Night Jumps Safety Light

[BIGUN 1,490]

Folks, I'm down at the Gulf Coast Symposium and came across an awesome light source for night jumps. It's called a Power Flare. It's encased in a hard case that is waterproof to 300 feet and is used by night SCUBA divers. It's far less intense than the military strobes and brighter than chemlights.

It has a rotating beacon in several colors and has several applications that we as skydivers could use on nightjumps...
On our gear in freefall
On our gear under canopy (7 nautical miles of visibility as tested for drops by the military & Coast Guard)
Useful for marking the center of the DZ at night
Useful for marking obstacles at night.
Extremely useful to find someone at night who lands off the DZ.
Different colors for different jumps so we know wo is who under canopy... etc.

It's powered by CR-123 battery with a shelf life of ten years and will light for 12-100 hours...

It can be found at: http://www.pfdistributioncenter.com/

I'm getting one and will post to this thread after using it.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[councilman24 37]

I've got a similar light I got at Sam's. A little bigger and not as waterproof but similar. Wouldn't want to use it in freefall or undercanopy but fine for marking DZ. Although I'm not sure how visible it is from the top, i.e. while spotting.

The flashing white light strobe is hard enough to see some times. And seems to be more universal anti collision signal.

But could be good but kind of pricey. The ones at Sam's, that I haven't seen in a while, were two for $15 and fine for skydiving use.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[BIGUN 1,490]

Terry,

I'm not sure what you got at Sams, but can definately tell you this is worth looking into for night jumps for multiple applications,. It's very light, has several different colors, one can carabiner it to their gear for under canopy... Me & a couple of guys at BlackWaterUSA were checking them out and were excited at the number of possibilities for Airborne operations (they even have an IR one)

Here's the manufacturer's website for more info... scroll down the first page to see more of a working prototype. www.powerflare.com

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[shermanator 4]

hmmm, will make night swoops much funner to watch!

CLICK HERE! new blog posted 9/21/08
CSA #720

[phoenixlpr 0]

It is really expensive.

I have bought some cheap forehead light for less than 4 Euros. It has 5 leds and operating from 3 pcs AAA battery. It has several working pattern too.

You might chain 3 pieces from that together and it would have all around visibility.

[BIGUN 1,490]

I thought about that when posting... Not sure what you guys acros the pond use, but here it's only $9.00 more than the military strobes we get at the local Army/Navy surplus store, lasts tons of time longer, and is ten times safer. It's just an alternative of choice suggestion as a safety option for night jumps.

I'm thinking of getting four of different colors for our local demo team.

edited to add: I'm also thinking about 8-10 of them strung together on a single line for night demos instead of using pyrotechniques under canopy.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.