[pct-l] Bright colors

[wpsnotebook at charter.net (Richard Woods)]

 From the air at a quarter of a mile, you can cover something the size 
of a tent with a pencil eraser held at arms length. I'm a former search 
and rescue aircrew member, and I will tell you that spotting even 
something large and brightly colored is tough under the best of 
circumstances.
Here are some alternates:

Gather enough material to make a big X - 20 feet or so across, that 
will look decidedly unnatural against the background. On snow, lay out 
a big X with logs, evergreen boughs, and will work in open meadow and 
open ground. No logs or boughs? Build something from stones, or dig a 
trench that big. Yeah, its an earth-moving project but you do what you 
have to do in an emergency.
Another signaling device is to rig a clothesline as long as possible 
and hang as much stuff from it as you can. The long straight line and 
stuff flapping in the breeze can attract attention.

Be very careful about flares and signal fires, which will work, but can 
get out of hand quickly, so consider static signals above first. I 
carry a signal mirror, visible for many miles if used properly.
Yet another possibility is to carry a smoke marker. This could even be 
the small 4th of July kind, and are in general slightly less of a fire 
hazard. But
SAVE THEM UNTIL A RESCUE TEAM IS IN YOUR SIGHT!
You would not believe how many people get into trouble, fire off all 
their flares in the first two minutes and then have nothing left when a 
search team flies overhead an hour later. Picture Tom Hanks, standing 
on the beach in the dark waving a little flashlight at a boat on the 
horizon.

Above all, practice what you will do to attract attention beforehand, 
and keep your head in an emergency.

Mo Jo