flare reliability

[macd]

Judging by the number of threads on the subject, the issue of the safety/reliability of pyrotechnic flares is of interest to many on here. I recently received an e-mail detailing the results of tests carried out by Terry O'Brien for the OCC Flying Fish newsletter. Terry is the OCC 'Port Officer' in Lagos Portugal, where compulsory pyrotechnics have been something of an issue.

Terry and some friends fired a total of 207 out of date pyrotechnics and here are the results:



In total, 26% of the 207 flares malfunctioned: "Three of the rockets failed to ignite at all, on two others the rockets fired but flew erratically – including one which turned 180º and headed back to its launcher with the flare ignited! – and the last two were deemed to be too dangerous to fire.”

There's no need for any editorialising by me (apart, perhaps, from noting that parachutes mature nicely, since a 15 year-old one is evidently sounder than anything made this century ), but the results are certainly food for thought.

 

[Sailingsaves]

That was interesting, thank you.

 

[maxi77]

What is very obviously missing is any information about how these flares were stored over their life, especially for those that failed or were unsafe to use. In my humble opinion such statistics have very little real value without much more information on how the flares were treated throughout their life.

 

[Georgio]

Those findings do not surprise me, I have had a number that have failed to ignite when used on bonfire night (hand-flares not rockets, all inland). They have all been stored in a dry container and not exposed to extremes of temperature, they have been up to 3 years out of date (so up to 6 years from manufacture).

 

[LittleSister]

My flares haven't let me down since I bought them in 1971, though I've had to replace my tie-dye tee shirt several times in the interim.

(Sorry - someone had to do it!)

 

[LittleSister]

In total, 26% of the 207 flares malfunctioned:

It is, indeed, food for thought. What counts as a 'malfunction' in this test?

Obviously there are dangerous misfires, like the two which flew erratically, and a failure to fire is significant. In my limited experience more usually the only problem (if any) is burn time and/or intensity is reduced, and colour 'faded', out of spec. Would the latter be a pass or fail in this test?

 

[KAM]

It is likely that many of the flares tested had been stored on boats in Portugal at relatively high temperatures compared with uk. I have been firing out of date flares for a number of years and been surprised by the reliability. The oldest had expiry date 1984. The only total failures on uk made flares were fail to fire due to dud percussion caps. As these were 20 years beyond their expiry date and typical percussion cap life is 15 years this is not surprising. On the other hand most of the pull string friction match activated flares failed a couple of years after their expiry date and in my opinion are not worth having. It is likely that flares stored in a typical uk environment would be significantly more reliable than the figures quoted in the original post.

 

[[70521]]

Very different to my own findings. 100% pass rate.

How were the flares stored?

 

[KellysEye]

I was one of the people who fired flares at the same event in Lagos. One rocket flare exploded in somebody's hand, always wear glove when firing a flare. When skydiving demos we used the big Pains Wessex orange smoke flares strapped to our ankle with a fireproof sock. I had an in date flare that didn't fire.

 

[macd]

How were the flares stored?

I'm afraid I can't answer that, but assume the out-of-date flares were collected from a wide variety of boats and thus reflected a gamut of storage conditions.

 

[Davegriff]

Unless I've misunderstood the figures, it looks as if the age of the flares has not made a great deal of difference. It would be interesting to see the failure rate of brand new flares...

 

[rob2]

At a friend's fireworks party, a few red handhelds were accidentally disoposed of. The "pull-string" failed on them all and they were lit from the barbecue. A non-sailor asked what they were, and when told they were red flares, he said "I'm glad you told me, as I couldn't tell the colour through all that smoke they're making."

Rob.

 

[[70521]]

At a friend's fireworks party, a few red handhelds were accidentally disoposed of. The "pull-string" failed on them all and they were lit from the barbecue. A non-sailor asked what they were, and when told they were red flares, he said "I'm glad you told me, as I couldn't tell the colour through all that smoke they're making."

We have more wind at sea.

They are not designed to be spotted close up.