They aren't free for the squadron to buy and I know many guys who had to buy their own fingerlights. Not everyone is going to want a Night Vision Pen, but for those who prefer to have better equipment, I offer that choice. Squadrons can also choose to buy Night Vision Pens as opposed to plastic fingerlights and plastic mechanical pencils.
If you have an NSN and a government rate, maybe some will be able to convince their ALSS shops to get some...
Working on getting an NSN, but it is a long and complicated process. However, squadrons are able to make purchases with their own accounts outside the supply system for products without NSN numbers up to a certain dollar amount. There is a 15% discount for quantities of 15 or more which is in place for squadrons outfitting their aviators.
Open purchases are a PITA. It's a lot easier sell to a chain of command that "hey, it's in the system..."
Fresh feedback from Jonah, a Blackhawk pilot in theater: I loved your pen, flew quite a few hrs NG with it, and think its awesome! I am leaving our company Instructor Pilot with one to try out. The only comments I've got so far, other than it's awesome, is it won't fit into our flt uniform pen slots because its too big and one guy said he would like the light to stay on when he pushes the button, rather than having to keep it pushed in. I disagree personally because that is right where I put my fingers anyway and it saves the life of the pen. I will get you more comments and pics when I get back from leave.
More recent feedback from Karl, an EA-6B ECMO: "CV tested now too. Bright enough that you can use it to make the post-trap 'up' or 'down' signal to the FDC, and have it seen on the plat so the Skipper can ask you why you downed the jet..."
So I was on cross country this weekend, and I ran across this in an FBO. 15 of these for the price of one of yours?
Yes, you could buy 15 of those for the cost of one Night Vision Pen. However, it would most likely take more than 15 to last as long as a single Night Vision Pen. Who do you contact if it doesn't work two weeks later? The Fisher Space Pen ink cartridge in the Night Vision Pen alone retails for $5.00 because it will work in any pressure environment, write upside down, and in temperatures from -30 to 250 degrees - that is just one indicator of the quality that goes into producing a Night Vision Pen. That $6.95 pen is more awkward to activate the light than the ergonomically located activation button on the Night Vision Pen. It has no lanyard loop and it breaks easily - trust me, I have tried them in the past myself. Here is a mission that is very probable in your near future: You are finally fully mission qualified in the Prowler (the aircraft indicated in your profile). It is a daytime launch in the Persian Gulf for a late night recovery. Flight deck temperature is hovering around 120 degrees. You finally strap into the jet after the preflight and start to take notes for the launch and your $6.95 FL-PEN is leaking all over your mission card from the heat. You have about an hour and a half transit up the Boulevard to get to your killbox, the sun setting while in transit. Your VUL window is four hours and everyone dons their goggles. Things are pretty chill in country at first when you check in and you are kind of getting jerked around from controller to controller. You just activate the light on your pen and leave it there because it is a pain to keep turning it off an on. A Task Force mission (if you don't know what it is, just know it is extremely high priority) comes up and they need your capabilities to support their mission immediately. Things are happening fast now. Their mission runs longer than expected so your VUL is extended to support them. The SODO at the COAC arranges for a tanker to meet you by your killbox for additional refueling. They also relay to the carrier that you will be late and you were already on the last recovery. After a six and a half hour VUL the Task Force mission is finally concluded and you are released to start your long transit back to the boat. When you check in for marshal instructions you go to turn your FL-PEN on, but it isn't working. You realize that you never actually turned it off and the batteries ran out because you had left it on the previous couple of flights for hours as well and the batteries only have about an 8-10 hour constant run time. You break out the Grimes light and ask them to repeat the marshal instructions while the boat turns into the wind. Your department head pilot is getting pissed because he has been airborne for nine hours, he didn't bring any food, your asking marshal to repeat instructions and you are, at least to him, shining the Grimes light into the side of his face. The entire flight deck crew is running only to catch your jet hours after they were supposed to be done. You finally trap and have one of the ECMOs in back hand you their fingerlight to signal your "up" status, but it gets dropped during the exchange. Your fight deck coordinator is trying to get your attention and eventually you have to call over the radio that your jet is down for FOD in the cockpit. At maintenance control, your A-hole department head pilot loses his cool and slams his fist on your helmet bag that is on the counter, snapping the FL-PEN's flimsy and hollow plastic body. You didn't buy 15 because one was good enough, right? Some people choose to work with whatever is provided or cheapest. Others choose to invest in a quality product that will last. Buy a Night Vision Pen for yourself and see the difference. There is a 30 day money back guarantee if you don't like it. Let me know you want to return it and I will refund not only the cost of the pen, but also the cost of the original shipping AND the cost of return shipping. You have nothing to lose.
