Well, I am almost done with building my first plane. Against advise, I bought a 40 sized pattern ship, the Tracer from Great Planes. I am working on covering in now. Should be in the air next weekend.

As I am covering, I am looking for thoughts on covering schemes. Is there anything wrong with the top of the wing being all white and the bottom being white with a dark diamond? As it is now, the fuse is going to be white for the bottom 2/3, with the rest of the top dark. My concern is primarily with visibility in the air. As this will be a FAST plane compared to my trainer, I will be flying it a bit high until I get a handle on it

Zee

I would recommend putting some neon color on the wingtips, it helped out my white plane.

I wouldn't leave the top of the wing all white. If you think about it, the most common colors in the sky are white and blue. Another thing to consider is you only see the bottom of the plane about 1/2 the time. When the plane is farhter out you do a lot of turning back toward you. When you do that its the top part of the wing thats pointing toward you. If its just white and a long way out, then thats when you could lose sight of it! If you want to keep it simple and stick with white then you could do a bright outline of the wing like John suggests. Neon colors show up the easiest. I use a lot of Neon Yellow on my planes and some of my friends like to use Neon Orange. If you go with the outline idea try to make the edges aound 6" wide to make the ouline visible. The smaller the edges, the more muddy the colors become at a distance. The pic below is my 60 sized Sea Fury in Neon Yellow. Have fun, Fast!

invation stripes also stick out very well.You can see them in all conditions pretty well.

A good rule for visibility is light color on top (white, yellow, cream), dark colors underneath (black, maroon, dark blue) with some contrasting color on both top & bottom. Contrast color should be close to square proportions for maximum visibility, and a good place to put them is on the wingtips or a stripe on the wing roughly the width of the wing chord.

Checkerboard patterns are popular for the underwing, but the problem is that 1" squares of black & white fade into gray at even a moderate distance, and gray against a gray sky is not a good formula.

A good place to divide the fuselage top & bottom colors is along the thrust line, to emphasize level flight or landing flare or whatever, and something to sight aileron & elevator deflection against when adjusting linkage.

Hey Zee,

How did the tracer work out for you? I bought the
tracer kit to test my pattern skills. Since I had a number of 40 sized engines in my shop, it seemed to be the logical choice. Our club members here in OK haven't had any experience with this particular plane, how has yours been? I will be building the kit in a week or two....(after I finish the P-51). Any suggestions?

Thanks,

CD

Well, today was the first solo day on the new plane. What a DREAM! Ground handling is a bit rough, as the plane wants to hang on the grass and nose over, even with full elevator. So I walked her to the runway, stood back, and rolled into the gas. With almost no right stick, the Tracer picked up speed. After about 20-30 feet, the nose started to lift off.

In the air, it was point and shoot. You stop the sticks early on a roll, and the plane stops there. I have never tried a square loop or a 2-point roll until today. The plane makes me look like a better pilot than I am.

On the landing, I had to do right-handed approach...not the usual for our field. I cut the gas, broght her in line, and let it come on in. When I was about 2 feet off the ground I start pulling the nose up. It coasted in, and the TAIL touched first. I could not believe it was me controlling this beautiful ship.

I got 3 flights in today...gonna try to get 10 or more in tomorrow, as the field is usually empty on Sunday.

ZEE

Flying Zee,

Major Tom is right! Also, if the majority of the plane is already white, try covering all of the tail surfaces with a dark, contrasting color (black, red, etc). When the plane is at a distance, this helps tell one end from the other, as well as pitch attitude. Navy trainer schemes often are examples of this type of scheme. Orange dayglow actually shows up well.
Each of us have a certain color combination that shows up better. Mine seems to be red, white and black. As your experience grows, your effective combination will become evident.

Good luck and happy flying with your new plane.