How can I legally set off flares for test purposes?

[Sailorman Ed]

Normal hand held flares are only at ground level ( plus a couple feet) and here in forested NC, not even my neighbors can see them. We set up some old ones because I wanted each family member to understand how to do it and what to expect. It was a good experience for them. Most of the out of date flares lit but not all. You probably cannot do this in a normal neighborhood. And welders gloves are a good idea.

Snow cover is no guarantee that you won't start a forest fire

maybe there are some places with some sort of dry snow but unless you are in a pine forest, I cannot see how this could happen. After a couple days of rain, nothing is going to catch fire and cause a forest fire.


BTW, we have switched to the electronic ones.

[Maka]

What about expired floating Smoke Flares?
Or expired dye?
Most serious Yachties have these as well as the aerial flares

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by CarlF

The CG, CG Auxiliary and Power Squadron will no longer accept old flares. Neither will most fire stations including mine (although there are a few exceptions). Getting rid of flares today takes considerable effort.

Disposal of Flares / Pyrotechnics

https://siriussignal.com/kicking-fla...-problem-road/

It's just as well the 19th century flare is headed for the history books. Flares are close to useless in marine distress situations. If more than three or so miles away, people mistake them for lights. And they don't last long enough to get a response. Even a professional crew on the California didn't realize the nearby Titanic was firing distress rockets so they let the Captain sleep.

The disposal problem can only get worse. So when your flares expire don't buy new ones.

Carry an EPIRB or InReach (or both), a good flashlight and a VHF handheld radio in case the main radio fails. For when you are inspected, carry the approved orange distress flag with black square and black circle and one of the new CG approved electronic flares.

I was taught to always fire two flares about 20 seconds apart -- the first one just gets people's attention. There seems to be a period of recognition/denial. The second flare overcomes that (hopefully). This is a good reason to have more than the required minimum, and a good reason to keep expired flares. Anything less that SOLAS parachute flares are nearly useless on any body of water bigger than a small lake.

Also, one of the cheapest, lightest, smallest, and safest distress signals you can use in daylight is a signal mirror. If someone is actually looking for you, there are documented cases of aircraft seeing a signal mirror from 50 miles away. And they're not even mentioned by the Coast Guard.

On a minor point: according to some stories (including the California's log), the Titanic fired eight white rockets. Since few ships had search lights in that era (the Titanic didn't), it was common practice on a moonless night to fire white flares when navigating around icebergs, which were known to be present by the crew of the California. If they were firing white flares, there was no reason for the crew of the California to believe a distress situation existed. To this day, white flares are not a distress signal.

[CarlF]

The following is far off the thread and only worth reading if you are fascinated by the details of maritime disasters -- and don't have anything better to do with your time tonight.

Cpt Pat's comment about white rockets not being used for distress got my curiosity.

So I did some checking and found that in 1912 white was the preferred color used for distress signals so they would not be confused with the colored rockets in common used at the time for private signals between ships.

The use of red for distress pyrotechnics did not come into use until the 1948 SOLAS conference.

Titanic had 36 "socket distress signals" on board manufactured by the Cotton Powder Company for distress signaling. 17 were found on the bottom still in their wooden box by a submersible.

Which makes it all the more heartbreaking that the officers of the California saw eight rockets from just 5 miles away from the Titanic but - as so often still happens with flare sightings today - those trained officers were sufficiently confused or unsure of what they were seeing that they didn't take action

From testimony at the British inquiry:

"Gibson testified that Stone had expressed unease to him about the situation: "A ship is not going to fire rockets at sea for nothing," Stone said. "She looks very queer out of the water — her lights look queer." Gibson observed, "She looks rather to have a big side out of the water", and he agreed that "everything was not all right with her;" that it was "a case of some kind of distress."

Here is an incredibly detailed bit of research on this question:

http://www.titanicology.com/Californ...orWereThey.pdf

[Voltron66]

Take them to a soccer match?!?

[14murs14]

Originally Posted by George DuBose

Y'all are funny...

I live in Germany now and every New Year's Eve, everyone does their own firework thing. The local supermarkets sell rockets, firecrackers and all kinds of explosive contraptions.

I take advantage of that chaos and get rid of my outdated flares and signal rockets.

The SOLAS rockets have quite a kick and it is really good to practice with them. Also, wearing welder's gloves protects one from the burning drips from the flares.

Orion used to sell white flares for their plastic flare guns and they were for practice...

What's wrong with the Fourth of July?

Please Please Please don't set your flares off on the Fourth of July or New Years Eve or any other time you're not in distress!!! The Coast Guard is legally required to conduct a search when a distress flare is reported, regardless of when it occurs. I've spent literally hundreds of hours turning jet fuel into noise on flare sighting searches. We used to dread duty on the Fourth because it was pretty much inevitable that one or more jackasses would light off a distress flare as fireworks and you'd spend most of the night searching. You're putting folks in danger who have to launch aircraft and boats at night for a fruitless search, you're putting people who are really in distress in danger when the aircraft and boats have crews reaching their endurance limits from a pointless search when a real one comes up, and you're wasting money and time....all for what, so you can get your jollies setting off a flare? Have a little respect please.

