Benefits of a good flashlight

Hi


The city I live in held a Guy Fawkes display and we watched from the hill overlooking the barge in the harbour with the fireworks on. After they finished we and many others were walking back down the hill along an unlit track. Some people pulled out little torches or those ones you shake to get a beam. I have a torch inspired by this forum. Not up to your standards but much better the average with a Cree bulb. When I turned it on suddenly people around me could see, walk properly and not stumble.

The walk wasn't long but for those few minutes the philosophy of this site was making the world better.

Just thought I should pass I on.

P.s. A couple of people asked how big the torch was and when I showed them it was smaller than the ones they were using they were surprised.

Kolgrim

That's a nice story. A good light can become, maybe not life, but for sure an ankle saver. I have a similar story.

We were on a climbing trip and decided with my girlfriend to go have a dinner on the top of a 60 meter cliff. You can get there on foot too through a steep rocky footpath. It had been raining earlier and the moss on the rocks was slippery. The climb up was easy and we sat, ate and watched the sunset romantically arguing about everything.

When we had finished our meals it was getting dark so we decided to descent back to the camp. We didn't even get back to the footpath until I had to produce my flashlight. Fortunately it happened to be my favorite Thrunite TN12. Getting down the rocky hill wasn't easy though. I let my girlfriend go first and lit the way until she reached point she couldn't see her next footstep and I followed her. That was about 4 to 5-meter steps we could take this way. In some point I remembered I had another smaller flashlight with me and gave it to her. That made moving a little faster but I think it finally took half an hour to get down whereas the ascent had taken less than half of it.

If I hadn't had my flashlight with me I think we couldn't have gotten down from the hill without calling to our friends (who propably had their phones turned off back then). I'm quite sure the flashlight saved an ankle or two that night.

:welcome: Welcome to CPF, Kolgrim. Great first post.

My first flashlight was a Surefire Outdoorsman 2xCR123. I went to the movies with my Wife and my Mother in law. When we came out it was dark. I scanned the woods next to the car, which elicited a couple of chuckles. Then My mother in Law went around the side of the car and stopped looking down. I walked over and saw it was completely dark on the ground. Out came the Surefire and lo and behold. There was a storm drain with at least 1" gaps between the grates. That would have not played nicely with her heels. I got to make the point..It is worth the money.

A LOT of people make fun of me with my flashlights. I almost always have two of them with me. Currently, I have a Thrunite Ti3 on my keychain and an Eagletac D25a in my pocket. Rarely am I ever without both of them, but I always have at least one. I'm a big believer in the "two is one, one is none" philosophy. Also, if I'm able to easily carry one, I'll have a tactical light with me as well.

There have been countless times, either at work, or in a bar, or someplace dark that those same people will turn to me and say, "hey, I need your flashlight!" Or, I see someone trying to find something they dropped using the light from their cell phone, and I'll quickly illuminate the area 10x wider. They are always amazed, AND thankful.

I have gifted lights to many people, and they inevitably come back with a story of how it was really useful in a particular situation. I've lost count of all the times having a flashlight with me has "saved me."


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I enjoyed reading your story, thanks for posting. I'm going to try an additional EDC light, an HDS Exec and the usual PD22.

If they nipped into Costco or similar shop they could all get a decent torch for a few shekels each.

I could not imagine carrying a flashlight and still not be able to see where i was walking.

2010, went to Thailand with tour group. 3 day stay in Chiang mai hill tribe village. Flashlight was part of the gear list yet out of 30 people(4 guys only including myself), only half brought something resembling a light. i had my Fenix LD10 w/ diffuser which was more than enough. Every time i had to get up to use the outhouse one of the other girls always asked to come along. i wonder why....?

Back "in the day," in college I was in a room with no windows attending a small class.

Power outage.

After a few moments, I could hear people waiting intently and getting progressively more nervous. Out came the minimag AAx2 incan. (This was back in the day when these were "good and nice.") Cell phone as a light? What's that? I pointed it at the ceiling, noting how everyone was staring at the beam. People stopped sighing and grumbling.

