I've got a Superstar 40 and have flown a few flights w/ instructor. My problem is that when it gets pretty far away, or too high, I can't really tell which way it's banking because the bottom of the wing is white.

Is there any recommendations for a different color or pattern to distinguish it better and make it easier to see from a distance?

bright neon orange was my instructors sugestion. some ultra bright color would be the easiest to see, but not the easiest on the eyes

I love checkerboard. Dark blue and white is easy to see.

Tom

I have black and flourescent orange on the bottom of my wing and horizontal stabilizer, and it really stands out. Very easy to see the orientation of the aircraft. I've got a combination of checkerboard and stripes.

Any highly contrasting colors wil work OK. I like yellow and dark blue. Since the bottom is often in shadow, you may as well put the darker color on the bottom. Try dark blue on the bottom with a wide (at least 6") yellow stripe, and then on the top do the reverse; yellow with a blue stripe. Or dark red and white. Or black and orange. Seems to me that checkerboards seem to blur together unless they're really big checks. [sm=RAINFRO.gif]

A dark color on the bottom of a trainer is always a good idea. I build trainers for students and use a dark color on the bottom (at a distance it will turn black anyway) on the top of the wing I tend to use white with thrre large bands of a dark color running the width of the wing. I thin k that its help the beginner figure out where the plane is.

I use dark blue, black or red for the wing bottoms so that it contrasts well with the sky.

contrasting light color strip under the left wing to help with orientation. Usually about 6 inches wide.

i fly my extra 300, which ahas a blue and white bottom, but it doesnt bother me, because most of the time i fly inverted.

Quickest and easiest fix for you might be to get a strip of the "trim" pressure sensitive Monokote (it comes in 5" x 36" strips) in black or dark blue and add two ot four wide stripes to the underside of the wing.

I like solid dark blue underside and something like red/white pattern on top.

All goo suggestions, but one of the things I teach my students is not to fly so far away that orientation becomes difficult.

Good point Minn! When the plane gets far away the angle of the plane to where you are standing means that unless you turn the plane to a steep angle you can't see the top or the bottom of the plane, only a side view! [8D]

neon orange should do the trick

I fly thermal duration sailplanes. My 2M plane was so high today it was great. Dark wings show up best against the sky. I have flash strips on the front of the wings so I can tell which way the plane is going if it is THAT far up or out.

Fun!

Just remember to be carefull in the haze of the clouds, you can lose orientation quite well with the glare on a cloudy day.

MinnFlyer-

I think your answer is the best so far.
The original question is what color pattern.........etc...etc...
But you answered the question looking at the "big picture" so to speak.
Can't see the plane? Keep it closer!!!
Seems like an obvious thing, but as I was learning... well, it was not so obvious!
Got myself into trouble a few times before I figured it out.
I mean, who cares how "far away" the plane got from the pilot, fly it safely, land it safely and put it in the truck in one piece... right? As we get better, we can fly it out further, maybe do some wild tricks and stuff... but if we keep it within our means, then once again we put it in the truck in ONE piece.

S.

when i first started out i flew a twist and could see it top or bottom from far away but it was alittle too fast of a plane for me. So i switched to a harrier which i could fly alot slower but i couldnt tell top from bottom. I put yellow checks on the bottom but when the plane was high you could see the checks on both the top and bottom being that the plane was a see through blue. I have been using the g3 sim and with alot of pratice i have gotten better at knowing top from bottom when flying. I think that pratice pratice pratice helps.