RV-9 one, Tweety zero

[N941WR]

There has been a lot of talk on this forum regarding bird strikes and what to do to prevent them.

I had my first today, as you can see by the picture below. I was very lucky in that there was no dent, just a little scratch on the white paint, which can be touched up.

I painted my spinner two thirds dark and one third white in the belief that the flashing colors will scare away the birds. That obviously didn't work for the small dark bird I hit today but that may be because it came at me from the left and not head on.

I saw the little guy on the left and thought the prop hit him but there was no sign on contact on the prop, jus on the top of the wing. and there was no time to react. Maybe a larger bird would have allowed me to see and avoid.

[apkp777]

Bill, so much for your 1/3 and 2/3 stripped anti-bird strike spinner. I want my money back on mine?!

[N941WR]

Originally Posted by apkp777

Bill, so much for your 1/3 and 2/3 stripped anti-bird strike spinner. I want my money back on mine?!

Tony, do you want your spinner all black or all yellow? I'll pick up a can of spray paint tomorrow.

[Flying Scotsman]

Has anyone found any scientific analyses of the efficacy of spinner paint jobs with respect to birds' avoidance? Just off the top of my head...

let's say you are turning 2100 RPM. That's one revolution in 1/35th of a second. Now, granted that most wild animals have way better eyesight than humans (who are really very poor in the sensory realm), that's about twice what the "refresh rate" of a human eye is (which is why "movies" work...the rods and cones in your eye refresh at about 1/15th-1/20th of a second, so anything that changes faster is not perceived as a "step"..movies play at 24 fps or 30 fps for television, 60 fps on a computer screen, etc.). I'm just thinking out loud that something spinning one complete rev each 35th of a second (or faster) may not register as more than just a blur to even an animal.

I could be all wrong, but I have my doubts that there is any sort of "flashing" or "strobing" perceptible even to a bird, unless the physiology of their eyes allows for faster refresh rates...

Thoughts?