Color for Orientation

[martmichals]

When painting a plane, I always take a while to think what colors I should use. Blue is never on the list, and neither is green because of the trees by the end of my landing strip. When the aircraft isn't scale, I like using red, orange or yellow, because for me, they show up nicely against the cloudy or clear sky. When a plane really gets up high, I find that the color doesn't matter as they colors all turn black, so I paint my planes differently topside and on bottom.
What colors are you guys using and why?

[fhhuber]

At least 3 highly contrasting colors in large blocks for a trainer.
White, red and black are good.
International orange, bright yellow and dark blue works well.

As skill improves and you are used to seeing the aircraft and judging what its doing just by its dark gray profile vs light gray sky... it just doesn't really matter any more for your ability to fly.

But the high contrast is still desirable for the other people watching you fly...

Note that against some clouds ANY color combination you use will just look gray.

[xviper]

I use fluorescent red or pink paint or tape on wingtips (wings, tail, rudder) for max visibility. Of course, this ruins any "scale-ness" that you wish to achieve. I have a sailplane with the wings painted yellow near the fuse, green in the middle and pink on the tips (all fluorescent). The yellow disappears first, then the green. The pink is seen for the longest and the furthest away. Blue disappears very quickly and black/white checkers just turn to grey. Dark red has no advantage over the brighter reds but is better than the others.