Color Schemes, the good the bad and the visible

[Lou Olsen]

I have a comment, a suggestion, then another comment.

All of my pattern planes use a star burst pattern (I
guess that's a good name) with various colors. Usually
some mix of red, white, yellow, or black. They look
great on the ground. I am not going to do those
patterns anymore.

At the distance we fly, and pattern plane size, and
the amount of color in each of those pie shaped
pieces, they will appear gray. 

But here is what I think occurs that is not good.
Those smaller pie shaped pieces, black and silver on
your pattern, have different apparent sizes based on
the angle of the wing (all 3 axis) to your flying
position. So the gray area is indistinct and changing
as the plane moves. I think it impacts your ability to
fly straight and level (its not me, its my color
scheme, really!).

I think the best approach is large, simple blocks of
color, and I second comments about the top and bottom
being different. In the future, I plan a two color
star burst on top. On the bottom, I would do two
colors, one light, one dark, and split the wing in
half inboard/outboard.

My suggestion is to rough cut your pattern out of
monokote/whateverkote, and tape it to something like
cardboard. Have someone take it out to your flying
distance and move it around. See what you think.

My second comment is about judging. I do not fly well
enough that it matters, but some pilots tell me that
good, clear color schemes make the mistakes easy to
follow! Maybe someone has a few ideas on this?

Lou Olsen

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