Flares

[risingsn]

This Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a flare session sponsored by the USPS on Lido Key in Sarasota Fl. They had arranged this with the local USCG, FAA, local fire & police, etc for the participants to live fire flares.

I brought three Sky Blasters, that were due to expire in August '08, and attempted to fire all three. The result were that two were duds (nothing happened), the third launched but the flare did not light.

Orion had donated about $1,000 worth of flares for us to try. They had two types of flare guns, 12 ga. and a very impressive 25mm, both to big for a PFD pocket. They also had hand held flares that did not launch but would burn for 5-7 minutes and some some smoke & dye.

I had always been told to expect a 30% failure rate for flares.

Any wisdom on this subject?

Thanks,

Chuck

[Kevin B (RPS Coach)]

This Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a flare session sponsored by the USPS on Lido Key in Sarasota Fl. They had arranged this with the local USCG, FAA, local fire & police, etc for the participants to live fire flares.

I brought three Sky Blasters, that were due to expire in August '08, and attempted to fire all three. The result were that two were duds (nothing happened), the third launched but the flare did not light.

Orion had donated about $1,000 worth of flares for us to try. They had two types of flare guns, 12 ga. and a very impressive 25mm, both to big for a PFD pocket. They also had hand held flares that did not launch but would burn for 5-7 minutes and some some smoke & dye.

I had always been told to expect a 30% failure rate for flares.

Any wisdom on this subject?

Thanks,

Chuck

Chuck,

There was some discussion about flares back in December in this thread:

http://www.nspn.org/forum/index.php?showto...art=#entry22306

I'm sure others will chime in as well.