Flares -v- ERPIB

[Cornishman]

Upside down!

Good man .

By the way, does anyone know where I can buy an upside-down ensign?

I understand that you can buy them from any flag sellers in France and Belgium

 

[boomerangben]

Well, not exactly. If your 406 MHz EPIRB doesn't have a GPS position, the position is stated to be accurate to a radius of 3nm, and a bit of maths will show that is about 28 sq miles to search . (That is considerably better than the older 121.5MHz - many still in use - which were stated as accurate to an area of nearly 500 sq miles)

Remember as well that there is a delay in accessing, downloading, and relaying the information via Inmarsat. Without GPS integration, you could be looking at 1-2 hours before the alert reaches your nearest SAR co-ordination centre

Sorry, I meant EPRIB with GPS.

You are quite right - there is a huge delay between receiving an EPIRB hit and actually getting the local MRCC to react. They then may have to speak to RCC Kinloss before they scramble an air asset. A sighting of a red flare will get a far more immediate reaction in busy waters.

 

[boomerangben]

Would infrared glowsticks be an alternative to red pinpoints for showing your position to a helicopter pilot with night vision?

I imagine you would really stand out waving one of them, perhaps not dissimilar to a flare only showing a bright light for much much longer and without the pyro hazard.

I am not sure whether infrared glow sticks will show at all on night vision goggles (RAF and Navy, not CG). They would of course work for those helicopters equiped with Infrared cameras (RAF and CG, not Navy).

But they would be useless if the asset sent to come and find you was a lifeboat. It is all very well assuming that a helicopter is always the one sent to come and find you. But if the aircraft is committed elsewhere/ is broken down/ or indeed of no use to your situation (drifting in a shipping lane for example) then you must have a aid to location that works for both air and sea based search assets.

Strobes are good at night for both types of asset, but not the best in bright sunlight. Smoke is far and away the best and most useful (for the helicopter crew) aid to location by day.

 

[Poignard]

I understand that you can buy them from any flag sellers in France and Belgium

Defaced, no doubt?