Well I've been looking at some photo's of quite a few planes, and I was wondering what everyone's advise was on covering. What colors are the easiest to see? My trainer is mostly white with some red, blue, and yellow trim. When it gets far enough away from me, I have at times lost my bearing on which way the plane is headed (still working on that flying by input thing :rolleyes: ). Any suggestions :confused:

My trainer, an LT40, went through a GREAT deal of punishment when I learned to fly RC in my late 50's. While repairing the wing after about the second "event," I bought a roll of florescent (sp?) orange and put that on the top of one wing only. Never had an orientation problem after that! All I had to do was wag the wing to catch a little daylight, and it was pretty clear which way it was going! It wasn't as pretty as some of the other planes, but I learned to fly better and faster as a result. It also seemed to make landing a bit easier--though my clubmates would probably argue about that since they were keeping count of the number of motor mounts I sheared off on landing. BTW, F1 (firewall) never failed, only the mount, and it was simple replacement after I did it ..... times. John :D

The neon and flouresent colors give you the best visibility. If you are not sure what the plane is doing just tilt or waggle it to catch the sun. The colors will instantly show you what the plane is doing. I would also add 2 strips of darker material about 6" and 6" apart near the ends of the wings with the neon colors at the ends of the wing. There is the occasional day where the sun is almost too bright for the neons and you get a lot of refection. This is where the dark stripes come in and give you great contrast with the neon. I use a lot of neon yellow in combination with metallic greenfor good results. Neon orange is also very easy to see and turns bright red in the sun. You can also just do a neon outline of the wings about 4-6" wide all around the edge with darker colors on the main part of the wing. This gives a different effect and still makes the plane very easy to see. You can check out this thread for a great looking LT25. :D
http://www.rcflying.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1825

Everybody is going to tell you what they can see best, but what matters is what you can see best. Look at lots of flying planes in different weather conditions and make you own mind up.
The only two important things in this hobby are that you fly and have fun doing it!
IMHO
Good Luck!

It always amazes me the number of ARFs that are covered with white... I believe that this is because it's a good neutral color which is quite visible in most conditions. But I too find it hard to read the orientation when the plane get's a little farther out. This is probably the fact that most ARFs use way too much white (like my Avistar which is all white on the bottom except for a couple of stripes on one wing). I myself like cub yellow with a contrasting dark color (such as true red) on the entire bottom of the plane. I've probably flown my plane in excess of 1/2 mile away without getting disoriented with this combination.

On my planes i use one color on the bottom of the wing and a different color on the top of the wing.
but it's about what colors you can see well.
everyone see's colors a little bit different.
so watch lots of planes flying and pick the colors you see well.

I like to use white with dark markings. I like to make the underside of the wing a dark color. I think 75% or more of the time, you see the top side of your plane in flight. If it flips over on you in flight, you should be able to distinguish the dark underside from the upper white side. I use great big white or colored dots, too, on the lowerside of the wing halves and the horizontal stab halves.

Remember though, any plane that gets too far away from you turns into a dark spot in the sky. A 60" trainer doesn't have to get very far away to become a speck. A 38" combat plane turns into a speck almost instantly after launching and you are at full throttle.

Jon :)

No offense F2Racer, but if you can see your model airplane in excess of 1/2 mile away, I'd like to have your eyeballs in my head, LOL. I can't tell what a full scale airplane is a 1/2 mile away, let alone tell what color the wings are. I think maybe I need some glasses.

Jon :D

Originally posted by _jon_
No offense F2Racer, but if you can see your model airplane in excess of 1/2 mile away, I'd like to have your eyeballs in my head, LOL. I can't tell what a full scale airplane is a 1/2 mile away, let alone tell what color the wings are. I think maybe I need some glasses.


The 1/2 mile was an approximation, but you're probably right now that I think about it, 1/2 mile seems really far. ;)

There are some things you should consider in making you plane visible. The thing that I would suggest is to go out and look over the flying field at which you spend most of your time. Look at the background of your landing patterns and takeoff patterns.

When a plane is in the air is when it is most visible because you can usually see the outline of the plane, but where it really counts is on takeoff and landing. You have a smaller outline of the plane to look at and sometimes a much different background( trees, building shapes, and other obstacles).

To make you plane highly visible, do not only consider the flat of the wing but lookt to the thinner outlines and consider your background shadings. Landings and takeoffs are the most critical part of R/C flying and this is when you plane is hardest to see.

Contrast on you plane is great, but you might pick colors that contrast your surroundings as well.

Hope this helps!!

A more solid pattern on the top of the wing with several contrasting stripes on the bottom will help. Most colors you won't be able to tell in cloudy conditions anyway unless it's a yellow or flourescent color. Most blues/greens etc. go dark the further away they are from you. A buddy of mine puts about 1-2" of dark color on the leading edge and then highlights that with a strip of white- right on the front of the leading edge. Helps keep the wings oriented when you're coming in for a landing and you have the least amount of the plane visible. You'll be able to pick up the LE of the wing- and keep the wings level.

i also loose orientation of plane positions when flying outside box,, even with larger planes,,
anything i cover now i try to use a light prism color with a dark prism over the top,, white with any dark color works well for me,, for example a grey and purple looks good on ground,,black in low light conditions or clouds,,not good,,,, ha,,good luck

One color scheme NOT to go with, Metallic Teal and Neon Pink. I put this scheme on my 4*60. It looks great on the ground, but not good in flight. All the upper side is Metallic Teal and all the lowerside is Neon Pink. The whole thing turns BLACK in the air, LOL. I have been inverted when I thought I was upright and I have been coming towards myself when I though I was going away. I put 8" white dots on the lower side of the wing halves and 4" white dots on the lower side of the stabilizer halves and that helps quite a bit. The white really stands out against the neon pink. The other thing I wont do again, on a low winger, is put the same color on the fuse and the top side of the wing. You can't distinguish the wing from the fuse in normal flight attitude, it all blends together.

By the way, I used these colors because they were included with the 4*60 kit as a gift to me for Christmas a few years ago. Nice gift, $100 kit and $45 worth of Monokote.

Jon