Color of Plane???
 

I was wondering what colors are the best for visibility and determining what side is up? I put black checkers on the bottom of the wing. It's great on a clear sunny day, but not so good on a cloudy day(We get a lot of them in Seattle!). What colors are the most identifiable? Yellow & Metallics w/ red trim is what I' leaning toward, but I could be totally wrong.

Rob

RE: Color of Plane???
 

Red is always good.. I personally have flown a solid white plane, just look at the vert. stab

RE: Color of Plane???
 

There are a few threads on this already, if you do a search, you can probibly find lots of info.

That said, you usually want big blocks of contrasting colors. Lettering, checkers and such usually are too small to be seen. I generally plan on stripes or blocks no smaller than 4" wide, but even that is a bit small at times. No one color by itself is the answer, it's the combination of 2 or more.

Black/yellow is popular. International orange with a dark blue or green works, I've seen a couple of planes with that. Orange and white or red and white aren't bad either.

RE: Color of Plane???
 

Monty's right. There is no certain color or combination that is best because we all see color differently.

CONTRAST is the key

I like to use at least 3 colors - usually a white background with 2 darker contrasting colors. Red, White and Blue is a favorite scheme of mine (There's nothing like red wingtips on a white background to be able to see a plane for miles!)

And keep a good difference between top and bottom! I usually like a darker underside.


http://204.96.183.34/RCU/grafx/Contrast3.jpg
http://204.96.183.34/RCU/grafx/t01a.gif

RE: Color of Plane???
 

metallics, especially chrome, is the absolute WORST to have. it reflects everything, so now you have a color changing plane that blends into the sky perfectly!

RE: Color of Plane???
 

Great graphic!!

As your illustration demonstrates, something different from the top and bottom seems to help me a lot. If it's different, at least it's different. Make the top sky blue, and if it disappears on a blue sky day, you know its upside down <g>. Or grass green might be an option. If it disappears you know to go get the Hefty bag.

RE: Color of Plane???
 

MinnFlyer...How did you do that...the flying plane. Dave

RE: Color of Plane???
 

Thanksfor the info! I'll try a search.

Rob

RE: Color of Plane???
 

Iv'e noticed that if the plane is far away, you see the plane at an angle and therefore don't see the bottom of the plane any way. Therefore making the bottom of the plane a different color doesn't really make any difference if the plane is way out. I keep it up high and if I am not sure if its inverted or not I pull up elevator. If the plane goes up, its right side up, if it goes down, its inverted and I keep pulling until it circles back to right side up. Make sure you have a bit of altitude before you do this. For colors I like Neon yellow and as someone mentioned you ned at least a 4" wide strip. Smaller than this and the even the yellow turns a muddy brown when it gets further out. I had a Zero that had Metallic blue with Neon Yellow strips and it made it really easy to see what the plane was doing and land. I recently saw that you can buy Monokote with Black and yellow squares. They would be very good for the bottom of the wing. [8D]

RE: Color of Plane???
 

I drew a 3-d version of a trainer, took several snapshots at different angles, and created an animated gif with the snapshots. Cool huh? :D



So you're saying that you can't tell whether you're seeing the top or bottom of the planes in this picture?

But you're partially right. Most experienced fliers can fly a plane that is identical on top and bottom (My 27% extra is proof of that). After you've been doing this a while, you get to know which way your plane is going because it's going where YOU put it. But to the novice, orientation is something that hasn't been mastered, so whatever aids you find helpful are good.

RE: Color of Plane???
 

Hey Rob, One thing that has worked for me is to put a 4" checker board pattern on the bottom of a 4*40 kit that I built. The wings are yellow but it wasn't easy to tell top from bottom so I got some checker board Ultracote from Abernathy's and took off part of the underside and replaced it. What field do you fly at.
Rob

RE: Color of Plane???
 

I do the opposite, I make the bottom a solid color and the top different. usually something directional so that it is easy to see at a glance which direction the plane is pointing

RE: Color of Plane???
 

just curious, what did you use to draw it?

RE: Color of Plane???
 

MinnFlyer....Maybe you could give us a step by step of the procedure you used to make this great graphic, in layman's terms for those of us who are computer challenged. I'ts great and I'm sure many would like to know...I just emailed you. Thanks Dave

RE: Color of Plane???
 

Mike, that extra is nothing. In the open classes of RC combat, I always fly a solid red airplane, with no markings on the wings at all. I get a lot of guys asking how I can keep oriented, and know what way it's going.

The answer is that I'm flying by "memory" and "feel" and reflex, not by actually thinking about what the airplane is doing.

Once you've been flying for a while, you'll find you need less and less in the way of visual cues. And if you DO "loose it", you can figure it out really quickly. I have had situation where I've taken a plane from someone with out knowing what it's doing, but all it takes is a quick stick wiggle, and the plane "locks in" and suddenly I know exactly what's going on. It's hard to explain, but the long-time pilots I know all have had that same feeling, when the plane just snaps in, and you know what's going on. The half-loop trick will work if you are high enough, but once you've flown for a while, it takes far less than that, just a quick stick wiggle is enough, and you find your self doing it with out thinking about it.

RE: Color of Plane???
 

I put 3" square white checks on the the outboard bottom 1/3 of the wings of my dark red 4*60 ARF. Like the previous post, since the plane is solid red with stock decals it can be tough to orient it at distance w/o using the controls to do so. The checks are very visible even at great distances. That being said, there are some conditions where almost nothing works, overcast being one of them. Since the light is flat (coming from all directions above the plane) the plane invariably looks black, it is always "backlit". In any case, the previous suggestions are the best you can do - bold, wide contrasting stripes, checks, or blocks w/ one of the colors being a bright red, yellow, orange or white, or just about any neon color. If you don't mind getting beat up, why not try hot pink? :D

RE: Color of Plane???
 

The eye loses color recognition way before it loses grey scale recognition. That's why a plane looks shades of grey when its some distance away.

Red and blue, for example, look exactly the same if they are the same 'darkness' from a distance.

So, shade difference between the top and bottom of the plane is more important than color difference.

I always try to give the model longitudinal contrasting shades on the bottom of the wing (large stripes, maybe 3 across the chord of one wing half running parallel to the fuselage) and span-wise large stripes on the top of the wing. As long as they are contrasting shades (black + white; dark blue + yellow, something like that) you can choose your own colors.

Also, it's a good idea to have the rudder that's a contrasting color to the fuselage, and maybe a contrasting shade (again!) split by a horizontal boundary halfway up the fuselage side.

-David C.

RE: Color of Plane???
 

smokingcrater, (great name BTW) That was drawn in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Dimensions, then animated in Adobe Image Ready (Which is a sidecar program to Photoshop)

Tucker, I don't want to hijack the thread with a long explaination. I'll email a response.