cell phone screen as beacon

[wink]

One of the guys I fly with in a sheriff's aviation unit hit upon an interesting signal device. He was out in the mountains on a dark a$$ night, no moon, little illumination, looking for lost hikers. He was on NVGs. The lost hikers heard the helo coming and called 911 on their cell phone. They were just too tired or incompetent (they got lost after all) to direct the helo in any meaningful way. They had no flash lights or fire making material. So my buddy had him turn his cell phone in the direction of the aircraft noise. That little LCD screen blossomed in a bright flash on the goggles. He said it was similar to a mirror flash in the day. Lost guys rescued. Some of you have lots of hour on NVGs. Tuck this story away and someday you might find it useful on a civilian assist rescue or as a victim yourself. Remeber, even if you don't have cell coverage for a call, you can always turn it on and flash it like a mirror in the darkness.

 

[Fly Navy]

That's really neat. I'll have to remember that.

I always carried my cellphone when I flew at Whiting. I figure if we go down and I have cell reception, they'd find me easier that way by triangulation.

 

[skidkid]

2 Nine volt batteries plugged into each other spinning on a peice fo 550 cord makes a nice thermal beacon on a FLIR but gives off no light Ir or otherwise in case you find yourself on the deck with an NVD equipted enemy looking for you. For the bag of tricks

 

[Fly Navy]

2 Nine volt batteries plugged into each other spinning on a peice fo 550 cord makes a nice thermal beacon on a FLIR but gives off no light Ir or otherwise in case you find yourself on the deck with an NVD equipted enemy looking for you. For the bag of tricks

Noted. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Ryoukai]

See, this is fine and dandy if you have one of those newfangled color phones with the bright display and all that fancy whizzbang crap. What happens if one of us happens to have an archaic phone with a dull orange screen. I'm so not getting rescued.

 

[skidkid]

It will show up Orange is very bright on the gogs

 

[orthaj]

Just curious...what about an indiglo watch, in case you don't have a cell phone or the cell battery is dead.
Could a pilot on goggles see that.

A TC/VC trick to keep the drivers awake and paying attention to the vehicle in front of them while driving on NVG's. Indiglo watch signal quick two or three flashes usually meant "standby...slowing down or radio checkpoint."

 

[HueyCobra8151]

See, this is fine and dandy if you have one of those newfangled color phones with the bright display and all that fancy whizzbang crap. What happens if one of us happens to have an archaic phone with a dull orange screen. I'm so not getting rescued.

It means your broke ass isn't getting rescued. Go buy a real phone!



When I was at Yuma SAR we had one of our broke-azz 1972 HH-1N's break down in the chocolate mountains. The crew chief was able to use his cell phone to call in one of our other broke-azz 1973 HH-1N's to come pick them up and drop off supplies for the guy stuck sitting with the thing all night.

 

[Gatordev]

That's pretty cool, but here's the problem I have w/ all this. When I flash my indiglo Casio watch in the cockpit while on goggles, it doesn't do anything. It would seem that Casio is NVG compatible. My old piece of crap b/w cell phone was bright as hell, but haven't tried my LG one. I'm sure it's bright.

The battery thing is pretty cool...but I can't think of anything I carry that has 9 volt batteries. Wait, do our strobes use those?

 

[skidkid]

two aa nvg power packs would work as well if you tape them up so they donr fly out. I always have strips of duct tape on the back of my pcl, you never know

 

[wink]

That is a good one for you nuggets. I had duck tape or electrical tape on the back of my PCL and regular masking tape on the back of my knee board. The masking tape was usually to cover lights in the cockpit that were too bright. You could still see them through the masking tape.

 

[danthaman]

I hear NVG's can pick up a very small amount of light from a very far distance. One of the F-15 pilots in my ANG unit told me he loves flying night with NVG's because he can see whose attacking him, and in the daytime he often cannot.

 

[Goober]

What happens if one of us happens to have an archaic phone with a dull orange screen. I'm so not getting rescued.

Insult to injury - don't forget roaming charges too. Cingular, baby...

 

[Ryoukai]

^ I'm not sure if my phone knows what roaming is. I think it just makes everything equally expensive because Cingular wants me to be as poor as possible.

That's right, living the life of a west coast playa'.