Question from a medical flight crew member

I have been searching on here and other spots on the internet for the best flashlight for me. I need it routinely for use in the back of a helicopter, and if needed on the ground in case of mechanical issues or hard landing, err crash. So what I want is a really bright light, reasonable cost, and something that fits in the flashlight pocket of my flightsuit, which I will post a link at the bottom of this post so you will know what size that is. I was looking at the MTE SSC P7, but did not know if there was something better out there. I come here to ask the experts! Thanks in advance for your help.

http://air-force.cc/fligg00.jpg

Before everyone comes in and helps you. I just wanted to give note that in an emergency situation like that, a single battery light wont last very long running a SSC P7 emitter. At least not on high. I would personally choose wither a SureFire LX2 or E2DL. Or maybe even a JetBeam RRT-0 (for size, performance/runtime, and reliability)

Maybe not the RRT-0? No offense to brianch, but the RRT-0 is missing the strobe/SOS functions generally associated with S&R type scenarios. I would think that in a "hard landing", the OP would likely desire the SOS feature at the minimum. The RRT-2 does have that though.

By the way, it sounds like a very exciting job! Must get very interesting at times.

Need to know some more things. There is a form to fill out for just such a question on line in the FAQ section.
Things like what will be the preferred battery you will use. Do you get free CR123's from your group for instance? Do you help with the victims/patients that you might want a warm tint light for better look of real flesh tone colors. Is it just looking at the equipment and structure of the aircraft itself? There are a lot of lights out there. Also like the other poster said, would you ever want the strobe or SOS modes in case of a crash.

Something like the latest Fenix PD30 plus might work better if that was the case. But other than pocket size and bright think about any other specific detail you can and put it all in one list.

A P7 light that starts on it's highest setting is not something that will be appreciated by other members of the flight crew as it will be much too bright if the interior of the helicopter is generally dark. I can imagine that a sudden bright light might affect the night vision of a pilot.

However, the wall of light it will produce will be great for inspecting the craft while walking around it.

For an all-around light in your situation, I'd go with something smaller.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the flashlight pocket on most flight suits is rather narrow and sized for a light about the size of a mini-maglite. If this is true for your suit, I'd go with a 2xAA powered flashlight. Something like a Quark AA^2 or Fenix LD20 as the MTE P7 may be a little bit chunky to fit the pocket.

Welcome to CPF, jmac. As others have already hinted at, the number one requirement for ending up with the best light for your needs is being honest with yourself upfront about how the light will truly be used in the vast majority of circumstances. Of course we don't want to completely ignore worst case scenario considerations, but quite often we see folks paying far too much deference to these unlikely occurrences when making their selection. The result is that they end up with a light or knife or some other piece of gear that would be great in the event of a nuclear holocaust, but is much less effective on a day-to-day basis than it could be. This is especially true in the knife world where aircrew members seem particularly consumed with the notion that at least several times in their career they're going to be forced to use their folding pocket knife to cut their way through the skin of their recently downed aircraft. They therefor end up with a knife that is optimized for a task that they will likely never encounter and which performs less than optimally in every day tasks.

Based on your occupation, I would think you would want a light with an extremely floody beam that had a neutral white color with a high CRI (color rendition). A floody light would allow for close up patient examinations or aircraft inspections with an evenly distributed beam without the need for your eye to continually transition from areas of extreme brightness to relative dimness. In short, you would be able to scan a larger area more quickly and, in effect, be able to see more.

Color rendition is also something that's been described by medical personnel on this board as being extremely important in making proper patient assessments. As you may know, most LED lights tend to have a bluish cast as compared to incandescent lights. High CRI LEDs give you a truer representation of the colors before you and can make it easier to differentiate scrapes from rashes from bruises, or whether a chest wound has penetrated into a lung (just as a couple of poor examples).

Take a look at the following 4Sevens Quark RGB light. It has a lot of features that might be useful to you. In the first place, the beam is extremely wide and produces no hotspots in close up work. It doesn't throw at all, but would be perfect in the close confines inside a helo, or when doing an aircraft inspection at close range. It also emits in four colors - white, red, green, and blue - and each color is available in the same range of five intensities. Red is obviously good for retaining night vision, I understand green is highly compatible with the use of NVGs, and blue is supposedly useful in helping to detect certain types of fluid leaks. Also the white light is available in a neutral tone, which while not necessarily the equivalent of high CRI, is generally a step in the right direction. Strobe, SOS and beacons modes are also included.

