Flare disposal

I disposed of mine a couple of years ago at the Maritime & Coastguard station at Walton on the Naze. Checking the website they are still listed as accepting flares for disposal

Harwich marine office
East Terrace
Walton-on-Naze
Essex
CO14 8PY

Marine office phone
01255 682 107
Marine office fax
01255 682 108
 
philld said:
I disposed of mine a couple of years ago at the Maritime & Coastguard station at Walton on the Naze. Checking the website they are still listed as accepting flares for disposal

Harwich marine office
East Terrace
Walton-on-Naze
Essex
CO14 8PY

Marine office phone
01255 682 107
Marine office fax
01255 682 108
Click to expand...

So did I but ring before you leave home. I did and they said ok but when I got there they said there was nobody able to deal with them. I said I'd just driven 70 miles so they made an effort to find someone. No more flares for me.
 
As an ex-CG (the voluntary type) can I just explain that the H&S rules got really tightened up in HMCG such that only people who've done a 'course' can accept and handle TEP's (time expired pyros). That's why you need to ring first and verify that they can take them off you at a certain time, to ensure that someone who's done the course will be there and available. That won't be everybody at a rescue centre (or whatever they are called these days!).
Most if not all members of all the local teams will be qualified (so they can deal with TEPs found e.g. on a beach), but local teams can't generally accept them because they have no H&S-approved storage for them. If they do have to deal with TEPs found somewhere, you wouldn't believe the hoops they have to then jump through to get them to the nearest place where they can be stored, a process that usually involves taking the team transport off-line and out of area and therefore meaning the team cannot respond to a call-out until the truck gets back.
All this stuff is, sadly, one reason why I decided it was time to 'retire'....
Oh, and I've got a pack of TEPs in my garden shed!
 
So POI, if you are taking them to be disposed of and happen to get stopped by the plod.....

I suppose one would have to expect being arrested by the anti terror SWAT squad
 
All that stuff is about internal HMCG rules and regs - I don't think that carrying your own flares in your own car is an offence! I suppose if you were stopped and searched you might have questions to answer though.....
 
Problem was solved for me. All my out of date flares were stolen from my cockpit locker in the 2014/15 lay up period. I now have an EPIRB and a handheld VHF instead of relying on Victorian pyrotechnics that will probably (a) not go off at all or (b) explode and kill or maim you.

In any case, flares rely on someone being looking. I don't think these days they are.......
 
Cantata said:
All that stuff is about internal HMCG rules and regs - I don't think that carrying your own flares in your own car is an offence! I suppose if you were stopped and searched you might have questions to answer though.....
Click to expand...

I was thinking that as HMCG is a gov agency, their methods and risk assessmnet should be the same as all other gov agencies... Thus only TEP trained operatives can deal with any TEP... which would mean that no plod can deal with them as TEP would not be part of plod training.... thus the only peopme who could deal with TEP would be the bomb squad.

Even though we all cary them as part of our domestic inventry...
 
ChattingLil said:
what is the shelf life of an EPIRB? it is like any other piece of gadetry - lasts as long as it kept clean and safe and batteries maintained?
Click to expand...
My original 2005 GME400 had a battery change at 5 years which was £95, then went on for another 4 before they recalled them for a potential fault, they offered me a free GME400 replacement or a latest whizzbang model for £50 more, which I took.
The new one has a battery change at 7 years, and the battery is less expensive than before. So looking at it that way, I will have had 16 years service for £145, in marine terms, that is really economical.
 
ChattingLil said:
what is the shelf life of an EPIRB? it is like any other piece of gadetry - lasts as long as it kept clean and safe and batteries maintained?
Click to expand...
5 to 6 yrs, my Fast Find was under £200
http://www.marinesuperstore.com/safety-equipment/epirb/mcmurdo-fastfind-220-gps-plb
, i also bought a
0000030754.jpg

http://www.marinesuperstore.com/signaling/flares/odeo-led-flare
The only HH i have o/b are red smoke
 
Last edited:
Likewise - buoyant smoke for daytime homing in is all we have. In the time taken to set off a single parachute flare I could send a DSC distress, back it up with a voice call and activate the two PLB's.
 
I have possibly mentioned this elsewhere..

Many years ago i was doing a firework display... proper jobie with 100mm mortars.. (before new labour banned them) .. I disposed of a number of PET as part of the display in the middle of the sequence at the same time as ordinary rockets.

Some were twenty years OOD... the only one that failed to work had a damaged casing and firing pin.. I have always thought that a TEP is still better than nothing as a back up to a full set of in date jobs. .
 
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