I also want to dispel the myth that flares are somehow outdated or useless. I have indeed saved lives because of flares. First off, it's incredibly hard to see a person in the water, a hundred times harder at night. It's even hard to see a small boat like an overturned Hobie Cat at night. Because of that if we suspect a person in the water we have to fly very tight .1 nm track spacing searches, which requires a long time to cover an area. I have experienced getting on scene and immediately seeing a red flare triggered by the survivors hearing the helicopter, which resulted in them being saved hours before our search would have taken us close enough to see them, not to mention we could have blinked at the wrong time and missed them entirely. In Northern CA water temps that's a life and death difference. Same thing with minimum fuel situations, I've had an experience where we had a mayday and subsequently lost comms with the boat which was so far off shore we only had a few minutes to find and rescue the crew due to our fuel limitations. As soon as they heard us they lit off a flare so we knew exactly where they were (ship had lost all power and it was foggy, plus had drifted since they lost comms). We hoisted the last survivor right at bingo fuel, wouldn't have been able to get them all if we had to waste even a few minutes trying to find the boat on-scene. I'm all for new technology and highly recommend several handhelds and strobes, but end of the day that required flare might save your life and certainly continues to save lives today.

[Outlandie]

First and foremost the 42-month expiration date on flares was mandated by the government. They do not go bad unless improperly stored. Considering the short life ( burn time) of marine safety flares they are best kept as backups. As a Coast Guard public education officer I requested permission from New York headquarters of the Coast Guard( sector New York) to demonstrate flares for a local Yacht Club. The permission was granted to the Coast Guard auxiliary, We notified local Harbor Patrol, Fire Department and police. We actually had the local fire department standby on the beach. The second time we requested this permission it was not granted. I find it amazing the poor performance of handheld and 12 gauge flares. 7 to 8 seconds burn time. The larger offshore Gage aerial flares where the best. One has to make sure that someone is watching when you shoot them! At the time of this test we had a 25% failure rate! This failure rate was backed up by other articles that I read prior to doing this demonstration in New York on Long Island Sound.

[GaryBode]

Call the USCG on VHF 16 and advise them you will be discharging however many flares as a training exercise and then notify again when concluded. They may have operations going on in the area and want you to hold off.

[PortClydeMe]

Originally Posted by jsc7

How can I legally set off flares for test purposes?

I have expired flares that have to be disposed of anyway, so I would like to test them to familiarize myself with how they operate.

How can I do that legally and without setting off a false alarm?

Is this a serious question? OK, here ya go.

On a week night, drive west to Walden Pond. Don't set them off in Brighton, Allston, Medord, or Back Bay. Go out late, like around 2:00AM. Park your car, grab the flares, and walk down to the pond, just past where Thoreau's house used to be. Now, face the pond and start lighting off the flares. It will be fun, and you'll be able to watch the reflections on the water. If it's July or August, you can even jump in for a swim after watching the flares.

When finished, walk back to your car. If a Mass State Trooper is there when you arrive, tell him you set off the flares because you saw Thoreau's ghost, and he was talking to you. If the trooper writes a report, that could lead to a few appearances on TV, a book deal, and a movie starring Tom Hanks. If so, then sell the Whaler, buy a Grand Banks -- I suggest a 48-footer, or larger -- and buy more flares that you can set off out beyond the 200-mile limit.

Does this help?

Have fun!

[CFS Klopas]

Since we have a few Coast Guardsmen here, do you prefer smoke, meteor or handheld flares? Im thinking mostly daytime use with non SOLAS quality.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by PortClydeMe

Is this a serious question? OK, here ya go.

On a week night, drive west to Walden Pond. Don't set them off in Brighton, Allston, Medord, or Back Bay. Go out late, like around 2:00AM. Park your car, grab the flares, and walk down to the pond, just past where Thoreau's house used to be. Now, face the pond and start lighting off the flares. It will be fun, and you'll be able to watch the reflections on the water. If it's July or August, you can even jump in for a swim after watching the flares.

When finished, walk back to your car. If a Mass State Trooper is there when you arrive, tell him you set off the flares because you saw Thoreau's ghost, and he was talking to you. If the trooper writes a report, that could lead to a few appearances on TV, a book deal, and a movie starring Tom Hanks. If so, then sell the Whaler, buy a Grand Banks -- I suggest a 48-footer, or larger -- and buy more flares that you can set off out beyond the 200-mile limit.

Does this help?

Have fun!

I am afraid it is a serious question? I went back and read so I know how they work. A paraphrase.

[hellosailor]

Whether you can legally set off a flare depends very much on where you are.
If you are in NY, it is still a firework, an aerial firework, and AFAIK illegal to set off state-wide. If you are in Florida, it is entirely LEGAL to set off, anywhere on land, since anything that doesn't explode is legal there. And there are wide loopholes for things that go boom.

Now, the USCG and others might have other opinions on this, but AFAIK in most of the US, fireworks is fireworks and that's how marine pyros will be treated.

There are plenty of other ways to piss off SAR authorities and risk the penalties of a "false distress signal". I generally don't advise pissing off the folks who I may be wanting to save my life sometime. Something about "the boy who cried WOLF" comes to mind.

[Scott Berg]

At the SSCA Gam in Annapolis we often have demonstrations and use up old flares. It requires coordination with both the USCG and the local marine authorities but can be done (in advance); we were given a 1 hour window during daytime to test flares and let people practice shooting them off (hand held, meteor, and parachute). Almost all the expired flares worked last exercise). Also, the Annapolis, MD Fire Dept, for one, will take used flares.

[caracas]

Bonfire night

[Amapola]

Contact your USCG Auxiliary. They hold boating safety events and have an area to set off flares.