[pct-l] Air search

[cvano at tmail.com]

Yea, one was a Z-Rest and there was a full length and a 3/4  self 
inflating Thermorest.  All are bright colored relative to the natural 
forest colors.  Now having been an Army Helicopter Crew Chief for many 
years I know how hard it can be to find something from the air, even 
with 3 pair of eyes focused directly on the target.  Headlamp strobes 
are useless, even at night unless its really dark, you are in a 
clearing, and the air crew are wearing night vision goggles.  Strobes 
have a very limited visibility range from the ground to the air, even at 
sea.  Hold the mattress or pad in front of you hanging down to the 
ground.  Raise it up chest high and level with the ground so that the 
bright colored side of the pad is making a 90 degree arc from facing the 
horizon to facing the sky while you are facing the aircraft.  Don't go 
above your head.  That extra 3 feet will not do anything for you, and 
you won't be able to see through it.  Side to side motion is too small 
to be seen, even with day glow orange.  One complete up and down motion 
should take 2 seconds.  This creates an orange regular strobe effect to 
the aircrew and is much more easily recgonized than either stationary or 
6 foot movement.  Adrenilin will make it hard to do this small slow 
motion but it is the best.  You'll want to jump, hollor, wave your hands 
etc.  All useless except for personal emotional release.  So do it 
anyway if it makes you feel better.  When they do see you, you will know 
it, either by 'wagging the tail' 'rocking the wings' or a landing 
light.  Ours wagged the tail.  The same motion along with a whistle 
atracted the hiking crews attention from 1/2 mile. C

On Thu, 6 Dec 2007 11:04 pm, Hiker97 at aol.com wrote:
> cvano at tmail.com writes: Sleeping pads.  All worked equally well in 
> snow.  Some foam, some self
> Inflatable.  The orange side of the Thermorests is a good helicopter 
> attention getter.  Flip it up and down, not sideways.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> That is very interesting.  I had not thought about that with the ZRest 
> pads.  I might have to check out 
>
> http://www.rei.com/product/374053 for an under my tent pad.  Right now 
> I use gray color pads, but something more bright sounds smarter.
>
> Thanks, Switchback
>
> --------------------
>
> Check out AOL Money & Finance's list of the hottest products and top 
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Beyond this point
There be dragons...

Chris ~ S/V Drifter
Anacortes, WA. ~~~_/) ~~~