Hello Dan,
When I was stationed in Berlin Germany 1977-1981 while active duty with the Air Force, We had an R/C Club at Tempelhof Central Airport called the "The Flying Bears." Some German citizens were allowed to be sponsored on Tempelhof Central Airport. I had a German friend named Rolf Stein. All of his planes were yellow and black. One day I asked him why he always chose yellow and black and no other colors and his response was that he was color blind and the contrast of the two colors made it easier to see against the often grey skies of Berlin.
Well, I wasn't sure if he was telling me the truth or just had a good deal on black and yellow shrink covering. Well I found out when Rolf and I took a trip to Western Germany to fly R/C gliders on Mount Wasserkuppe (this is the place where a man actually was flying around before the Wright Brothers. Engineer Otto Lilienthal, the father of aviation and of hang gliding. Germany, 1895).
It was night, Rolf was driving and we were passing through a small town when all of sudden Rolf said, "Larry, quick, what color is the stop light ahead?" During the day he could tell which light was on because he could tell what position the light was lit up in relation to the other two (top, center or bottom), but at night he couldn't see the other two unlit lights. I no longer had my doubts after that!
I managed to acquire several of Rolf Stein's planes and all of them were black and yellow.
Also, by this time I no longer had my Tri-Squire (I sold it and never crashed it) but I got another plane very similar called the "Minnie Mambo". That would call for another story later.
-Larry
Burnsmodelaircraft.com
AMA 62678
remember: "Keep your thumbs on the sticks and your head out of the clouds!"