4th of July in the heart of the ghetto

Hi all!

Batman checking in after a day of provocative fireworks saber rattling around the world. From the Space Shuttle to the Taepondong-2 to the neighborhood kids with roman candle wars, all was good.
I should say that I used my A2 Aviators (2) extensively and made several observations over the course of the evening. As the location for our party was across the street from a dimly lit park in the heart of the ghetto, I made use of my incans many times on the kids having roman candle wars from great distances. (obviously just playful training for future real life engagements) From a good distance of 100 yeards with ambient streetlight I was able to reach out and touch the environment with my 79 lumens quite easily. - especailly houses.
I noticed the LEDs seemed useless in the fog/smoke as they light up the smoke rather than the fuse you want to light. I've managed to get one of my friends interested in buying an A2 after he used it to light up the entire driveway for simultaneous fuse lighting.
I actually found the A2 incan mode more useful than his walmart $10 1,000,000 candle power spotlight which is operated from the command center (bass boat) parked in the front yard.
The red filter for the A2 is ok but diminishes LED output dramatically - maybe useful if you don't want to be seen by anyone holding a gun. Incan mode with red filter was great however. Something about this light makes me feel like it would have been perfect in the movie, "The Predator."
I hope to hear other experiences with other flashlights and how they performed tonight as illumination tools for your family-fun pyrotechnical displays.
With light,
Batman

good story batman

i used my u2 all night long i would use the low mode for lighting fuses then hi mode when the fircracker didnt go off and we didnt know whi i was one of the only people out of 20 that had a flashlight the other was a SL twin task it did ok but nothing compared to mine we had a great indepedance day and hope every one els did to(that lives in the USA).

Another U2 user on a cool 4th of July night.

I used my ROP LE and strion bulb'd E2e most of the night, while my 3 and 5 year old played with my U-bin flupic E1e. THe incans were definately more useful in those conditions, so the kids got to have some fun with my EDC.

schiesz

Used my L1 on low to light off about 2 k worth of someone elses fireworks. After we were done I took out my HF HID and a crowd formed. We took it out on the dock lit up the other side of the lake easily. One woman was telling her husband to buy it for her birthday. Others were just in shock. A few guys came over and I let them hold it and point it all around the lake. It was a lot of fun.

well, the G2 wiped out all the eveready 2D's oln the scene when your trying to cover a whole dock full of kids with one light...surprisingly, many people brought out the 1 mcp spots...which lasted the same time as my G2....

the body feels like another battery explosion moment...hot hot hot, after almost half an hour...put the hot G2 on the table, brought out my backup light, the XO3...everything went well

Burned out one set of batteries and have several kids fathers ask me where can they find the G2...a few left without asking further when they felt the hot bezel....

Some I recommended Wal-marts binkmann maxfire, but for this specific light..Surefire iz yo source!

Surefire 9P w/ turbo head......lit up entire backyard, assisted with cleanup from the party.

My mother-in-law had a nearly dead 4D light, I switched mine on in the gazebo (ceiling bounce) and she was surprised! Said, How much is that little light.......I told her, and she blanched.

"No way, I couldn't spend that much on a light........can I borrow it?"



dragoman

Yep yep... my lights saw some low-key action too. The U2 (setting 1) so I could see what I was doing when lighting off fireworks in my friend's back yard. My friend (whose back yard it was) was using my M4/MN21 to light up the palm trees and to light up the smoke cloud that was hanging over his house. Good Times!

Was playing a close game of bocce with four teams of two as it was getting dark out. Rather than calling the game on account of darkness, I used my 1AA mini-mini-mag w/ 14500 li-ion and strion bulb to clearly illuminate the target ball after it was thrown, so people could see where to bowl. Comment from someone who held the light when it was my turn, "That's a bright little light!"

beakman

fireworks were illegal here in colorado spings/elpaso county region this year.... this is the first year it has ever been illegal in the county (where i live).. We have a HUGE collection of stuff- mostly big fountains, but we didn't lgiht anything off- no need getting in trouble with the law..

whats funny- is the reason for the fireworks being illegal- has to do with fire danger- and this last week, it rained every day, and on the 4th it rained almost all day long- you couldn't have started a fire if you tried.. needless to say- most people still lit off fireworks (imported from out-of-state), lol.

since it was raining- and we wanted to grill some steaks.... I set up the grill out in the shed (empty incomplete shed with 2 large holes up near the top for ventalation)... used the 35W amondotech illuminator as a cieling bounce lamp inside the shed for over an hour(time getting coals ready etc)... portable multi-thousand lumens is very handy!!

I've lurked around quite a while in here reading about that amondotech illuminator. HID technology is getting very exiting - I"m waiting for the AE 24 W powerlight instant on feature/high performance ballast. Flashlights seem to always been on the verge of technology just like mobile phonesj, something I never knew until i discovered CPF.