SOLAS Approved Parachute Flares

SOLAS approved parachutes were designed so that other equipment isn’t necessary for firing. No need for a separate “gun or pen style” launcher – which require multiple steps for use. And if you have lost your launcher or found yourself with a broken launcher, you’d be left holding an unusable flare and no way to signal for help.

To launch the parachute flare, you must hold the flare at arms length and fire it close to vertically. Launching this flare for the first time can be a challenge, as our testers had no way to judge how it would recoil, or whether or not anything would come out the bottom of the flare when discharged. After some practice they found that the recoil was minimal but aiming them was harder than expected, particularly those that use a push-tab for the firing mechanism.

This flare performed well. Brilliance and illumination time were on par with other SOLAS parachute type flares, though we found that it did not travel as high as the other parachute flares, and it also tended to ‘corkscrew’ and not fly as straight as the other parachutes. We also found that the instructions on the flare were difficult to read, as the typeface seemed blurry and the ENGLISH instructions were lost among other languages.

Pushing the metal firing tab, which is the most important task for launching, was not intuitive from the directions. And fiddling with the firing tab made it difficult to hold the large diameter flare in a vertical direction which in turn made it difficult attaining the highest trajectory.

Pains Wessex Para Red Rocket MK8 – SOLAS
Comet Red Parachute Signal Rocket – SOLAS

The Pains Wessex and Comet rockets are manufactured by the same company, and performed very well. We found there to be little difference between them, other than the directions printed on them. The Pains Wessex directions were more user friendly because of the pictograms, which our testers preferred over directions on all other products. Our testers also found the ribbed handle on both units made it an intuitive and natural place to hold the flare, and it also helped to minimize apparent recoil. The firing mechanism, a pull lanyard, made it easy for our testers to aim straight and took the anxiety out of the aiming process. This flare was a top choice among testers.

The Orion Red Parachute Signal Rocket's corkscrew pattern on the way up makes it a bit more noticeable in the bright daytime sky.

The Pains Wessex Para Red Rocket had an easy to use pull-launch mechanism.

The smoke trail of the parachutes was the most noticeable thing about them from a quarter mile away. (click for larger picture)