best visibility colours

[rcaddict]

what do you guys think is the best colours for flying white foamies in cloudy days, I seem to think red & orange stripes are good but open to suggestions

[Plummet]

I feel that in the distance you tend to lose colour discrimination, so I would suggest that the colours are less important than the darkness of the colour. For orientation, might I suggest a dark underside and light coloured upper parts.

Plummet

[AVC]

Plummet I think you are right. It's more important the contrast between colours than the colors themselves.
Another area to consirder is the shape of the strips: straight lines are easier to see in the air than curvy shapes

[rcaddict]

I was doodling with paintshop and thought these schemes would work

Edited By alrob on 17/12/2015 22:06:01

[Frank Skilbeck]

When flying large white gliders, some dark bands on the underside of the wings works best.

[Mowerman]

At a club I belonged to most of my fellow learners had Ready 2 models, very nice but all in the 'as bought' plain white

except one painted in US army camo. I decided to make mine stand out on the ground and in the air I called the colour scheme 'shamoflage ' someone who lived 2 miles from the strip reported seeing someone flying a red model.. I think it worked.

[IanN]

Panels of the fluorescent / dayglo orange film coverings are hard to beat

And if you're not bothered by aesthetics - nor troubled by migraines - dayglo pink on one surface and lime green on another are an almost unbeatable combination

[Mowerman]

Yes Ian that's what I used but with some bright yellow sprayed from 'Plasticoat' aerosols. (B&Q or Wilko)

[Ian Jones]

At a distance contrast matters more than colours IMHO. So black and white work well, more interestingly so does black and yellow as previously used by the RAF for example.

Black or Silver on it's own can be hazardous but once again used with a highly contrasting colour, hah yellow springs to mind again, can lead to a good looking easy to see model:

[Robin Colbourne]

I go with IanN, contrasting dayglow colours top and bottom are good. A dayglow orange strip wrapped around the leading edge from root to tip helps too when the model is coming towards you on approach. Plummet's suggestion of dark underneath (against the sky) and light on top (against ground and trees) are good too.

Whilst a dark colour may be good against the sky, its not so good against the background of trees on the approach on that last flight of the day (the one when you realize you should have landed earlier or not taken off at all...).

The RAF sponsored some research into increasing visibility to try and stop Air Cadet aircraft banging into each other (its reprinted here on a German glider manufacturer's website):

**LINK**

[iqon]

red orange yellow and dark bands underneath

[Braddock, VC]

Cub Yellow best and ferrari red with wide white stripes on the underside of the wing second best.

Black isn't good at all for me and metallic reflective film glinting in sunshine is disconcerting for me.

[trebor]

Glow in the dark luminesant greens good, even stands out flying in front of trees and bushes.

[Robert Armstrong 2]

A chap I used to see on the slope swore by fluorescent pink as the most visible colour he had ever found at a distance.

[Barrie Dav 2]

I use fluorescent red water based acrylic paint on the underside of wings and tails of foam gliders. It makes them much easier to see against clouds at height.