Green on drones is basically camouflage, and will merge very effectively into most British backgrounds. Not that DJI’s grey is massively better; it’s hard to see if the drone is below the skyline and not brilliant in silhouette against the sky either. I like UAVShipSpotter’s orange paint jobs, very neat, but think that dayglo reflective paint might be even better for sighting the drone at distance. And some skins are actual camouflage or work in that way to break up the outline of the drone, like those graffitt ones. Skins are not my favourite thing, make the drone look cheap and nasty, like a schoolgirl’s lunchbox (that’s her box for her lunch, not some horrible euphemism, before anyone picks up on it, btw),
In practice I rely on strobe lighting, and this is surprisingly ineffective in bright sunny conditions, though not too bad in gloomier situations. Still a problem at dusk or night if the drone is low enough for there to be other lights in the background, curse my urban environment with handy shops and regular buses… One of my biggest problems when I’m out flying is still losing VLOS and not being able to relocate the drone quickly, though with experience I am improving slowly.
I can’t help thinking I’d be safer flying by the phone screen whatever the CAA say… But da roolz is da roolz, so I shall continue to do my best. The CAA’s point, that the pilot should be aware of where his drone is and what is going on in the airspace around it is valid, but if I’ve lost the little bugger, the screen helps to locate it if I can see myself or my position from the drone, as does the map in the bottom lh corner.
I’ve adopted the practice of hovering until I’ve located the drone from my position but of course, while that should prevent me flying into things, it doesn’t prevent things flying into me, while it does prevent me getting out of their way. I’ve managed to lose it so effectively that, with 10mins battery left, the only safe thing to do was to press RTH, and there were a couple of anxious minutes until I could hear the little fella, coming from a completely unexpected direction! It came back to hover reassuringly in front of me and I palm-landed!
Sorry, drifted OT a bit there!