Old Flares Reliability

[GrahamM376]

Browsing around the Lagos Navigators site, I came across this interesting article -

http://lagosnavigators.net/button-safety/Flares, Time Expired.htm.mht

 

[KellysEye]

I was there and fired some of the Pains Wessex flares. Seeing one rocket flare explode was awesome, fortunately the person firing it wasn't hurt. When I was skydiving we used the big cylinder Pains Wessex orange flares for demo jumps into county shows etc. One in-date flare didn't fire, I suspect the failure is rare but obviously can happen. You strap them to your ankle and they get so hot you have to wear a fireproof sock. Lovely.

 

[NickRobinson]

'a acquaintance '.... recently fired a hand held flare.. took two hand strikes on the base to ignite but burned OK for an expiry date of 1987 !

Any one beat this for antique pyromania?

Nick

 

[prv]

Browsing around the Lagos Navigators site, I came across this interesting article -

http://lagosnavigators.net/button-safety/Flares, Time Expired.htm.mht

Most interesting for me is the difference in reliability between the different types of flare. Looks like hand flares are worth keeping for one extra cycle, but parachutes swiftly become unreliable (and have more potential to cause mayhem when they do).

Pete

 

[Appledore]

'a acquaintance '.... recently fired a hand held flare.. took two hand strikes on the base to ignite but burned OK for an expiry date of 1987 !

Any one beat this for antique pyromania?

Nick

I have one of 1976 vintage, and others of 1982, including one para flare!

They are stored, isolated 'coz I'm too scared to move them

 

[wotayottie]

'a acquaintance '.... recently fired a hand held flare.. took two hand strikes on the base to ignite but burned OK for an expiry date of 1987 !

Any one beat this for antique pyromania?

Nick

Yes. One rather drunken new years eve at the yacht club, we were outside as the hour approached and saw a coaster moored opposite setting off some of his flares to celebrate. Then we saw another bigger ship in the docks do the same with other vessels joining in. Soon enough, at least half a dozen members had dredged ancient flares out of the bilges of their boats stored ashore and we started to let them off. There were flares going back to the 60s and with the exception of some mini flares of the sort that you fire from a gun, they all went off. The smokes made a bit of a mess.

I dont think we set off any parachute flares for obvious reasons - it was a fair few years ago, too long to remember a lot.

 

[Seajet]

I used to set off old flares on Nov 5th, 40 miles inland.

I found they almost all worked, though the hand day / night jobs seemed a very weak red colour.

I did find that time expired Miniflares - the type fired from a spring loaded pen grip - fairly consistently failed to fire if they were more than a couple of years over.

 

[PabloPicasso]

fired all my out of date flares on halloween. All worked perfectly.

Now I'm debating the need for replacements. Are they more of a danger with young childeren aboard than a likely help in an emergency?