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=204065

For a true high CRI light, consider the Ra Clicky with the 120 lumen 93 CRI emitter. It also has a floody beam, but nowhere near as floody as the Quark RGB. Build quality on these is second to none.

http://www.ralights.com/?id=Clicky

You might want to take a look at the Prion 2 from 4sevens. I work solo on a QRV Medic unit. I've only had mine a few days, but it seems to be a great light and other medics I know are now buying them after seeing mine. It comes in a nice EMS blue also. A good low, bright high, and uses handy AAA batteries. Would also probably fit nicely in that pocket.

Yes I forgot the RRT-0 does not have any strobe or SOS modes. There are many other quality lights that do have SOS around the same size or smaller. I was mentioning that a P7 emitter might not be the best idea. Unless you can fit a 2x18650 light in your pocket which I doubt. The biggest I think you could fit in that pocket is a single 18650 light. And on a P7, one 18650 doesn't last long at all.

mrGman is right, lot's of variables. Without knowing those though, here's a best guess - Quark 123², R5 Edition (not the tactical). Can come on high by default, or low by default, lots of levels after that, and has the strobe, beacon, SOS should you need them. Also is a smooth floody beam better for closer quarters and a recessed clicky to protect from accidental-on while in the pocket. They are awesome lights. I have the AA2 but a bit shorter would be better for you.

Oh yea, :welcome:

A Zebralight H501w for hand free use in addition to a flashlight. Chances are you will use the H501w more often.

jmac731976 said:

I have been searching on here and other spots on the internet for the best flashlight for me. I need it routinely for use in the back of a helicopter, and if needed on the ground in case of mechanical issues or hard landing, err crash. So what I want is a really bright light, reasonable cost, and something that fits in the flashlight pocket of my flightsuit, which I will post a link at the bottom of this post so you will know what size that is. I was looking at the MTE SSC P7, but did not know if there was something better out there. I come here to ask the experts! Thanks in advance for your help.

http://air-force.cc/fligg00.jpg

Click to expand...

As a SAR helo driver, I've been wearing one of those suits, daily, for over 15 years now - what do you mean by "flashlight pocket"??? If you're referring to the one on the leg, that's a knife pocket.

Currently I'm carrying a Victorinox New Soldier in there. Quite versatile.

As for lights to be used in and around a helicopter, lots of discussions and opinions have been posted throughout the years on this forum, including several by yours truly and certainly many other aviators, far more experienced than myself.

The need for lights can be sorted like this:

1. Dim task light to be used inside the helo, without disturbing your night vision;
2. Bright light to be used outside, for walkarounds and general area inspections, directing ambulances, etc.
3. Long-running light to be used in a survival scenario.

Other considerations/desirable features:

A. Reliability - in-flight failures are not acceptable.
B. Simplicity - lights will probably be handled by other crewmates, and a cockpit or cabin is no place to be fiddling with an awkard user interface. Multi-clicking/twisting in totally unacceptable, and even dangerous (you can blind your crew while cycling through modes). Single-modes or progressive twisty/clickies are good to go.
C. Rugedness - it will be brutaly handled, thrown, drenched, etc. Note that a small, lightweight light can be fairly resistant even without being over-built.
D. Ease of feed - battery commonality with other gear is a bonus. Rechargeables for common used lights is good, lithiums for backups is great.
E. Ease of carry and retrieval - if it's not carried and/or accessible, it won't be used.
F. Ease of maintenance - not much time to be lost cleaning threads and lubing o-rings. It's a go-light, for god's sake!
G. Affordability - the works demands will have you loosing and trashing lights over time. Live with it, don't fly with anything you can't replace easily.

Throughout the years I have used several lights. Many aviators swear by the Surefire A2, others swear against it, some prefer multi-mode lights, others prefer dedicated lights... My own current set-up is:
-Nitecore EZAA (1xAA) for tasks 1 and 2, loaded with rechargeables, carried in the sleeve pocket - it's ALWAYS with me from the moment I put my flight suit on;
-Fenix E01 (1xAAA) on my flight-vest, for task 3. Since it's a backup, with no battery commonality, I load it with a primary lithium;
-Strobe beacon (2xAA), naturally for task 3, on my vest, also on lithiums for long shelf-life;
-Maglite LED (2xAA) as a backup - loaner - spares battery carrier, kept in my flight bag.
-Spare AAs (all types) for the lights and my personal GPS, on the flight bag.


