Lifesavers or Hokum?

C

candlelight001

Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Messages
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After watching the helicopters pass over little Dieter in "Rescue Dawn" I started thinking about my signaling capacity. Bought one of those Adventure Medical signal mirrors. But gotta wonder: "Could this really work? If the aircraft is too high to see me, is it really gonna see this flash?"

Anyone actually used one for signaling? Or better yet SAR or pilot type folks ever seen one from the air? What's the conventional and unconventional wisdom here folks?

In a similar category, what about "heatsheets" emergency blankets. Any better than a big garbage bag?
 
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I use a military laminated glass signaling mirror and have used it with great results in signaling both aircraft and ground forces in the past. Properly used they are very effective. However I highly reccomend the glass over the plastic mirrors as they reflect far better.
 
I've done some testing at 1 km lengths, and these were mirrors from my girlfriends old makeup kit, it worked fine, I have no doubts a "good" one would work.

You have to remember, when and if there looking for someone, nothing in nature is shiny, our eye automaticly pics it up, why do you think its so easy to find garbage?, its so shiny and stands out, ever notice a pop can in the woods?, its just out of place and easy to spot, like you shining a mirror in a pilots eyes.:D
 
a flash of reflected sunlight can be seen for 30 plus miles on a clear day. I've stood on a local mountain peak and flashed a mirror at my buddies clear across the city, 20 miles distant.
 
In the past few years there were two stories I remember, one was in Colorado and the other, well, don't remember where it happened!

Anyway, one was a fruit juice packet, like Capri Sun or Kool-Aid Jammer and the other was a CD-Rom, preferably one of the first four Black Sabbath albums. :-D

As a side note, reading "Escape from Laos," by Dieter Dengler...Director Werner Herzog always takes some liberties with true stories when he makes movies out of them. They had such a problem at that time during the Vietnam War with NVA & VC getting their hands on Survival Radios and then calling in SAR Aircraft and shooting them down that Dieter ditched his survival vest with radio, pistol and the whole nine yards, including the mirror.

As a matter of fact, his buddy in the camp was SAR Personnel that was shot down after being called in on a rescue after such a ruse. IIRC.
 
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