Advice required...torch to fit in flying suit

[andrewjgreen1]

I'm looking for assistance - I've had a AAA maglite since Stawberry and it has always been...rubbish; doing a walkaround during a night trip a few days ago it finally gave up the ghost.

Can anyone recommend a torch which works well, for not tonnes of money (maybe not much more than £30 at most, as I'm sure at some point I'll donate it to someone I'll never meet) which fits in the flying suit pen pocket?

If I can't get one that small anymore I'm willing to modify two pen pockets into one (done officially, through the squippers and everything, honest ) and anything that runs off the NVG batteries would be a bonus, but I think that'll immediately make it too large for a pen pocket.

[ElTeneleven]

Taking an uncontrolled tool onto an aircraft!

I don't think so!

ETE

[NutLoose]

I actually use one of these as an Engineer, might be a bit tight though diameter wise, it is LED so you can forget changing bulbs, batteries are 3 x LR1 (N) ( last for ever) but it runs on an alternate of 2 AAA batteries, cheap and pretty bullet proof I removed the hanging ring from mine. Very good illumination on it too. Might not look a lot but trust me it gets some serious abuse and has never failed, even dropped it off a building and it still works. Will never go back to overpriced maglights again.

RS | Tools and Tool Storage | Handlamps and Torches | Torches | Pocket & Pen - LED

failing that what about something like these, though I have no experience of them.

Unilite | Tools and Tool Storage | Handlamps and Torches | Torches | Pocket & Pen - LED |UK408

this one might be to narrow a beam

RS | Tools and Tool Storage | Handlamps and Torches | Torches | Pocket & Pen - LED


all well under your price range. As for if you cannot order offline RS have shops all over the place.


They also do a military one with a normal bulb and no batteries LOL

Nitech | Tools and Tool Storage | Handlamps and Torches | Torches | Pocket & Pen |PST1

[Winchweight]

Don't bother. Get an LED head torch and store it in your zip up pocket. Much more useful, can be used handfree for those night sorties when your hands are ful and the lights haven't been turned on in the cabin.

You could even clip one of these on your SD hat!

LED Light that fits your cap from Surplus and Outdoors / Torches and Lanterns

[Pontius Navigator]

Don't supply issue torches any longer?

[St Johns Wort]

Check out the LED LENSER range.
The P3 will fit into a pen pocket, bit tight, and the H7 head torch is good for walkrounds.

[Lord Trenchards Brat]

I agree with ElTeneleven.

Its an uncontrolled tool. A bit like the one that was found and recovered in bits from a cutting edge fast jet cockpit at a secret Lincs airbase recently.....mmm step forward the owner of this please didn’t get much of a response, strangely enough!

[Abbey Road]

Check out the LED LENSER range.
The P3 will fit into a pen pocket, bit tight, and the H7 head torch is good for walkrounds.

If a 'pen lite' is what your after, I would have thought the P2 or P4 would be better - slim casing like the Maglite range?

Headtorches are a great idea - more difficult to drop and lose in any cockpit, as the headband helps in locating it. Recently bought an Energizer "Advanced Headlight LED x6" (Model Number HDL33A2 in Europe) in a Robert Dyas store for around £12:

3 x AAA batteries, 12 to 24 Lumens, giving approx 50 hours illumination.
6 LEDs - 2 x White Spot, 2 x White Flood and 2 Red

Great bit of kit and knocks my other half's twice-as-expensive Petzl Sport Headlamp into a cocked hat for both brightness and illumination time, and both run on 3 x AAA batteries!

Energizer.eu

[RODF3]

Taking an uncontrolled tool onto an aircraft!

Hear what your saying, but in SH when you have squaddies getting in and out with non-fod soles, and all sorts of c**p hanging off webbing, the fact that one of the aircrew wants to have a torch in his pocket is largely immaterial.

[Tashengurt]

Maglite do an LED upgrade for their torches, Not sure about the AAA ones though.
Otherwise have a look at pelican torches. Can be clipped onto clothing and have an adjustable beam.

[The Oberon]

Whatever torch you buy stick to alkali batteries. From a safety point of view, the worse thing you can do is to substitute Ni/Cd or Ni/Mh batteries. The extra current that these rechargeable batteries can supply means that in the event of a short cct. in the torch you could end up with a fire on your hands, or in your growbag pocket.

[louisnewmark]

Uncontrolled tool? Cobblers! Look at any helo aircrew - do all the pens / pencils / chinagraphs etc also count as 'uncontrolled tools'? If they did then virtually every mil helo would be grounded as a result! Actually using a Gerber on an aircraft or taking a spanner on board - yes, uncontrolled tool. Aircrew torch? My issue (rubbish) one wasn't an uncontrolled tool, so neither is my own Petzl head torch which, incidentally, runs off 3 AAA batteries and is what I use now.

Louis

[minigundiplomat]

Stores do a right angled number that seems to work fine for most rotary aircrew.

[just another jocky]

Plenty to choose from here.

[Clockwork Mouse]

Streamlight £17.50 Amazon.

[Sven Sixtoo]

If you need a bit of kit to make your life easier, can I suggest you have a word with the excellent chaps at RWOETU (they live on the top floor of the sim building at Benson), whose job it is to solve the tech issues surrounding this sort of thing. They will explain to you how to start the ball rolling on your requirement, and they may well be able to quote you the NSN of an existing bit of kit that will do the job.

If, of course, you are told you don't actually need the bit of kit, the process will fail at the first hurdle. But at least then you will be able to say you asked and were refused when it turns out (in the middle of the smoking wreckage) that you did need it after all.

Sorry boss, too good to miss

Sven

[blagger]

Inova - great kit, esp. the microlight

[hval]

The Lenser H7 is a good choice. At £40 (ish). A range of up to 150 metres, a focusable beam and also dimable and tilt-able. It is a nice head torch.

I like a head torch as it leaves my Hands free. I also find a torch I am able to tilt (so it doesn't shine in peoples faces, or it shines down as I am walking) good. Being able to dim a torch is great for being able to see instruments and books/ maps and manuals close up. Focussing and beam spread are also good; For me, that is. Different people have different requirements.

I have tried Petzl, Black Diamond, and other makes, some at two or three times the cost of the H7. None have been as good. Petzl do some really good head torches, but they cost an arm and a leg.

The strap fits around helmets. One problem is that the battery containers also is on the strap. Cold can reduce the battery life some what. There are other head torches with longer cables that let you put the battery container in a pocket.

Hval

Edited for repetition, and now spelling.

[gunbus]

This is no joke I got a good little number in? the pound shop,aluminium.3 AAA,and durable,even walk me dog in the woods at night with it,good beam,9 leds, I have a spare one if you want,if so pm me

[Frelon]

CREE Led Torches on eBay. Have a look here.

Fantastic, especially if you get the rechargeable ones with batteries and charger.