Interesting looking Kickstarter: Rescue Me Balloon

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/651668573/rescue-me-balloon?ref=category

No affiliation but looks pretty neat. I think they picked the wrong time of year for it though. Should have tried this in the spring when us Seasonal Boaters are getting our juices flowing for boating season.

Yeh...interesting concept.

Thanks for posting!

I just preordered two for the kids and may preorder two more. For the cost of $40 a piece now or $75 once it comes out I feel that this is a must for anyone going to #Bimini2015 and a much better deal now!

I can see this type of device replacing flares. With the exception of very high wind situations I believe it would be much more effective.

I am hopeful that they will sell refill balloons and gas canisters so that we can test at a reasonable cost. The diagrams show the components as being replaceable.

I've never looked into kickstarter stuff, so if I place an order and enough other people does to reach their goal they will send it to me?
If that's how it works, do you get the money back if the goal is not met, or do they not charge you until the goal is met?

I'm sure I could look this up but you guys are more trust worthy than information I would find on the Internet......oh...let me think about that for a bit

You are not charged until they reach the minimum funding level.

They didn't demo the product. I'm let down.

Murf'n'surf said:

They didn't demo the product. I'm let down.

Click to expand...

If you click on the "read more" there is a video of a guy blowing one up.
I signed up for the two emergency ones as well. I think it's a good idea.

Wayloncle said:

I've never looked into kickstarter stuff, so if I place an order and enough other people does to reach their goal they will send it to me?
If that's how it works, do you get the money back if the goal is not met, or do they not charge you until the goal is met?

I'm sure I could look this up but you guys are more trust worthy than information I would find on the Internet......oh...let me think about that for a bit

Click to expand...

I wondered the same things. I found this on their website....basically, it's a complete risk. There is no guarantee. if they blow all the money trying to get the items produced but it doesn't happen, they are out of money and if there is no product, you could be out of luck.

They need the money to make the product happen so they have to charge you right away, not when the item is ready to ship. They do wait until the kickstarter period ends and only charge you if the goal is met. For this the date is the end of December....Seems really soon and a long way to go if they are gonna make it.

That being said, I think I'll take the risk. The only disappointing thing I see is the size of the balloon looks much smaller than I thought it would. They only showed a USA balloon being blown up maybe the SOS one is bigger. Great idea though.

I sent them a question about how big the balloon will be....see if they reply. (also gave them this link)

Interesting idea, but I don't know about the practicality. It doesn't have to be high winds to affect it. You normally don't expect a flare to attract attention until rescue is imminent, and you only use a flair to signal someone that is already looking for you. And that being the case, a flare works well. This device is a distress balloon and implied that it will last longer than a flare. I don't think that is a very good expectation. Assuming a 15mph wind, the balloon will be more than 3 miles from your location in 15 minutes. And in the mountains, it can end up tangled in trees, over the next ridge, or miles from your location. One of the videos shows an animation of the SOS balloon with a mooring line attached. That would maintain position but I don't think you will get much height, even in a minimum wind. A balloon small enough to fit in the launcher won't have the lift to get maximum altitude, even on monofiliment line, in much of a wind at all. And the LED is blocked from view by the balloon from above it. Worst of all, on a water rescue situation, that balloon will be pulling on you in the upper winds, if it is attached, and that will cause you to drift faster, and away from wreckage and possible signal on the downed boat or aircraft. This is going to need a bunch more R & D I think. I like it better as a "flag" than as a signal device. Flares will provide much greater visibility even in the daytime. It is the launch, and the trail left that make them visible, along with height. A surface rescue poses a greater chance to see this than a air rescue. But seeing things like this from the air is very hard...unless you almost hit it! It still may be a viable device, but may need to be viewed differently than traditional flares. Now, can we get one about 10 times the size, that says...
"Welcome jetboaters.net!"

@txav8r, it has a built in string to hold the balloon 150' above you.

@Bruce I saw the "string" in one video animation...but any wind and the balloon is going to be less than that height. There won't be much lift out of a small balloon to hold it and 150' of string to begin with, and any breeze will pull it away and down.

I agree Mel, I didn't want to be the first naysayer! This device is a very poor safety beacon unless you are in a populated area in light winds. That balloon will not draw attention to your location, most people would see it and not do anything because you cant read the balloon from a distance. In certain situations this balloon may work but please don't think you can toss your flares and personal EPIRB away. If I was in distress and shot off 2 or 3 flares when I saw a plane or heard a car on a distant road, they would most likely draw attention a thousand times more than a silly balloon. This balloon thing might actually have a use in big crowds for kids if they lose mom and dad and become lost/separated.

