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Conference vmszoo::rc

Title:Welcome To The Radio Control Conference
Notice:dir's in 11, who's who in 4, sales in 6, auctions 19
Moderator:VMSSG::FRIEDRICHS
Created:Tue Jan 13 1987
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1706
Total number of notes:27193

1043.0. "color schemes for visibility" by CSCOA5::HOOD_DO () Wed Jul 05 1989 17:16

    As a side question, what is the best way to tell how the plane is
    oriented.....when underneath the plane looking up, its hard to tell
    if the wings are straight and level vs. banked towards me slightly.
    Is this some kind of experience thing? would I be better off monocoting
    the top half of the wing one color and the bottom half another? 
    BTW, besides the fact that she flies like a slug, she glides very
    well...i was able to float around for 5 or 10 minutes with very
    little altitude before  handing the the transmitter back to my 
    instructor.
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1043.1sunset !!!ESASE::CULLENThu Jul 06 1989 05:5115
    > would I be better off monocoting the top half of the wing one color and
    > the bottom half another? 
    
    Simply... Yes. Or better still... it has been mentioned elsewhere in
    the conference that yellow is one of the best 'visable-at-a-distance'
    colours. So I tried using yellow when I recently covered a couple of
    wings. They are completly covered with yellow and then on top I put an
    orange japanese sunset. This helps a lot towards getting the
    orientation correct and it looks great. Another problem overcome, since
    one is only using one base colour, is the joining of covering at the
    leading edge - which can be tricky matching it up at the best of times. 
    
    Regards,
    
    Eric();
1043.2Yes to contrasting colors...and more...CLOSUS::TAVARESJohn -- Stay low, keep movingThu Jul 06 1989 11:2126
Being fully qualified as one of the worst pilots to ever pick up
a transmitter...let me comment.  I am further qualified by having
"floaters", kind of spider webby things that make my vision look
like seeing through a screen door.  This severly cuts my ability
to discern the models attitude at a distance, which I frequently
let my plane get to by daydreaming instead of flying.
 
Yes, the best thing is to use contrasting colors on the top and
bottom of wings.  Yellow is indeed the best, and I like red too.
Stay away from white -- it virtually dissappears at moderate
distance.

My current project, the Tutor, will have blue (Coverite) wings
and top of fuse, with yellow lower fuse and tail surfaces.  I
also trim my planes to death, so that after a few flights the
darn things look like a billboard. 

Last week I put some of that shiny stuff that shows different
colors as you flash it in the sun -- much loved by the auto folks
-- on the Quik Stik.  It was great.  I loved it as it flashed in
the sun when the model got too far away and went into a death
spiral.  It looked so nice as the plane twisted its way down I
could hardly stop admiring it!

You don't need much.  I have a 2-inch strip on each wing top and
another strip across the top of the fin. 
1043.3ASK FOR IT BY NAME....PNO::CASEYATHE DESERT RAT (I-RC-AV8)Thu Jul 06 1989 11:3911
    John,
    
    That "shiney stuff that shows different colors in the sun" is called
    "Beta-tape" for the interest of those who may want to run out and
    buy some.

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)