As you can see, I prefer to have several dedicated lights, that can be used to back each-other up, than a single do-it-all light. What I do not feel is any need for a really strong/thrower light. For that I have the landing lights and the external-mounted searchlight.

And don't get fixated on a single perfect solution. There are many possible ones, they will evolve in time, and don't forget, you need to be in-tune with your gear, getting familiar with it is very important.

Best of luck, fly safe.

davidt1 said:

A Zebralight H501w for hand free use in addition to a flashlight. Chances are you will use the H501w more often.

Click to expand...

Very good suggestion for cabin work (generally speaking about Zebralights, and disregarding the UI), except for the fact that headsets/helmets make a mess out of using a headlamp, unless you devise a workable mount.

Here's what I use for EDC and here's a review. As with anything, you must use it responsibly.

crocodilo said:

Very good suggestion for cabin work (generally speaking about Zebralights, and disregarding the UI), except for the fact that headsets/helmets make a mess out of using a headlamp, unless you devise a workable mount.

Click to expand...

Fortunately, something as small and as light as the H501 can be used in a number ways: on the head, clipped to clothing, or attached to any metal surface using magnets.

Clipped to work jacket


Mounted on shirt with elastic loop. The elastic band can be glued to the helmet for mounting the light.



Attached to any metal surface.


And sometimes without a metal surface


The OP asked for a pocket size light. Both the H501 plus the headband fit in a pocket with room to spare.

bodhran said:

You might want to take a look at the Prion 2 from 4sevens. I work solo on a QRV Medic unit. I've only had mine a few days, but it seems to be a great light and other medics I know are now buying them after seeing mine. It comes in a nice EMS blue also. A good low, bright high, and uses handy AAA batteries. Would also probably fit nicely in that pocket.

Click to expand...

One major negative with AAA cells is capacity, at 100% output the Preon 2 is "dead flat" in 48 minutes (according to their specifications) thus you're limited to 22 LM (OTF) medium mode for general usage for up to 6 hours runtime

I guess you'll need to weigh up form factor Vs. runtime :thumbsup:

I was considering the requirements and would suggest having more than 1 light.

Nitecore EZ-AA neutral white: low - 10 lumens for work in the heli with a higher mode that is just a twist away. This would be the general work light. (i would have suggested a Jetbeam Jet I Pro v3.0 but if the requirement is to keep the UI simple then Nitecore may be better).

Fenix TK20 for out of chopper work if more light is required. Tough as nails and 2 modes too.

A Princeton Tec Aqua Strobe purely for signalling purposes.

A good idea as posted above was to have a simple Maglite LED for a loaner light.

Note that all the above run on AAs so no necessity to carry different cells.

A question for the OP: what kind of work do you do? I mean what do you do when you work? Can you work with one hand while the other hand is holding a flashlight? Can you do CPR with one hand while the other hand is holding a flashlight? Can you turn a patient over with one hand while the other hand is holding a flashlight?

By the way, I learned a neat trick from my dentist. He would give a pair of dark glasses to wear so the light won't bother me before he turns on the light to examine my teeth.

What looks like a flashlight pocket on that suit appears to be on the upper end of the left arm.

I could be totally wrong, though.

If you are a medic, I would suggest something with High CRI if you are inspecting patients with the light. The Clickie is probably a perfect suggestion. If you need to use it for search, I say you would want a totally different light for a high output light. That can be clipped to your belt or wherever you have space (looks like a lot of space on that suit)!

I think the Quark RGB might work well for you. You would have Red, Green, Blue, and White, aswell as Strobe, SOS, and Beacon modes.

I work nights as a flight paramedic. For the past year I have carried my surefire e2l (2 levels) and am still on the same batteries, I carry it in my left trauma shear pocket. We fly in Bell 230's, most of the time I use my light is on start up when our pt lights are turning on and off. I hold it in my mouth while doing pt care during start up. The high works very good for walking to and from the aircraft for scene work. In the last month I bought a nitecore ex10 and wear it around my neck with paracord, much nicer to hold in my mouth, and I love it. Ironically, my colleges laugh at my for my high dollar light. They all carry mini mag lights, some in their knife pocket, some on their left trauma shear pocket. A nice accessory some have is a "lite bite" so it is easier on the teeth.