Cfam, does it really need to be explained to you the difference in the two pens? It's like trying to say why a BMW is better than a KIA. Surely, you can spot the difference in craftsmanship simply from looking at that picture . . . Also, why buy a Mont Blanc when you can buy hundreds of Bic pens that write in black?
Jeez, if you don't like the stuff the guy's peddling, then don't buy it. No need to rake him over the coals for it.
I cannot comment on whether or not a Fisher Space Pen cartridge will fit in an ASA pen because I have not tried, nor would I bother. To use fc2spyguy's analogy, if the engine in my Kia died I wouldn't put a BMW engine in there to replace it. The ASA pen is targeted at guys paying there way through civilian flight school flying a 1960s C-172. The Night Vision Pen is targeted at guys flying multi-million dollar combat aircraft and it is built as such. Some guys will think nothing about dropping more than $110 a month on alcohol. What does a quality pair of sneakers cost? Anywhere from $80 to $150 and they only last about 6-8 months of real use. The Night Vision Pen is a one time purchase, it isn't designed to fail or break in a year so that you come back to buy another one. If anything does go wrong with it, let me know and it will be replaced with a new one. The exception being the ink and batteries which are designed to be user replaceable and readily available. The Night Vision Pen is not just a pen, it is a purpose built piece of flight gear that will be used extensively in your profession as an aviator.
Regardless of the critiques here, I've got to hand it to NVP actually taking what he got in the Navy and doing something entrepreneurial with it on the outside. For us in the military the marketing of such things, e.g. "Designed by TopGun grads..." seems over the top, but it's part of the hype needed to sell anything. I think the price is high. Granted, I don't know the cost of making it. Given the high price, it is limiting the audience. Only hard-core Gucci gear guys are going to ante-up. The ones who already have the Breitling watch. That's why I recommended getting an NSN and getting it in the supply system. Definitely a good idea, though. My rotorhead self is still partial to chemlights, though.
No, it does not. Based primarily on battery size, it would have been a funky shape to make it fit in a flight suit pocket. Still it might not have. Most people just tie a pen to their kneeboard and leave it there until it is dead. With user replaceable ink and batteries, the Night Vision Pen should never die. If it does, you let me know and it will be replaced.
In the plane, I want my liplight and chemlights. I can't stop looking at that pen for use in the field, on the hill overlooking G-10 during a TACP shoot. It would be perfect.
Touche! I'm not a fag that buys a Breitling and doesn't wear it. I was wearing it in the field during last week's live fire... Out of curiosity - is the pen water resistant/proof?
It has basic water resistance and will work in light rain. It will keep writing and the body will be fine no matter what, but if it gets submerged or is out in a heavy downpour the electrical portion for the light is probably not going to stay working. You might as well buy it and put your own review in this thread. If you don't like it you can send it back for a full refund.
More importantly, I lose shit like it's my job (isn't everyone glad I have access to classified material?) so how expensive is this pen seeing as how I'll go through many of them.
Leave it tied to your kneeboard and you should be fine. Unless you have a habit of losing your kneeboard and helmet bag.
Not to degrade the great engineering and idea of the NVG pen light, but 1,200 combat hrs flying national mission helicopters, and I haven't found a better writing utensil than my Skilcraft mechanical pencil. There always seems to be more than adequate ambient light from the MFDs in the cockpit to write with. My guess is if you're close enough to the enemy to be worried about light emitting from your pen or lip light, you're most likely shouldn't have your head inside the cockpit writing. On that note, we don't even have lip lights in the cockpit. The guys in back have a valid use for them because they always have both hands busy on a gun, etc. A lip light emitting at the wrong time is a great way to get small arms in your face. On a gear note, we all wear Petzel lights around our necks, and I keep a Phantom Light (white light, but NVG compatible) on a laynard on my vest. If I'm not at the controls, I use the Phantom light to read the map/products and as a back up light if I find myself on the ground. If you find yourself on the ground you'll immediately wish you had 2 things: more lights and more water. (The use of a lip light in the cockpit and finding yourself on the ground are a related experience.) By the way, I use the Soft 9G kneeboard as well. I have page protectors with rings on the top for daily mission products, and another set of rings on the side for common products (freq cards, FOB diagrams, etc) MR-
We just don't use lip lights in the front, first because there's no reason to flood the cockpit with light, and because an inadvertent activation caused some severe consequences some years ago. Our back end guys need them because they usually have to flood a small area when they're clearing or loading the guns, working on the maintenance or hoist panels and have to have both hands free. We do however, use the hell out of finger lights, most guys have at least one on each hand. Primarily because you can direct the light (keep the beam narrow) and it's usually below the panel. I wear one on the index finger and thumb of each hand.
