Color Schemes, the good the bad and the visible

[Dean Pappas]

Hi All,
A few years back, Flying Models ran a very informative article called "Paint for Performance", written for us by Bob Noll. He integrated both his own ideas those from other pilots. I will try to dig up the info on which issue it was.
Dean Pappas

-----Original Message-----
From: Tomanek, Wojtek [mailto:tomanekw at saic-abingdon.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 11:13 AM
To: 'discussion at nsrca.org'
Subject: RE: RE: Color Schemes, the good the bad and the visible


I hope someone is capturing all of this for a K factor article.  If not I
can but I have deleted some of the earlier ones, including my own.  If
someone could send them to me off-line that would be a good start.  


TIA,
Wojtek
NSRCA  

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Anthony Romano [mailto:anthonyr105 at hotmail.com] 
Sent:	Thursday, March 06, 2003 10:30 AM
To:	discussion at nsrca.org
Subject:	Re: RE: Color Schemes, the good the bad and the visible

Shapes do make a great difference. On my one color flying wing a couple of 
8" black diamonds on a yellow background made the bottom very distinct.

Anthony






>From: "Anne & Xavier" <xavier.mouraux at sympatico.ca>
>Reply-To: discussion at nsrca.org
>To: <discussion at nsrca.org>
>Subject: Re: RE: Color Schemes, the good the bad and the visible
>Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 18:22:02 -0500
>
>I would add something else on the shape. I was told by a friend once, that
>the eyes see shape differences better and quicker than colour differences.
>Triangular shapes on top and rectangular shapes on bottom or triangular and
>round could be good. That's what I usually try to do and it works for me.
>As it was said, at a distance, everything become grey. Grey, dark grey,
>darker grey and light grey. If you could use a computer program like
>Photoshop, create your scheme (or at least the same colour arrangement) 
>then
>turn it to greyscale. Check if you still see it. Try it from a distance 
>from
>the screen also. If it is still visible, you are on a good track.
>Bob Noll also says that he always try to have half and half dark and light
>on top, bottom and sides of the plane.
>
>Xavier
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ron Lockhart" <ronlock at comcast.net>
>To: <discussion at nsrca.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 9:15 AM
>Subject: Re: RE: Color Schemes, the good the bad and the visible
>
>
> >
> > A few more thoughts (that are in agreement with
> > Terry and Wojtek comments)
> >
> > At a distance in poor visibility conditions there
> > is only light and dark, color isn't distinctive.
> >
> > I like a mostly white top, with a spanwise dark
> > stripe. Red, Blue, Brown, Orange, etc are all dark.
> > Only white, and lemon yellow, not cub yellow,
> > appear distinctively light for me.
> >
> > Bottom mostly dark with chord wise light stripe,
> > or light with large chord wise dark stripe and
> > dark fuse bottom.
> >
> > Later, Ron Lockhart
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Tomanek, Wojtek" <tomanekw at saic-abingdon.com>
> > Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2003 9:01 am
> > Subject: RE: Color Schemes, the good the bad and the visible
> >
> > > 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.
> > > Howeverlast 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
> > > perfectblue 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.
> > >
> > >
> > > http://home.att.net/~district3/district_3_045.htm
> > > <" target="l">http://home.att.net/~district3/district_3_045.htm>
> > >
> > > http://home.att.net/~district3/district_3_049.htm
> > > <" target="l">http://home.att.net/~district3/district_3_049.htm>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > =====================================
> > # To be removed from this list, send a message to
> > # discussion-request at nsrca.org
> > # and put leave discussion on the first line of the body.
> > #
> >
>
>
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