I've seen strobes for lifejackets, but would a tiny bike type flasher (or your headlamp set on strobe) be a good way for searchers to find you?

A good high-end flashlight with a strobe or SOS mode could be very helpful here.

Are we talking on the open ocean? Or do you mean hiking?

If you want to get the LED bike light, be sure to compare what you get with other brands. Some cheap no-name rear bike lights I have are noticeably less bright than name brand ones, like Cateye.

In a land situation, almost any kind of light will be picked up by searchers, or almost anything else out of the ordinary, for that matter. That applies to people who are out looking for a potential victim. The SOS or strobe might be slightly better to alert passersby that someone is in trouble. Those are two very different situations.

This is just my assumption, but I would think a blinking light could attract attention in situations where a steady light source may be missed.

The situation I'm thinking of is being lost or hurt in fairly thick woods on a night when the sky is clear and the moon is out. If I have a steady light on, the light I'm casting might not be enough to catch someone's eye, especially since it seems likely the light source may not come directly into the searcher's line of site. On the other hand, a blinking light, even the source is not directly observed, should stand out as being quite unnatural.

I'm just thinking of the lights I normally use, and they really aren't that bright so if the night isn't that dark I don't think the light they'd throw would be that noticeable from far away. That's just my guess though.

One great advantage of a blinking light is that it will run longer on a given battery than a steady light, thus improving your chances of being detected considerably.

Actually, my experience has been that initial contact is typically made by voice or sound, rather than directly by light. This has been in mountainous terrain, primarily. But if you are shining a light in a high spot, your light may well be seen by another search party at a distance, who would then alert the group closest to you. Making as much noise/light/commotion as possible is always a good thing.

There must be some scientific studies on this. I did a quick Google but didn't find any. My assumption is that blinking lights are more effective than solid light for getting attention which would explain why police lights flash and hazard lights atop tall structures like the Washington Monument and cell towers, blink.

Going to be hard for search planes to see the lights if you are in a forest. I'd be hesitant to burn the batteries unless I heard searchers nearby. Would rather have a campfire for warmth and signaling.

Hikermor's observation that a battery-powered light in strobe mode would last longer is bonus.

I routinely carry in my pack a Petzl e+lite and Petzl Zipka Plus - both strobe. The latter strobes in red and white (not sure if the e+lite strobes red). I also carry a strobe in my car and two LED road flares, which are quite bright and are slated to run for 50 hours.

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/65534?feat=9519-GN2

On my bikes I'm partial to Planet Bike lights - front and back.

Marine Suppliers carry a small red colored flashing lights that will attach via a small key ring to a life jacket. The flashing rate can be adjusted so that individuals (new hands/old hands) can be identified while they are working at night, by the flashing rate of their lights.

That's what I was thinking too. A true multi-use tool. There are many quality ones on the market, using a variety of battery types.

I clip one to each pack. I figure it;s very little weight and can't hurt. I too think that it might be more attention getting that a constant light, there's no effort involved and the batteries should last a while.

plant bike superflash

Seconded.

I have had pretty good luck with Adventure Lights Guardian LED.

They are small, light and relatively inexpensive. The only draw back is they use coin style batteries, although a spare pair of batteries takes up very little space.

I have used these to both mark people and control points with good success. For their size, they are extremely bright. I haven't actually conducted a controlled test with these, but the green and white strobes have both been bright enough to watch students walking along a trail over a mile away.

Another more robust option that I have recently been using is the S&S Precision V-Lite. It isn't as versatile as the Guardian, but I like it better for attaching to a helmet or pack. Below is a picture of V-Lite on my helmet at the Monument Fire earlier this year.

That is a very good plan.

Teacher,i would say yes to your question,but at the same time as i had the flasher going i would blasting on the whistle and waving something around so it was not mistaken for just another light of some sort.bike lights have come a long way in the last few years,i was driving home the other night on a road thru a park that had a bike path next to it and the flashing and reflecting tape was just about blinding.

One thing they told us when we deployed is to put your light on the end of a rope and swing it above your head. Picture that scene in Crocodile Dundee where Mich is making that "aborigine phone call."

Anyway, the buzzsaw apparently gets seen better, since the very large circle of light gets better attention than a tiny stationary pinpoint of light.

MDinana,

Works great if they are looking for you from the air. From the ground you need to rotate it in a vertical circle. How well they work depends a lot on the terrain. It also does not work at all if no one is looking for you. Many times, unless there is evidence that lights are available, search will begin at dawn. The recommendation that you put the light on your trip plan is critical.

In Viet Nam the military began to use strobes on land (they always worked well on the water - long lines of sight). I have carried one ever since. In the triple canopy they do not work well from the air unless you think and move to an open spot. There they work quite well. You don't (I hope) have to worry that the white ones look like gunshots!

