Color Schemes, the good the bad and the visible

[Tomanek, Wojtek]

Here is some good info on color schemes for a pattern plane.  As Terry
stated, the important thing is that you see the plane in all conditions.
>From personal (and this is very personal) I have always liked the red white
and blue color combinations and I can see them relatively well.  However
last year at the NATs I lost a sight of my plane for a split second in a
vertical upline with a roll and had to relay on the memory and thrust where
the plane could/should be.  Normally I use dark blue, in this case bottom of
fuse and main theme of the wings was light blue and it generally shows well
against the east coast sky, but that day at the NATs the sky was perfect
blue with no hint of clouds or humidity - the colors matched perfectly; the
sky and the wing fuse combination.  The guideline here is to not just select
what looks good on the ground and is visible (generally gray scale
contrasting colors work best), try to compare against the background that
you will see the plane during normal practice/contests.  White tips and
leading edges are a good idea too.  On one of my planes I did put a highly
reflective holographic silver tape (glider guys are using this stuff) - it
helped a lot during landings in the evenings when the visibility is bad
especially at low altitude and during sunny days, you could not miss the
leading edge even if you wanted to.    
 
Hope this helps.
 
 
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