kosPap
Flashlight Enthusiast
:thumbsup: indeed! for 26 hours I was lucky to be invited to one....it is a yearly Greek Special Forces Reservist Exercise, called Makedonomahos (Macedonian Combatant)...its purpose is to motivate and maintain reservists in general, and not only SF dudes, but it is organized by a true SF reservist club. Being acquainted through a military forum with some of the committee, I was invited to participate, observe etc....Being out of shape for such a task I chose to prepare a Moded Flashight Presentation, take photos of the event, and chip in the CQB part of it...
The Presentation
Actually it did not happen...a pitty cos there were good things to show, and I wanted to promote my moding services...What I did was to talk flashlights, and excibit some things like the different switch functions and beam patterns...After all modified switches is my "specialty" and definitely there is a market of it...)
Anyway, here is a photo of the way I would setup by booth and what would be on....
Sarissa85 (Solarforce with FM bi-pin adaptor, WA1185 & 3x18650s)
Mag61
Mag85
XP-G MagC (3x7135 board)
Military AngleHead with Drop-in LED Module (more in a few days)
Solarforce Lego
Switch mods (2-stage, forward clickie)
Huntlight FT-01 with Aspheric Lens
WF-501 with 45deg TIR Module
WF-501 with MC-E single stage module/ warm XR-E 5C LED
Police Xenon moded with P60 pill and 15deg TIR optic
Aurora V6 with MC-E multimode module (KD1845 driver)
Heat Color-Converted Romisen RC-G2 and Ultrafire WF-601
My 26 Hours
I was there around 17:00 Friday it was registration, settle down and hookup time for all...There I met with the guys from the club and the forum. Soon it was dark and I was going around with three flashlights in my pockets. The aspheric Huntlight, a Solarforce L2M with 2xAA extensions running a single mode DX15880 board and forward click mod, and my Aurora MC-E modded light.
I got to say that even a Cree Q5 at 500mA is GOOD in relative darkness. it lighted well the top of the rappelling tower, and the beam was more tighter and longer than a full power MC-E!
Generally the guys had either small Petzl headlamps (even e-Lites) or Chinese multiled 3xAAA cheapos flashlights. one of the had taped a green filter on ioen and used that for map reading only...
Interestingly enough most people were walking around the camp with no lights at all! I really do not know if it was not minding of, or a conscious night vision preservation....
This night also revealed my skills as a "matchbreaker". :thumbsdowI was walking towards our accommodations with the aspheric light on, "scientifically" studying the ability to walk with what light spills off, and just when I raised the beam, right there in the center of the 200 lumens of it there was a couple smooching on a bench! (there were a very few brave women too)...Later on I was informed that they had left for a nearby Hotel....
LOL...now your wife has another reason to scold you on for your hobby!
The rest of my stay there was spent on taking photos and helping with the CQB exercise
Flashlights & CQB
This exercise was a small one and it was aimed more to introduce CQB practices and flashlight use to the inexperienced reservists than be a test of these very specific skills.
Since the exercise was taking place in a kids summer camp, airsoft replicas were used and guns were lent by club members.
Flashlights on them were mainly the Superfire 501 style Crees (probably with Q5 bins) and the owners thought they knew about them...they had no clue what a Q5 bin is not even the input voltage of their modules. Tape switches and forward grips were the preferred method of use...Other notable lights, a Solarforce L2 with a Surefire Z59 tailcap, a round head Surefire 6P with a cracked glass and an IR filter, and a M3T I never got the owner take off his pack (had a broken tailcap I would replace) ... Guys here in Greece Surefire owners do not even know there are SF aftermarket services!
For the purposes of the exercise I chipped in the MC-E stocked WF-501 with a forward click mod :twothumbs and I had some runs of the drill both with it on a AR15 and my C2 TnC Extender HO-9 bulb @ 2x17500...
All I can say that the MC-E speaks louder than any P60/D26 beam especially within the few yards of the engagement parameters... I clearly remember the target being fully lit up with the MC-E hotspot covering the whole torso. But from the first minutes I had a problem of intermittent use....The module I had made had a Shining Beam 2500mA board and the small center spring was not tall enough
...there was enough play to disrupt battery contact, but I soon fixed it by adding a spacer of faucet gaskets and shoelace grommets I made in quantity the day before the exercise...
here it is...
Generally few of the people had brought their own flashlights and only those were somehow familiar with the procedure to using it in a tactical situation... The overall idea is "we light her up and work this way till the end of the exercise". After the drill and whenever there was interest I was open to questions and beam/switching methods conversation, but to be honest for the majority the tactical flashlight is only a strong LED aluminum black flashlight that takes expensive batteries (in fact only last month I found 18650 batts for the first time here in Greece)
At some moment I was acting like a hidden adversary that would surprise the team at the judge's command....I got setup in a corner and while turning to engage the overwatch guy with a double tap, I remember seeing the rest of the team catching up with him and the team commander putting the beam of my own flashlight on me!
God the MC-E can light up the ground on your feet at noon!
Flashlight Lessons Learned
well...
- I seem to have caught what the core of the tacticalf lashlights market in my country is, but it is small and not profitable enough. It can very well be served with the Solarforce L2P and L2Rs
- I have to make my builds more robust (maybe a shock inducing pendulum?)
