Just Bought a Flashlight...

[Mexray]

Hey Tim, that's way this side of 'cool'....

You could use your new 'toy' to spot a buck when you're out huntin' - only problem is that you'd be able to spot him way before he's in range!

Back in the dark ages (pun?)...I used to fly in an old Navy SP2E 'Neptune' when I was in a Reserve unit out of Alameda NAS - we were Sub chasers - kept those Ruskee Subs out of the SF Bay...

Just as a point of interest, those old Neptune's were the only navy aircraft that had two radial engines and two jet engines...the jet's were designed to burn Av-gas, and were used for extra thrust during take off, and were lit off and in 'idle' when we were flying down on the deck, for emergency power in case one of the big radial engines had a hiccup!

The old Neptunes had an arc-light mounted in the Starboard wing tip, so when were down on the 'deck', crusin' over the waves, we could torch up the arc lamp to see just how far away we were from spinning one of the props through a rogue wave! Yikes!

It was really cool to play with that arc lamp, that sucker was BRIGHT, as I'm sure your new toy is...Ours had a mechanical barrier that prevented it from being angled toward the cockpit and wiping out the co-pilot's night vision!

There's probably still a few old fishermen in the Bay Area that talk about some 'nuts' in a low flying airplane with a really BRIGHT light that scared the crap out of them, off the Northern Californian coast!

[Fly at Night]

Mexray, I just interviewed a retired RCAF pilot who also flew the Neptune and then the Argus on Soviet sub patrol off the east coast of Canada and the USA during the Cold War.

The Argus had four powerful Wright 3350 radial engines with a sixteen-man crew.

Fascinating stuff - scarey times. He once emerged from a fog bank and spotted the entire Soviet fleet - subs, tenders, and supply ships off the coast of Newfoundland. I asked him if either side ever divulged any post-Cold war information. He said movies like The Hunt For Red October were pretty accurate, so some information had obviously been gleaned.

[Mexray]

Fly...Yeah, flew a lot of hours in those old birds during my six year hitch...I was an AD, engine mech, and got my hands greasy more than once working on one of those 3350 radial's!

I rode up front, behind the plexiglass nose and had an unbelievable view when we flew - just imagine taking off from Alameda NAS on the SF Bay, over the SF-Oakland Bay bridge, then over Alcatraz Isle, then heading right over the Golden Gate Bridge, all spread out in front of you! I wish I'd had an IMAX camera, as I would have some unbelievable shots, sunsets, migrating whales, rocket runs on some rocky isles, etc, etc...those were the days!

On long trips I'd sit on a jump seat between the pilots, lean out the engines and keep up the fuel logs...even got to sit in the LH seat a few times and fly the old bird when the skipper wanted to take a siesta in the back!

Back to the arc lamp I mentioned above...one summer we were on our two week active duty up at Whidby Island NAS...we were cruising around the mountains doing some 'sub chasing' sight seeing...The Capt. decided to see if our old bird would get up to it's 'advertized' top speed in a dive...he advised me to leave the nose seat - didn't want anyone up there in case the nose plexiglass caved in! What we didn't count on was that the plexiglass cover over the arc lamp cracked, failed, and shattered the arc lamp's dish shaped mirror...

When we returned to base, all those nice sharp shards of glass and plastic came flying out as we landed, spilling onto the runway! The regular Navy guys didn't appreciate we Reservists littering their nice clean runway! Our whole crew had to go out and walk the entire runway for a couple of hours picking up all the bit's we'd deposited - not a fun job!

Being in the Reserves, we never had any Ruskie encounters - the Regular navy guys were flying the P-3 Orion's by then, and they got all the 'fun'...We got to look for some of our own subs during annual service wide training missions, and we found a few - AFTER they surfaced and called us on the radio! We had some sophisticated gear on board, with sonar-bouys, etc., but our sub-boat guys can be VERY quiet when they want to be!

Those old Neptunes were great, while crowded inside, reliable aircraft that just kept on flying till they finally retired em' a couple of years after I got out...They even put together a few 'stealth' conversions without the jet engines for service over in Viet Nam - they had ground avoidance radar and a couple of Gatling guns for night raids on convoys, etc., I saw em' being built there at the Alameda repair facility - cool, nasty looking killing machines, camo painted, Carbon Fiber Props, etc...never heard if they worked out over there as planned...they might have been too slow to get away from the SAMs, don't know...

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by Buttercup

Oops...wiped out my own picture.

It's quite lovely, Buttercup!

I want to see it in use.


Maggie

[richie rich]

It is nice to see an off topic post that meets with the moderator's approval. We all should be so blessed!

[oleschool]

Holy Bat s@#t, you have the "Bat" signal..........Buttercup = Alfred

[damonbeals]

Buttercup wins for the coolest toy of the year!

Damon

[Gringo]

I like it! I love the idea of mounting it inside a special housing covered with a flush grille of some kind so it wasn't obvious, pointing to the rear of a MH. Don't limit your imagination to just the bozo with the high beams behind you....think of the local town cop who is going to hassle you about something and pulls in behind you with his bubble gum lit up. it would be like one of the scenes from Men in Black when they asked him to describe what he saw before he screeched to a halt in the middle of the lane for five minutes.

hey did anyone else ever lay in a field of clover on a summer night with a high powered flashlight trying to talk to extraterrestrials?