Power came back on. Point proven. I was the only one in the room with any light whatsoever. Can't count on others to light your way out of a dark building.

It didn't make the power come back on, but cut the tension like a knife.

Living in Florida and being an outdoorsman, I cannot imagine life without a good light given the number of things that "go bump in the night" where we paddle, camp, explore, etc such as snakes and gators

mcnair55 said:

If they nipped into Costco or similar shop they could all get a decent torch for a few shekels each.

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Sad but true. Not that the lights at Costco are spectacular, but for the money they are good basic lights. Amazing how many people don't keep even a small supply of basics at home (water, food, propane stove, propane, flashlight and battery). A huge snowstorm is suppose to hit the NE coast of the USA today. I'd bet $5 that sometime in the next day or two we will read/see stories about unprepared people, and empty grocery shelves. .

more_vampires said:

Back "in the day," in college I was in a room with no windows attending a small class.

Power outage.

After a few moments, I could hear people waiting intently and getting progressively more nervous. Out came the minimag AAx2 incan. (This was back in the day when these were "good and nice.") Cell phone as a light? What's that? I pointed it at the ceiling, noting how everyone was staring at the beam. People stopped sighing and grumbling.

Power came back on. Point proven. I was the only one in the room with any light whatsoever. Can't count on others to light your way out of a dark building.

It didn't make the power come back on, but cut the tension like a knife.

Click to expand...

I've still got four or five of those mini-Mags that I bought around 1980 plus or minus a couple of years. Every one of them works as well as it ever did, and some of them look close to new. Between old age eyesight and the benefits of today's LEDs, they don't get much use any more, but I'm sure someone will be using those lights for something long after I'm gone.

wjv said:

Sad but true. Not that the lights at Costco are spectacular, but for the money they are good basic lights. Amazing how many people don't keep even a small supply of basics at home (water, food, propane stove, propane, flashlight and battery). A huge snowstorm is suppose to hit the NE coast of the USA today. I'd bet $5 that sometime in the next day or two we will read/see stories about unprepared people, and empty grocery shelves. .

Click to expand...

Nothing yet but it appears they placed a ban on all traffic and closed down all public transportation. I wished they would have done the same for the Blizzard in IL. Worst experience, getting stuck in a blizzard and having to leave my car to stay at a hotel. I was worried that my car would get towed or something but since it was considered on a side road near Target it wasn't too bad. I got lucky that time but any time a blizzard gets near my area i'm staying home. Many people got stuck - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV3Bcngnv3M

Sorry this went a bit off topic here but just as having an important flashlight, it should be a good thing to keep track of weather reports and have some preparation.

MidnightDistortions said:

Nothing yet but it appears they placed a ban on all traffic and closed down all public transportation. I wished they would have done the same for the Blizzard in IL. Worst experience, getting stuck in a blizzard and having to leave my car to stay at a hotel. I was worried that my car would get towed or something but since it was considered on a side road near Target it wasn't too bad. I got lucky that time but any time a blizzard gets near my area i'm staying home. Many people got stuck - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV3Bcngnv3M

Sorry this went a bit off topic here but just as having an important flashlight, it should be a good thing to keep track of weather reports and have some preparation.

Click to expand...

Even here in the UK tomorrow Wednesday could be a bad day here for snow.I have given 5 Eneloop run lights a quick charge up and just been out and bought a big pack of Alkalines as a back up if the power goes off.

mcnair55 said:

Even here in the UK tomorrow Wednesday could be a bad day here for snow.I have given 5 Eneloop run lights a quick charge up and just been out and bought a big pack of Alkalines as a back up if the power goes off.

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Nice to know you're prepared for snow. I was reading an article that the NY snow was a bust and people complained the meteorologist was wrong (except he wasn't). IIRC some areas in IL that got hit with the 2011 blizzard had power knocked out due to too much snow on the power lines. Another benefit of having a good flashlight .