- I have to push the 2AA versions of the Surefire 6P compatible lights but that means finding the means to house SandwichShoppe 14mm drivers in a P60 pill
- I got to work more on my salesman skills….
So much for now, Kostas
The Presentation
Actually it did not happen...a pitty cos there were good things to show, and I wanted to promote my moding services...What I did was to talk flashlights, and excibit some things like the different switch functions and beam patterns...After all modified switches is my "specialty" and definitely there is a market of it...)
Anyway, here is a photo of the way I would setup by booth and what would be on....
Sarissa85 (Solarforce with FM bi-pin adaptor, WA1185 & 3x18650s)
Mag61
Mag85
XP-G MagC (3x7135 board)
Military AngleHead with Drop-in LED Module (more in a few days)
Solarforce Lego
Switch mods (2-stage, forward clickie)
Huntlight FT-01 with Aspheric Lens
WF-501 with 45deg TIR Module
WF-501 with MC-E single stage module/ warm XR-E 5C LED
Police Xenon moded with P60 pill and 15deg TIR optic
Aurora V6 with MC-E multimode module (KD1845 driver)
Heat Color-Converted Romisen RC-G2 and Ultrafire WF-601
My 26 Hours
I was there around 17:00 Friday it was registration, settle down and hookup time for all...There I met with the guys from the club and the forum. Soon it was dark and I was going around with three flashlights in my pockets. The aspheric Huntlight, a Solarforce L2M with 2xAA extensions running a single mode DX15880 board and forward click mod, and my Aurora MC-E modded light.
I got to say that even a Cree Q5 at 500mA is GOOD in relative darkness. it lighted well the top of the rappelling tower, and the beam was more tighter and longer than a full power MC-E!
Generally the guys had either small Petzl headlamps (even e-Lites) or Chinese multiled 3xAAA cheapos flashlights. one of the had taped a green filter on ioen and used that for map reading only...
Interestingly enough most people were walking around the camp with no lights at all! I really do not know if it was not minding of, or a conscious night vision preservation....
This night also revealed my skills as a "matchbreaker". :thumbsdowI was walking towards our accommodations with the aspheric light on, "scientifically" studying the ability to walk with what light spills off, and just when I raised the beam, right there in the center of the 200 lumens of it there was a couple smooching on a bench! (there were a very few brave women too)...Later on I was informed that they had left for a nearby Hotel....
LOL...now your wife has another reason to scold you on for your hobby!
The rest of my stay there was spent on taking photos and helping with the CQB exercise
Flashlights & CQB
This exercise was a small one and it was aimed more to introduce CQB practices and flashlight use to the inexperienced reservists than be a test of these very specific skills.
Since the exercise was taking place in a kids summer camp, airsoft replicas were used and guns were lent by club members.
Flashlights on them were mainly the Superfire 501 style Crees (probably with Q5 bins) and the owners thought they knew about them...they had no clue what a Q5 bin is not even the input voltage of their modules. Tape switches and forward grips were the preferred method of use...Other notable lights, a Solarforce L2 with a Surefire Z59 tailcap, a round head Surefire 6P with a cracked glass and an IR filter, and a M3T I never got the owner take off his pack (had a broken tailcap I would replace) ... Guys here in Greece Surefire owners do not even know there are SF aftermarket services!
For the purposes of the exercise I chipped in the MC-E stocked WF-501 with a forward click mod :twothumbs and I had some runs of the drill both with it on a AR15 and my C2 TnC Extender HO-9 bulb @ 2x17500...
All I can say that the MC-E speaks louder than any P60/D26 beam especially within the few yards of the engagement parameters... I clearly remember the target being fully lit up with the MC-E hotspot covering the whole torso. But from the first minutes I had a problem of intermittent use....The module I had made had a Shining Beam 2500mA board and the small center spring was not tall enough
...there was enough play to disrupt battery contact, but I soon fixed it by adding a spacer of faucet gaskets and shoelace grommets I made in quantity the day before the exercise...here it is...
Generally few of the people had brought their own flashlights and only those were somehow familiar with the procedure to using it in a tactical situation... The overall idea is "we light her up and work this way till the end of the exercise". After the drill and whenever there was interest I was open to questions and beam/switching methods conversation, but to be honest for the majority the tactical flashlight is only a strong LED aluminum black flashlight that takes expensive batteries (in fact only last month I found 18650 batts for the first time here in Greece)
At some moment I was acting like a hidden adversary that would surprise the team at the judge's command....I got setup in a corner and while turning to engage the overwatch guy with a double tap, I remember seeing the rest of the team catching up with him and the team commander putting the beam of my own flashlight on me!
God the MC-E can light up the ground on your feet at noon!Flashlight Lessons Learned
well...
- I seem to have caught what the core of the tacticalf lashlights market in my country is, but it is small and not profitable enough. It can very well be served with the Solarforce L2P and L2Rs
- I have to make my builds more robust (maybe a shock inducing pendulum?)
- I have to push the 2AA versions of the Surefire 6P compatible lights but that means finding the means to house SandwichShoppe 14mm drivers in a P60 pill
- I got to work more on my salesman skills….
So much for now, Kostas
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