A former professional kite flier's observation about colour...

[K'Tesh]

I used to get paid to fly kites. My cousin used to own several kite shops on the Oregon coast (he's now down to a small online presence).

My first (personal) Flexifoil kite was yellow. What a mistake... I might as well have been flying a black kite at night during a new moon (btw, that was fun, but resulted in some very ugly damage to the kite). My very next Flexi was red, and by the end of it, I ended up with orange, green, blue, purple, black, and a rainbow. I fly them on 500lb test line, and I have gone water skiing behind that kite.

IMHO, the best colour for contrast with a white/grey/blue sky is red. Even Calvin (of Hobbes fame) had the colour red as his choice (I have that comic... somewhere).

But to back my claim, I submit for your viewing pleasure...


Other colours that are good are:

Orange
Dark Green
DARK Blue
Dark Purple
Black

If I'm launching a rocket high, you can count on me not using a yellow parachute (until I get a tracking device that I trust).

 

[CarVac]

For flying on desert lakebeds, bright green is one of the best colors. It remains shockingly visible both in the air and on the ground, with both overhead and side lighting.

 

[fyrwrxz]

For flying on desert lakebeds, bright green is one of the best colors. It remains shockingly visible both in the air and on the ground, with both overhead and side lighting.

That's great! I'm renaming the colour "Backyard Barbeque Background Green" in honour of your avatar. "Lime green" is sooo deceptive!

 

[CarVac]

Haha, it's just 0x00FF00.

Also, this marks the first time anyone's ever commented on my avatar...

 

[GregGleason]

My stuff seems to spend more time on the ground, and the florescent orange/reds REALLY pop against the tan/brown/green backgrounds.

Greg

 

[crossfire]

The colors I like to use is neon green/hot pink they show up very well. But what do i know.
GP

 

[scsager]

For flying on desert lakebeds, bright green is one of the best colors. It remains shockingly visible both in the air and on the ground, with both overhead and side lighting.

So important to take the location into consideration. It's only in the air for a short while, and normally you'll be spending more time looking for it on the ground, than looking up in the air. At Bong, where there is a lot of tall grass, shrubbery, uneven ground, trees, swamps etc. Something neon is always good, white is good... green, brown or camo gets lost easy.

 

[CarVac]

So important to take the location into consideration. It's only in the air for a short while, and normally you'll be spending more time looking for it on the ground, than looking up in the air. At Bong, where there is a lot of tall grass, shrubbery, uneven ground, trees, swamps etc. Something neon is always good, white is good... green, brown or camo gets lost easy.

Flying on lakebeds, you really need to see it in the air to get a lock on the direction it's drifting.

 

[modeltrains]

Will note the color situations. And think I know what kite shops those were; happy to hear there is still something he can do.

 

[rocketgeek101]

I would say I have to disagree with you on one thing:

Yellow is (at least to me) very visible on a clear day.

I do agree with you though, that yellow would not be the best choice for an overcast day.

 

[EddieJ710]

I also think a bright, neon Pink works well in the more green areas of the country. Great in the sky as well.

 

[o1d_dude]

I also think a bright, neon Pink works well in the more green areas of the country. Great in the sky as well.

+1

This is what I use.

 

[powderburner]

If you need the absolute best chances to find a rocket during descent or after landing, I have found that adding a long skinny silver streamer to the recovery system is very beneficial. Obviously you cannot use this in competition situations like NAR parachute duration, but you can use an added streamer for general sport flying.

The streamer is not wide enough or big enough to cause any significant change in rate-of-descent but a long silver streamer blowing out toward the side will twirl and flex and catch sunlight for easier tracking. Also, once your rocket is on the ground the long streamer will also tend to land last and will often stretch out over nearby bushes or obstacles and still moves in the breeze to give you a little visual sparkle to help find your rocket on the ground.

-FWIW

 

[AlphaHybrids]

I find that neon pink/black works best for the prairie where we fly.

Edward

 

[new2hpr]

I flew the Hot Pink Suppository of Discomfort a few years back at the Pawnee Grasslands site. Fluorescent Pink with matching chute. Upon walking out into the prairie to retrieve it, I found it fully in bloom (springtime) in assorted bright reddish pink flowers.:eyeroll: True story. And I found it.
-Ken

 

[troj]

I also think a bright, neon Pink works well in the more green areas of the country. Great in the sky as well.

Neon pink is my parachute color of choice.

Of course, I make sure not to launch near the Mary Kaye convention....

-Kevin

 

[EddieJ710]

Neon pink is my parachute color of choice.

Of course, I make sure not to launch near the Mary Kaye convention....

-Kevin

We all know what you do with Mary Kaye stuff on the weekends. :wink:

When I start building my own, I'll use neon pink, orange, and red quite a bit.

 

[Mike TG]

I must say I like the neon colors. We fly on a sod farm. I launched the tiddlywink a while back. It landed on the freshly mowed area, I saw it touch down. I had black and red on the underside of the wings, and it looked nice on the way down. Had plain balsa color on the top side. After taking my eye off it's landing site to watch another launch, I could not find it again. The plain wood melted right into the green grass with dry thatch. Shoulda painted the top in neon! Luckily, someone else found it later for me!