Funny you should say that because I was considering taking my pen flare out of my kit. I honestly only carried it because it was a gift from someone and I didn’t want to hurt their feelings every time they asked if I liked my new pen flare. We use a similar type at work and the small flare only burns for a couple of seconds and doesn’t fly very high. You would have to almost rely on luck for someone to be looking right in that direction before it burned out to be seen. I am going to replace the pen flare with a 15 min road flare. If using it to signal I will have 15 minutes to wave it around like a mad man in the hopes someone will see it. At night someone in a plane or chopper or on the ground looking for you should look in your direction hopefully at least once in the span of 15 minutes. Better than the 2 second window offered by a pen flare. Even though I carry a signal mirror I bet it could be seen over some distance by day as well. As an emergency fire starter to be used in the Alberta cold or when pouring down rain it should work wonders. If you cant start a fire with a 15 minute road flare then you deserve to freeze to death.