Search Pattern

[masrapido]

[quote=Fanie;302115
Masrapido,

I think the flash rate is important. I think if you are up there and you just look down you may see nothing but a vast water desert. If you narrow the view into smaller blocks and scan them you may be more likely to see an object. The question is, is my 5 seconds fast or slow enough to be detected ? How high doe these planes fly... at 40 000k I doubt the flasher is any good [/QUOTE]

Fanie, I understood your "search pattern" as a reference to the actual plan of search. If you are talking about the pattern of flashes (rate of flashes) per minute, I do agree with you. You do not want search team to misses your flasher thinking it is just a sun reflection in the waves...

If that is what you are talking about, you may want to consider having a red or orange light flasher. Coloured light is artificial light, unlike white or yellow which can be missed for similarity with sun or moon. reflections in waves. And I'd make it to be manually (trigger switch)switched on and off so that operator can flash S.O.S. at a plane, increasing his chances of beind detected.

Planes and helicopters in search fly on a couple of hundreds of metres in stormy waters. A bit higher if weather is calm and sunny, but that is regulated differently by every country.

[masalai]

hehehehe OK I will use a spare storm-water down pipe for directionality

Originally Posted by masrapido

Coloured light is artificial light, unlike white or yellow which can be missed for similarity with sun or moon. reflections in waves.

I would not recommend coloured light! It reduces brightness noticeable, thats a disadvantage at night. In bright sunshine light reflexions at sea are seen in different and varying colours anyway and a flashlight is not a great help. A bag of yellow colouring agent which covers more than hundred m² is the better insurance. It does not last long unfortunately, therefore it is difficult to decide when one should release it.

Richard

[masalai]

And the "V" sheet required by Queensland Maritime Authorities, is about as useful as tits on a bull, non buoyant about 2m x 2m so open it out, half drown yourself in the process for something that sinks - - bureaucrats are stupid quite often...

[hoytedow]

Fanie, I forgot to mention that the inside of the tube should be non-reflective black, so that the reflections won't magnify the light output above what the strobe light would normally emit. That would invalidate the test.

[hoytedow]

Coloured smoke is the way to go in daylight. It is visible by aircraft and boats. Colour in water is good but not so noticed by surface vessels.

[Fanie]

Fanie, I forgot to mention

No you didn't

I like the coloured smoke idea, I can put some colouring in my pipe. Be another way to save some money. Smoke and relax while you are rescued.



We had none of this crap in the old days. Why are there so many vessels getting into trouble lately ? or are there just that many vessels. I get the impression the more regulations and equipment the more problems. Isn't it a matter of we are beginning to think less and less and rely on equipment more and more ?

[hoytedow]

Before there were so many rescue resources, people had to depend upon their wits to survive, making them much more careful, and back then people ventured into open water out of necessity, not so much for fun. Today a lot of ignoramuses put themselves in peril needlessly.

[Submarine Tom]

Fanie wrote:

"I tried to find out locally about this but no response."

I think that may sum it up right there, "no response".

That is what you may expect if you need assistance/rescue so you may want to focus your energies on staying out of trouble in the first place and self rescue.

As for flares and water, I have used water-proof, handheld flares with great success. Even expired ones have fired no problem. Out of about 20 fired only one failed. The most important variable is to fire them at the right time so it is seen by the searching aircraft.

Good luck with your project/venture.

Tom