The search team was about to call it quits. Then, they saw your flare. Now, thanks to some pre-packaged fire and smoke, they?re bringing you home to your loved ones.
Smoke and fire in the day and fire at night are two of the best ways to get noticed. Flares can easily light up a bright flame quickly, pour smoke into the air, or be shot into the sky to be seen easily at a great distance.
There?s no doubt about it; ready-made signal flares are effective. By learning the basics of their use, you can enhance your safety and improve your chances in a bad situation.
Aerial
?> Parachute flares commonly reach a height of around 1,000 feet and burn for at least 40 seconds. They can be seen over a long distance, especially on clear nights. These are able to attract attention up to 10 miles in daylight, up to 40 miles at night.
?> Comet flares attain a more limited altitude than parachutes (maybe 300 feet) and burn for no more than 15 seconds. Also, these are visible over a shorter range than parachute flares.
Parachute and comet flares are great, but they don?t work well in all conditions. They are less effective under bright sunshine conditions, for instance.
Ground or Water
?> Smoke flares are either hand held or buoyant and produce smoke. They can be very useful in daylight, providing a lot of orange smoke.
?> Handheld and Road flares burn for at least a minute. Depending on the terrain, they are visible to people on the surface for 3 to 5 miles. Typically, these are very visible to aircraft at night and are good to use when you spot a plane in the area and want to help them pinpoint your location.
Red flame or orange smoke are typically considered the colors that signal an emergency. That being said, the window of opportunity for attracting a search crew?s attention is precious. If you see searchers and can only find non-red flares, for instance, or you think smoke would work best but you only have comet flares, fire them anyway. Better for the searchers to see some kind of flare than nothing at all.
How To Use Flares
Using Parachute and Comet Flares:
- Like all flares, read and follow directions.
- Treat it like a firearm-never point it at anyone.
- Also, think about what it might hit or land in. You don?t want a 10,000-30,000 candela (candlepower) flare blazing away in the field you?re in, near volatile tanks of fuel or gas, or on your boat.
- Launch the flare at arm?s length, downwind of your body.
- Look away from the flare when launching.
Using Handheld/Road/Floating Flares:
- Keep it at arm?s length and pointed somewhat downward if carrying a hand held flare. That flame can get plenty hot, and the molten material can drip back on you and burn through your clothes if you hold it upright. Also, hold/position it downwind so that the smoke and flame won?t blow across you.
- Flares are so good at catching things on fire that firefighters use them to start backfires. So, keep them away from vegetation or other flammables.
- How to start a road flare: often, there is a cap you remove, turn, and strike against the end of the flare like a match. The cap will usually have a flat side or fold out tabs to keep the flare from rolling around. Reattach the cap at the non-burning end before setting on the ground.
- When igniting a hand or road flare, hold it in the middle, downwind, and away from yourself and others.
- Don?t look directly at the flame.
- Place road flares or floating smoke flares downwind, too.
- The smoke is noxious. Avoid breathing it.
- If you need to extinguish a road flare, pour water all over it or tap the lighted end to break it off.
One-Shot Aerial Flares and Flare Pistols
There might be disposable, single-shot flares that you can twist or strike or pull a string to fire then throw away what?s left.
Or, it?s a simple pistol, a popular brand is Orion, which shoots a single aerial flare and can be reloaded.
A number of insert devices have been constructed that adapt a 12 gauge flare gun to fire a single shot bullet such as 38 Special. The problem: it?s still a plastic gun.
After independent testing, the ATF?s Firearm Testing Bureau stated:
?The live fire testing resulted in the eventual destruction of all four flare launchers, and confirmed that the use of these adapters in conjunction with conventional ammunition is likely to result in a catastrophic failure of the flare launcher.?
Similarly, because they are 12 gauge, some people try adapting and firing regular 12 gauge shells in flare pistols: not nearly as strong as ?real? guns. Don?t mess with this! Aside from issues about monkeying around with ammunition, and even if you did happen to fire a few rounds, you?ve weakened it and don?t know when it will explode in your hand.
So, don?t use anything in your flare gun but the flares designed for it. If you?re trying to survive, adding an injury to your troubles is not going to help.
Flares from a Shotgun
There are specialty aerial flare shotgun shells that can be fired from a normal shotgun. Two very important points:
- Shotguns have a ?choke? that decreases the size of the barrel near the end. Use a ?cylinder? choke with a flare; there is no narrowing that could cause the flare to catch in the barrel.
- Fire only shells made for the shotgun. That includes only flare shotshells made to fit the chamber of a shotgun.
Safe Use of a Flare
Flares are safe if you are simply careful to use them as directed. For anyone who thinks a flare is just a fun toy, remember that ?toy? can cause damage that changes your life.
For example, in 2007, two brothers fired a flare to celebrate the Fourth of July. Their act caused a fire in a meat packing plant, destroyed four buildings, and caused $50 million in damages. The brothers were sentenced to 90 days in jail, three years probation and 500 hours of community service.
Also, there can be significant legal repercussions for popping off an emergency flare in a non-emergency.
Whether shooting flares or other ammunition, firearms are dangerous. A little pull of the trigger creates a lot of damage. If you think you?ll use them, get trained, stay careful, and keep guns and ammunition away from kids.
It?s easy to fire them accidentally, and bullets can travel for miles or through walls and still destroy someone.
I?ve had someone discharge a pistol right beside me when the owner was certain it was unloaded. I?ve seen people point rifles directly at others after they?ve jammed, endangering them from a delayed discharge.
I?ve been in several places in the world where innocent people, including children, have been shot by someone panicking or trying to hit another person.
I?ve ridden through the streets of a city on the brink of martial law, but the immediate danger was the young recruit bouncing around in the vehicle behind me with a .50 caliber M2 machine gun. He seemed not to know what he was doing, might not have had the safety on, and might have accidentally sprayed my vehicle.
That being said, you can use a firearm as a signaling device. As mentioned above, you can fire flares that are built for shotguns, or you can use regular ammunition to catch searchers? attention.
If you think ground or water searchers are in the area, fire a flare in the air or fire three times into a safe backstop like a sandy hill.
Just like with all flares, conserve them but use them when searchers are in the area.
An end note: A relatively recent step forward in emergency equipment is electronic ?flares? that flash instead of producing dangerous flames.
Stay safe.
? 2013 Mark Dorr, All Rights Reserved.
References & Image Credits:
(1) Wikimedia: Navy Flare
(2) Wavelength Magazine
(3) Martime NZ
(4) eHow
(5) USCG
(6) Wikimedia: Flare
(7) How Stuff Works
(8) U.S. Coast Guard via photopin cc
(9) G Captain
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Mark Dorr grew up the son of a treasure hunter. His experiences and education led to working internationally in a variety of unique and amazing situations. MarkDorr has 69 post(s) at Top Secret Writers
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Source: http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2013/02/a-flare-for-survival/
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