02 January 2000
John Frances
Flying Colors
1790 SW 19th Ave.
Williston , FL 32696
John,
Following are the paint and striping details for N81140.
First, the colors. You are only going to be painting two colors: the base color and the red stripes. All of the checkers and both “N-numbers” will be done in adhesive vinyl by Speedmaster Signs of Columbus, GA (706.324.7446). Bengie Philips, the owner of Speedmaster, will probably fly down to your facility once the paint is done and apply the vinyl there. The details of that will be worked out later.
The enclosed illustrations are not in color; however, they are available in color along with this letter at the following URL:
http://www.gatm.com/fc/index.html
Please note that these drawings are not to scale, and are to be used for reference only.
We are going with a high-contrast red, white, and black scheme, with Flying Colors applying the white base coat and the red stripes. The color choices are from the DuPont Fleet Color Selector; if you are not shooting DuPont paint, please let us know and we will obtain the appropriate color selection charts to supply you with the codes.
The white we wish to use is a pure white, one that will contrast the most with the red and black. On the telephone you suggested using Cessna White, that which is being used on the new airplanes. Since we do not have an affinity for any particular white, we are willing to defer that color choice to you, however we do want the “whitest white” we can get, very similar to DuPont Fleet Color #6538.
The red we wish to use is DuPont Fleet Color #29198, “Red”.
The side view shows the three main stripes: one on each side of the fuselage, and one each on the main and nose pants. The checkers in the final design have been removed for clarity, but can be seen at http://www.gatm.com/paint.html.
The main fuselage stripe begins at the front of the airplane, near the bottom of the cowl, and will start at the exhaust pipe. The stripe’s beginning width will be that defined by the thickness of the exhaust pipe (note “A”). Use the thickness perpendicular to the cowl.
From that point, the top side of the stripe will go up at an angle so that the edge just touches the rear bottom edge of the quarter glass (note “C”), and extends in a straight line all the way to the end of the rudder.
The bottom side of the stripe will extend to cross a point exactly 18” above the bottom the of tail at the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer (with the horizontal stab fillet removed) illustrated in note “B”. This line will then continue until it meets the aft end of the vertical stabilizer (forward edge of the rudder), and from there will turn and in a straight line meet the end of the upper stripe boundary.
Obviously, the two edges of the stripe, top and bottom, will be diverging towards the tail. In addition, the goal is to not have the bottom side of the line and the bottom of the tail parallel; if it appears they will be parallel, please contact me.
The wheel pants will each have a similar line scheme on them, closely matching the main side stripe. We have drawn a representation of this on the view, however we ask that you try to replicate the main side view stripe onto the wheel pants as closely as possible.
We do realize that these are straight lines that are on curved surfaces. However, our goal is to have these lines appear straight when viewed directly from the side, as if they were laid on by projecting a straight line from a projector, for instance. The design is such that when viewed on these curved surfaces it will provide the desired illusions.
In the top view, you will note that we are using an asymmetrical design; there will be red stripes on one wing/stabilizer, and checkers on the opposing ones.
For the main wings, you will be painting a straight line on the left wing only. This stripe will have parallel sides and will wrap all the way around the wing (including the underside). It will be 13” inches wide, and its outermost edge will start at the outer edge of the wingtip landing light (not the nav lights).
For the horizontal stab, you will be painting a straight line on the right stabilizer only. This stripe will have parallel sides and will wrap all the way around the stabilizer (including the underside). It will be 9” inches wide, and its outermost edge will start at the outer edge of the horizontal stabilizer (not the elevator tip).
The bottom will be simple. In addition to the above-mentioned wingtip and horizontal stab stripes, there will be a stripe across the bottom of the nose. We haven’t really decided what the best way would be to terminate the front ends of the sides stripes, so if you have any ideas, please let us know.
As it stands now, we think it might work best to wrap the leading edge of the stripes from each side mostly straight across the exhaust pipe and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. Its thickness will remain constant, and will be the thickness of the lines where they end at the side of the airplane. Once that’s in place we can work a little magic with the remaining checkers to make the belly look nice.
Well, there you have it. I hope that my descriptions are clear enough, and of course if they’re not please call me.
Sincerely,
Greg Amy