acam37

My Feedback: (16)

I just completed this swift kit and attempted to test fly it. It was a little cloudy and as soon as it lifted off I totally lost orientation. The plane was completely black. Did I make a mistake covering it in neon green? I thought this color scheme would be ideal for cloudy days. I may need to re-cover it. Any ideas or comments would be greatly appreciated.
BTW, I did get it safely back to earth.

rmenke

My Feedback: (13)

acam37

you need to find what collor your eyes see best with and stay with that color and pattern. May get old hat, but in a gaggle of planes, a familar color and pattern helps your ability to recognize. For most it's yellow with black. For me, it's red and white. The life span of most racilng planes is short anyway. If you have not flown someone else plane into the ground, you will eventially will. For years I laughed at other guys doing just that. A few months ago I put my t-34 into the ground while flying someone elses airplane after a quick glance to the back. The plane happened to be identical. Now I recover the wing top with my color and pattern. Guys think I am sandilng down the wing which is a thought.

MJD

My Feedback: (1)

It's odd how we're different; I hate yellow and black with a passion, and I have no color deficiency I am aware of. My first experience was a .60 sport low winger many years ago, and I lost orientation many times, despite contrasting patterns. I now am flying a Weston Magnum R, and having the same issues with the color scheme. I haven't "lost it" yet, but I have trouble discriminating the plane's attitude with those colors. Red and white has always been easy for me to orient though.

Dark on the bottom, bright on the top, with contrasting this and thats seems to work best for me. I have a spare Magnum, and I am seriously considering stripping off all the covering and redoing it.

MJD

cncswiss1

IMHO if you look at the above photos in Black and white they have very similar density. this is bad.. colors AND density need to contrast. or contrasting bold patterns (the stripes on the bottom of a lot of aerobatic ships)

the ole dark on the bottom light on top works great for me as well.

acam37

My Feedback: (16)

You are right about that. I did get to fly it on a sunny day yesterday and it was still hard to see. I have a yellow Ultimate and it is very easy for me to orient, even on cloudy days. This plane was built strictly for a need for speed and with a Rossi .45 with a mvvs tuned muffler, it runs in the 120 to 130 mph range. This is my first experience with a neon color, and I'm not impressed.