Murf'n'surf said:

... In certain situations this balloon may work but please don't think you can toss your flares and personal EPIRB away. If I was in distress and shot off 2 or 3 flares when I saw a plane or heard a car on a distant road, they would most likely draw attention a thousand times more than a silly balloon. ...

Click to expand...

I agree this is no replacement for the normal safety equipment. If I were to use this, I'd use it with the assumption that someone was already looking for me.

As far as flares go: I don't put much faith in 'em. A friend on another board decided to do some testing with his "Coast Guard Approved" flare pistols. He had 2 different kinds of pistols and about 15 shells for each one. He had something like a 30% success rate. so if you only carry the minimum required 3 flares that give you (maybe) one good flare. After that I realized that they are just a false sense of security.

I think it all depends on where you are. If I'm in open water then the balloon is probably not going to do much more than the hand-held flares and flag I already have. But if I'm in some uncharted backwater river with high trees all around it might help me get spotted.

I see it as another tool in the safety arsenal. It may not be perfect for all conditions (yeah, high wind would be a problem), but I believe that if used properly this could be an effective way to get yourself found.

These guys may or may not get it "right" with this product but the improvements in LED lighting and light weight batteries makes me believe that a tethered, illuminated balloon will become a viable and likely preferable option to flares.

They had the idea and have put some thought and engineering into it. I am hopeful that they will find a way to simplify the launch.

My intention for the device is to clip one to each of my kids type one life jackets. In the hopefully very unlikely scenario that we would need to be rescued at sea the balloons could be helpful in spotting them. They also have marine radios and whistles on their bright orange jackets. Our boat has a radio with DSC and flares.

I see specific applications and your additional precautions and safety measures @Bruce are certainly understandable. While I don't see it replacing flares, I do think that advances will add to and enhance safety. And I get that this device is in developmental stages, and I am sure they are considering all the issues we have mentioned here and more. But all ideas out there don't turn into good ideas or become successful products. I think if adding a balloon to your arsenal is something your interested in, then this is a good start, and the miniaturization of the launch device and containment is certainly a big achievement. Options...they are great aren't they?

The reply I got:

Hello everybody!

This is Tristan, the project manager for Rescue Me Balloon. Julian gave me a heads up about your forum and I've had the opportunity now to log in and join the conversation. As I'm reading through these posts, let me try and answer your questions and of course if you have any more, please feel free to post them here and I'll check in on a regular basis.

The original idea of Rescue Me Balloon started when we heard about a man lost at sea, floating in a life vest, and boat were passing within 25 feet of him but couldn't see him because of the swells, if you watch the video on our website www.RescueMeBalloon.com, you'll hear me reference that. We were simply trying to make a product where someone in his situation could be seen above the swells of the ocean. As we researched, developed, patented, redeveloped, engineered, rethought, re-egineered, etc we realized that the application could be a lot more widespread and to do so, we would need to make it as robust and reliable as we possibly could. We got all the engineers lined up, needed the funding, and hence the Kickstarter Campaign! Our goal of $100,000 allows room to finalize our product and manufacture and ship Rescue Me Balloon to all of our backers in a timely fashion.

First, looks like wind is a topic. Yes, this is obviously a concern and our current balloon design is such that the balloon would act as a kite in windy conditions. With the success of our kickstarter campaign, we have a specialized balloon engineer (yes, those actually exist!) lined up to finalize that design to ensure it would work in the most extreme conditions. They're an expert in their field and confident they will be able to address that.

Second, you're looking for a video deployment on our campaign page; we have one now from our first prototype, but it's obviously not the best quality as you can see when you watch it. Reason is, Rescue Me Balloon is a one-time use, and creating a prototype is quite a lengthy process. However, we've put another one together and shot some additional footage last week, we're editing it now and all being well, will be posting it in the next day or so.

Third; size of the balloon and radar detectable. Currently, the helium canister we're using will reliably fill a 19-inch balloon fully, which is enough to levitate the balloon to 150 feet, including the LED light and 150 feet of monofilament string. At that height and diameter, the balloon is radar detectable, something we felt is very important for a Search and Rescue Team.

Forgive me if I missed some of your questions in this thread, I will keep reading and posting as I find them. In the meantime, we've got more information on our Kickstarter Page (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/651668573/rescue-me-balloon) and have just posted some FAQ's with more to come.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us, we really appreciate it! We're just shy of 25% of our goal with a good 29 days to go!

~Tristan

@Tristan H (RMB) Thank you for your very complete answers! The kite effect sounds like a great way to deal with windy deployment situations!

I wonder if the military would be interested in this?

As I sit here waiting for a flight....makes me wonder about an auto deploying version for planes that go down. Connect it to a floating black box! So many possible scenarios seem plausible!