I don't think the default aircraft use any textures from the main texture folder,
rather, each has its own master "texture" folder which contains textures common to all
the repaints.
Each repaint then uses this folder as a fallback for the textures not contained in the
individual repaint folder.
Also, the " Red, Gold" repaint references to the "C172\texture" folder where
there are only white textures.
There is, therefore, no red and gold default aircraft, just to add to the confusion.
The texture.cfg file in the texture folder uses itself as a fallback, not much use if there is a
missing texture.
On the same subject, when in multiplayer, the Bell 206 and the
default DC3 will revert to the textures in their master "texture" folder
when there are several of them close together.
The Bell 206 will turn white, like the Cessna 172 and the Dc3 to the
blue and white "Cargo" version, both regardless of what the player
has actually selected.
It depends on the exterior textures contained in the "texture" folder.
I suspect that this problem would not occur if there were no exterior textures
in the "texture" folder.
Most addon aircraft developers use exactly the same file structure, but none that
I have seen yet include exterior textures, except those used in all the repaints, in their master texture folder.
Other repaints cannot use fallback textures that are not there
and therefore the aircraft continue to display the textures from the correct repaint folder.
Regards,
Nick