On 04/20/2010 09:28 PM, Fred Klein wrote:
> A beautiful bird indeed...I've admired your attention to detail as shown
> in your build album, but your Peace sign rondel takes the cake!
Hehe.
There is a story behind that:
The painter showed us pictures of his plane, and he had some bright
orange circles on his wings, so he was more visible over snow and in the
event of a forced landing in the snow.
We thought this was a good idea, especially for the underside, not just
for safety but also because our airplane is then a bit more recognisable
for family and relatives on the ground (we got too many times questions
"was that you over my house?" and no, we weren't ;-) ).
Then of course, any decoration in those circles will make it look like
these military rondels, and we didn't like that idea.
So, to take any confusion with military rondels away, we decided to use
these peace signs.
Well, actually I proposed it as a joke, but Ilona thought it was a great
idea. Beware if you are building an airplane together with a female
builder! ;-) You might end up with an airplane decorated with flowers
and butterflies. ;-)
The roundel is actually bright yellow, but you can't see that very well
on the picture.
It remains to be seen how military airports will react on our arrival,
but I guess there are also quite some folks who will welcome an airplane
decorated in this style. So far everyone found it cool.
Anyway, I think apart from the message that we are peace minded, it also
has some surprise element: it is not something you expect after having
seen the airplane on the ground. So far nobody has been looking under
the airplane, except of course once we reached the recent flying status!
It appears that at least it reached the goal of making the airplane
easily recognisable from the ground. Two bright yellow "dots" on the
underside: that must be Ilona and Frans! ;-)
Frans
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