At the field this weekend, one of our best flyers put his Ultra Stick into the air, at the hands of an excellent pilot it was a joy to watch,

And then it crashed ....

Here is the problem,

The lovely transparent covering made the planes attitude on its downward leg almost inmossible to discern.

You couldn't tell if it was flying toward us, away from us, straight up or inverted, and he lost it for a split second made a decision which proved to be wrong, and in it went.

Why does this concern me?

I have one waiting to be built in the closet.

Any suggestions on how to make this plane more visible, I don't want to fly a stealth fighter, I would like to get it back successfully.

It is a great flyer but the transparent covering really alarms me.

Any suggestions?

Steve

Hello,

You can make the bottom of the fuselage black. Also, wheel pants should help to visualize if the plane is up-side down or not.

But frankly speaking, it's really crucial to learn to fly without relying on visual feedback. We should visualize the airplane's orientation in our head as we fly the plane, instead of purely relying on visual feedback.

But we can all get confused every now and then. To tell if the plane is going away or coming toward, do the aileron test. If right aileron input rolls the plane clockwise, then it's going away. If right aileron input rolls the plane counter clockwise, then it's coming toward.

To tell if the plane is up-side down or right side up, release all control for a while at normal flying speed. If the plane descends a little, that means it's probably inverted. If it doesn't descend, then it's most likely right-side up.

Hope this helps.

So the problem was not with the Ultra Stick but with that old boogy man "Mr. Disoriented". seanychen has it right but I would add one more offering, if you do become disoriented as to the attitude of the plane(and we all do), do not make a rash decision. Unless you are so close to the ground that it's do or die 50/50, do nothing for a few moments, except maybe retard the throttle, watch the plane and do as seanychen suggests. Neither transparent covering nor the Ultra Stick had anyhing to do with that crash....

When we were watching him fly (and he is one of out best pilots) I kept asking my friend about the oprientation, we were all commenting about how the transparent covering made it hard to get the orientation.

But I do agree that Blacking the bottom of the wing will improve it,

And the other suggestion was a good one, his problem was that he was low to the ground when it happened.

Amazing crash

Steve

Many years ago I built an Utter Chaos that was covered with white and pearl yellow monokote. I could not see the model well at all, but especially if the sky was the least bit cloudy. I sold the model to an individual that could see it well. He still has it. I would have buried it long ago.

You can't fly'em if you can't see'em. Stick with color combos that work for you.

I have an Ultra Stik and had the same problem once. I put the plane in a climb to insure that I could see the trim on the wing and then turned back toward the field.
Because the wing is transparent yellow it sometimes can be a challenge in knowing which side is up when doing aerobatics. I added white trim tape to the bottom wing tips and I found that it made a big difference.

I think the white trim on the bottom of the wing is the answer to my question, I can visualize how that would help.

I think I will take it a bit further and while trim the under side of the stab, and the rudder.

Thank you, I feel better already

Steve

Do what I did and change it to something you CAN see! The underside of the plane is Corsiar blue with yellow wing tips. The Orange is Ultracote neon red. You can see this one from the next county!