[pct-l] Air search

[Steel-Eye]

Good afternoon,

For signaling purposes the military has used the VS-17 Conspicuity Panel.  I
love that word, "conspicuity", its so .. conspicuous.  The VS-17 is about
 20" x 72", which is approximately the size of a ground cloth or a full-size
sleeping pad.  The colors of the thin foam sleeping pads that I use aren't
very conspicuous, so I carry one of the little emergency-size Mylar Space
Blankets.  For flash-signaling, a Mylar Space Blanket alone would be
wretched.  The stuff is so light and filmy it would be like trying to flash
an arm-load of fog.  If I had to use a flash-panel, I would fold the bright,
colorful Mylar around the drab sleeping pad, and gather the extra Mylar in
two bunches in back to use as hand-holds while flashing the panel.  I've
tried it at home and it seems to work, but fortunately I haven't never had
to try to attract a Blackhawk.

Steel-Eye


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <cvano at tmail.com>
To: <pct-l at mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 2:47 AM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Air search


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
> money wasters of 2007.
Beyond this point
There be dragons...

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