on my part.
But God Bless in your fight.
Ginger.

[stevedrew]

Some pilots had exceptional eyesight naturally. Roderic Stanley Dallas developed his remarkable eyesight by asking his long-suffering mother to hold up a newspaper so that he could read it standing across the other side of the family dinner table. Eventually, he could read anything at a great distance, and certainly helped him achieve his high score by following the first rule of fighting in the air....see your opponent first!

Steve Drew

[Ginger.]

I once read of a Spitfire pilot who used to try and follow midges as they circled.He got through so it must have worked.

[Ryan]

Flying light aircraft and gliders, seeing and avoiding other aircraft (even when painted white)can be a challenge, and an acquired skill, but one which is vital.
-Ryan

[Gordon]

Actually white is one of the best colours for hiding a plane.

The RAF have been painting training aircraft black for some time as they have established it catches the eye better. You see the contrast more quickly I guess.

Camouflage and visibility is are interesting subjects and a lot of research has gone into them.

I suspect most modern aircraft are white for temperature control rather than anything else.

[Ryan]

Carbon-fiber or glass reinforced plastic aircraft are white for exactly the reason of temperature control on the surface itself. High temperatures will affect the gel-coat or cause delamination. But we are getting off topic of tube and fabric and rotary engines...
-Ryan