You need to place yourself where it can be seen from a distance, especially if you are hoping for chance rescue (someone not searching sees it). In this case it will work well if you are away from other lights.

The marine type strobe is better than a military one or a strobing flashlight because it puts the light out in a hemisphere. In normal use you want someone to see you from any direction. If you are lost, you may not know which direction the help might come from.

The laser "flare" is also a great tool for this use. I think that it is even easier to see and recognize as an emergency signal.

Respectfully,

Jerry

I think another advantage of a blinking light is that it is passive; it allows for some form of signalling to occur even if you are trying to rest or get some sleep overnight. While the likelihood of searchers is lower at this time, I can't imagine it would hurt to have a blinker running all night just in case.

This may vary with the organization and the region, as well as weather, but we routinely searched at night, especially in the initial phases. I am sure I have spent at least as many hours searching in the dark and during the day. While I think a good fire is probably one of the best signals you can fabricate, there are often situations where fire is a hazard, something that is not true of a good strobe. Something like the ACR 4F is a really good unit.

The good part is that many high output LED lights/headlamps come with a strobe mode. I have no doubt a 200+ lumen strobe would get someone's attention.

I just bought a green laser flare last summer. Oh. My. God. there is a reason that when people are arrested for flashing lasers at flying aircraft it's always a Green.

I have hit a confirmed 3 mile target with the laser. Standing several feet away you see the beam from the tip of the pointer reach out. It has seriously made me consider ditching my vietnam era Firefly strobe and just carry the laser flare and my normal headlamp with strobe function, for back country use. Obviously I think a dedicated strobe on a life jacket would be required in a water environment.

Stumbling around in the dark can add significant risk for searchers, so whether or not to initiate a night search is always a difficult decision. Depends on weather, terrain, last known condition of the subject and their last known position, etc.

It becomes a question of balancing the likelihood of finding and helping the victim vs the added risk to the searchers. Sometimes we will do a compromise and send hasty teams up obvious trails etc in the dark, meanwhile assembling more resources for thorough effort at first light.

Rule number one of SAR teams is "Don't become a victim yourself!" If you do you, you're no longer part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

We did not experience injuries attributable to decreased visibility. In the warm conditions of southern Arizona, hiking a night is fairly popular, along with early starts in the cool mornings. Most of our operations, if they were true searches and not responding to an injured victim at a known locations, resolved during the hasty search phase. I don't recall any grid searches at night; that would truly be wasted effort.

Hikermore,

Yes, Arizona would be different than our situation around here. During much of the summer, it really doesn't get very dark, so the term "night search" is a bit of a misnomer. In late summer and fall it gets a bit more interesting. Thrashing through an alder thicket in the dark...in big bear country....is not always the wisest thing to be doing. In full on winter, it gets even more serious. Traveling in avalanche country in the dark can be very dangerous when you can't clearly see the terrain you are getting into. Even so, we have done some winter searches in the mountains, when we thought we could do it with an acceptable safety margin. In one case where there was a known (or so it was thought) location in the mountains, a team was sent in in the dark. Turned out they had moved, and weren't found till after daylight (found OK).

Each case is different. We had a recent ground search for a missing runner around the UAA campus. The search area was sort of half town, half thick woods, with deep snow. In Anchorage, the wilderness literally comes to the edge of town, and there are many trails leading from campus into the woods. In that case we had dog teams out at night, walking the trails. The next day we hit the area hard with ground searchers, and over flew with a helicopter. Even with that, due to the thick woods and almost a foot of new snow, the POD wasn't good. Turned out he was in the area (we still don't know exactly where). The next morning he wandered in, severly hypothermic, with frozen feet. A very sad story. See links below.

http://www.ktuu.com/videobeta/36bef123-e...-Missing-Runner

http://www.adn.com/2011/11/08/2160569/search-continues-for-uaa-student.html

http://www.adn.com/2011/11/21/2182727/doctors-amputate-frostbitten-feet.html

Interesting comparisons. Bears, while present in some of our mountain ranges, are not the problem that they can be in Alaska. One reason we respond quickly at night is that our victims are often dehydrated, or at least rather thirsty, so time tends to be critical.

Some years ago, I was on Denali during June. We had all sorts of equipment, but no need for any kind of light - perpetual daylight at that latitude and altitude.

There seemed to be a tendency for many of our searches for the typical overdue party seemed to resolve around dawn the following day. More and more we tended to send out parties that would get into the search area and hang out, perhaps even bivvying there. When the sun rose, we could easily find our victims as visibility increased and everyone started moving around.

Different techniques for different circumstances.....