Hi All
I had a great flight today with my 48" Mercury Matador. I got into great lift but had to pull out early due to lack of orientation of my a/c. Most of my a/c have yellow wings but seem to lack good visibility at height. Can anyone define the best colour system to finish an a/c to obtain best visibility at height under cloud.

Typically, light on the top side, dark underneath. Sometimes a broad patch of light on the dark will give it contrast/more visibility.

If the bottoms of your wings are yellow, I'd say try a wi-i-ide black stripe (front to back) near the wing tip. (Say 6" wide.)
Dennis-

On my sailplanes I like Monokote opaque RED on the bottom of the entire wing and stab.

On the top I place Monokote opaque RED on the outer wing panels of the main wing and Monokote WHITE on the inner wing panels as well as the entire fuselage and the top of the stab.

What I find is that at a distance I can see the alternating soild red and then red/white quite easily when turning in circles and this is true for clear skies and overcast skies. When landing the white/red on the top contrast well with any background colors like green from trees and white from clouds on the horizon.

For high altitude work solid black on the bottom of the wing and stab is recommended by many people. I tend to agree. I can see a black hawk thermalling a great distance away.

As for 'orientation', you might mean 'seeing the plane' or you might mean 'detecting direction and speed'. The discussion above covers 'seeing the plane'. For determining 'direction and speed' I think that is harder at long distances and sometimes high altitudes.

When I think about those times when I became 'disoriented' I remember realizing that the main problem was that the plane was so high or far away that the there was very little angular distance change when making a turn. By that I mean even a full circle was performed in a fraction of a degree of vision. The circle was a normal size circle but at the distance it was observed it only accounted for a very small visual change. In those situations it was sometimes difficult to determine if the plane was coming toward me or going away from me at any part of the circle. After the addrenalin rush (panic) wore off I would have to fly 'straight' for a short while and then move the control stick to the left. If the plane actually looked like it turned in the correct direction then I felt I was again oriented. If it appeared to move in the opposite direction then I assumed the plane started the turn coming toward me so I would allow a half turn and then I felt oriented again. At these times the color was not a major issue as the plane was just a visual 'blob' with which I had to deal.

For flying under clouds I think the best color would be solid black under the wing and stab. I think that would give the best chance for keeping the plane visible. Someone generated a picture of a sailplane at various altitudes with two color schemes. One scheme was various (rainbow) colored wings and the other had black wings and stab. That was 'proof' to me that black was very, very helpful. Maybe someone has that image and can post it here. It is well worth looking at that picture. On your plane you could try black under the outer panels (tip area) and if you feel you need more then completely cover the bottom in black.

Followup: 'Tall Paul' included the image in his post below. It shows the black versus multi-color wings at various altitudes and sky colors. Very interesting.

Take a look at one of the more recent issues of AMI magazine. There is a very good article in there on the use of complementary colours (like red/green and yellow/violet) and patterns for visibility.

Hi Keith,Dennis.
Thanks for your input. I feel this is the best aproach and I will give it a go.
Poblingo-I do not have access to AMI but will keep my eyes open.
Thanks

There is no best color. Different light conditions have better combos. I use at least 3 colors on a wing. Mine are usually a bright color, a dark color and a contrasting color. The 2nd and third are usually smaller. I also put a strip or two of chrome or gold foil on the leading edge, about 4 inches by 1 inch and it blinks when the sun hits it. If you loose it, it helps find it quicker.

One factor to remember is that the human eye loses color definition before it loses shade definition.

By that I mean as the model goes away, we lose the ability to see colors (it looks like shades of grey from a distance) before we lose the ability to differentiate the shades.

So, it's no use trying to differentiate top and bottom with, say, red against blue, as they look the same when we lose the color definition, which happens quite quickly.

I always put contrasting stripes fore and aft on the bottom, and stripes across the span on the top. That way you have a chance of knowing whether its inverted or not!

-David C.

Contrasting colors is step 1

BOLD lines is step 2

Look at the pic below. As you can see, wing "A" is much more defined at a distance.

Here is one of my favorites. It looks good close up, is very easily seen at a distance, and has good seperation of top and bottom.

Depends on the day... clouds or a typical SoCal blue vault...
Dark on the bottom, light on the top..

I used the yellow / violet combination on my XtraWot and now it looks like a PC Warehouse advertisement - but......it is very visible!!

Make use of the available light. Opaque colors all seem to turn black at altitude...I like to use an opaque on the fuse and fin, and transparent on the wings and stab. The light shining through the wings makes for better color recognition, and you can use a smallish piece of chrome on one wingtip that will catch light and flash, giving you an indication of upright/inverted by which side of the fuse it's on. Right now I'm experimenting with a black fuse and Fluorescent pink wing on a foamie sailplane...so far, so good.

Wow!

How did you manage to get all those models to fly in formation like that?

-David C.

Hi All
I am intruiged by all of your responses. Keep it going as there is some good stuff there. I currently favour the dark bottom with some form of reflective strips. Thanks for all your input.
John

.
Each was piggybacked up....

.
On my fun-flies, light top, dark bottom, but also large white patches on the bottom helps instant orientation.
or if the bottom is light, large dark panels works as well.

To tell you the truth Doug, I think I'd WANT to lose sight of that!
Dennis-

Dennis,
You might have a point there...