[Aviator]

You could always put shutters on it and use it to send morse code to you buddy in....Oh, say the next state!

Definitely the coolest "flashlight" I have seen lately.

[Buttercup]

Originally Posted by Gringo

hey did anyone else ever lay in a field of clover on a summer night with a high powered flashlight trying to talk to extraterrestrials?

Now that you mention it - One was used for that very purpose. In 2002 I think it was, a team called the Mad Scientists created a Ship to Ship communication system whereby people could record a message at a computer controlled kiosk and select where that message should be broadcast.
That message was used to modulate a beam of light to whereever the participant selected. so...yes maybe to talk to ET.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, I think you should have your light ready for when ever Doorgunner launches one of his rockets. [Casini / Jackson]

[Eric H]

Very cool indeed.
Do you have a picture of the ballast? I can't imagine those small honda generators will power this thing if it draws 50+ amps at 120 volts. If it draws that much power it might be around the same KW as a 12 Kw movie light (ARRI Arrisun 120 KIT (12K PAR) Head 562360 - Filmtools) although the light you have is super directional with that PAR reflector.
When using these type of lights make sure not to touch the bare bulb with your hands, the oil on your skin will shorten the life of the bulb (it goes without saying that I'm talking about the cold bulb here:-). Also make sure to keep some sort of UV glass in front, they can literally give you a sunburn and the bulbs can explode. Keep your eyes out for additional bulbs, the bulbs for those 12k film lights above are $2000 (yes, thousand) each!

[doorgunner]

Hey Tim;

is that a flashlight in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?

[Buttercup]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Very cool indeed.
Do you have a picture of the ballast? I can't imagine those small honda generators will power this thing if it draws 50+ amps at 120 volts. If it draws that much power it might be around the same KW as a 12 Kw movie light (ARRI Arrisun 120 KIT (12K PAR) Head 562360 - Filmtools) although the light you have is super directional with that PAR reflector.
When using these type of lights make sure not to touch the bare bulb with your hands, the oil on your skin will shorten the life of the bulb (it goes without saying that I'm talking about the cold bulb here:-). Also make sure to keep some sort of UV glass in front, they can literally give you a sunburn and the bulbs can explode. Keep your eyes out for additional bulbs, the bulbs for those 12k film lights above are $2000 (yes, thousand) each!

For all the rest of us geeks, here are the specs of the light. It is a 1kw short arc xenon bulb.
It is powered by 28 volts D.C. at about 58 amps. So 1 EU2000 can power it, but it will require a 28 volt power supply. Now, 2 deep cycle batteries will do the trick giving about 30-45 minutes of run time. I am opting to go with 4 Trojan T-105 batteries for longer capacity. I might be able to get a cheap welder to act as a charger or maybe I can get lucky and pick up a 28 volt surplus telephone system power supply that will output 100 amps if needed.

I will have to pop off the heat exchanger off the back of the light to get a picture of the ballast. But until that time, here is links to the 2 technical manuals on the light that I have been able to find.

Hey DG,

We do need to set up a launch - I'll bring the light to Casini just in case.

www.liberatedmanuals.com/TM-11-5855-250-12-and-P.pdf

http://www.liberatedmanuals.com/TM-11-5855-217-35.pdf

[streamquest]

Buttercup, That is cool.

I'm always thinking of fabricating a full length housing that would streamline the roof top A/C units on my moho, while containing integrated awnings and top mounted solar panels. I've looked into surplus small airplane engine cowlings that would form the forward facing surface. Some sort of crazy headlight would be fitted into the space vacated by the propeller. Check out images of 1930's/40's streamlined trains. That light of yours would sure do the trick out on a dark interstate!

[GinMame]

Originally Posted by Gringo

hey did anyone else ever lay in a field of clover on a summer night with a high powered flashlight trying to talk to extraterrestrials?

I did it as a tenderfoot scout in the San Gabriels. That and chase snipes...

Good Times!

Happy snipe hunt... oops, I mean Airstreaming!

Rion

[Gringo]

Heck, I'm 61 years old and I still play in the sand at the beach.

[wmarsha]

that thing would give a whole new meaning to BURNING MAN!

[Eric H]

If it's a 1 KW bulb it will only draw between 10 and 20 amps tops...
SEE HERE: Convert 1 KiloWatt to Amperes
I think you have the amps wrong, 58 amps is about 1/4 of what comes into most houses, that's why it takes that much to power a 12K (which will make nighttime daytime:-)
Take a look, it takes two of the honda generators to make 30 amps (at 120)..
Reliance 30 Amp RV Parallel Kit for Honda EU2000i, Model# HPK2011 | Generator Accessories | Northern Tool + Equipment
This is something my crew struggles with day in and day out during location shooting... one 20 amp circuit will just handle a 2KW light (tungstan, so ACTUAL 2000 watt draw).
So you're batteries might power the light you have, but your batteries are not even close to 58 amps...which is a fun and dangerous amount of of amps.

[overlander63]

I guess it could be really useful if you wanted to weld the trunk shut on that slowpoke in front of you...
I can think of a lot of uses for that light, some of them may even be legal and kosher. For one, you could light up the bedroom of your neighbor's house. And yes, I know it's 3 miles away.