Done my first flight tonight

[GADWALL41]

Just a quick for the Record post .

While roaming the WWW earlier came across this , so a Little closer to home than the US of A. France in fact .

12 g Flare shells .

http://www.europarm.fr/chasse/en/produit-1731-LIGHTS-AND-ROCKETS 14 Euros for 6 .

Just make sure you put them away in a watertight bag , in a distant pocket and not on your belt . Can you imagine a flight of Pintail comes over and , whizzzzz ! star shells , we Salute you , lol.

[Grandalf]

Sounds like fun to use on the early morning flight...

[nic]

A flare has to be seen by someone else and they have to call emergency services. You are far better off calling direct via phone if yours gets a single where you shoot or best of all a Mayday via VHF.

 

In practice though you need to build up your knowledge of any marsh by prudent visits and common sense : knowning what a certain predicted tide will make in and how weather might affect it etc. Just remember that like the hills coastal waters are beautiful, seductive, and can kill you. Kipling rightly called the sea "the old grey widow maker" and he was right (In "Harp Song of the Dane Women").

 

but as an emergency back up, these seem good. i have a set of mini flares that are slightly out of date (2004) which the army kindly donated. may have to replace with a set of the signal cartridges..... better hoping with them if no signal

[Reabrook]

 

Just a quick for the Record post .

While roaming the WWW earlier came across this , so a Little closer to home than the US of A. France in fact .

12 g Flare shells .

http://www.europarm.fr/chasse/en/produit-1731-LIGHTS-AND-ROCKETS 14 Euros for 6 .

Just make sure you put them away in a watertight bag , in a distant pocket and not on your belt . Can you imagine a flight of Pintail comes over and , whizzzzz ! star shells , we Salute you , lol.

I'm not sure of the legality of those shells. Years ago when I worked on Airfield Runways we used a similar thing for scaring birds and they had to be held on an FAC and couldn't legally be fired from a shotgun. I could of course be completely wrong but worth checking before anybody got into trouble.

[Grandalf]

Just buy some hand held 'yachtie types' flares and rockets. No problem there.

[Pushandpull]

Flares and rockets are expensive and quite bulky - around a foot long. They are something to carry in a boat but not on your person. They also have a very short burn of less than a minute. There is now an "electric" flare which runs for hours which is great when the chopper or inshore rescue boat is in the area looking for you. However the key thing is alerting the Coast Guard in an emergency. They direct everything. If you are really that worried you can buy a hand held VHF for about £50 - about the same as an inshore flare pack. A Mcmurdo PLB (personal locator beacon) which will work anywhere in the world (it says) is less than £200.