"Darrell S" wrote in message
news:XBw3f.4816$gj1.4478@fed1read05...
Hmmmm. I assume you mean to use the CDs to reflect sunlight toward a
rescue aircraft. The reflected light doesn't go in the direction of the
hole, does it? It would leave the CD on an opposite angle from the sun to
the CD. Explain. I must be missing something here.

Only thing you're missing, it sounds like, is that you haven't yet had the
chance to learn to use a signal mirror. That can be easily corrected.

You use it just like you'd use a normal signal mirror (usually made of
stainless steel, with a hole in the middle). You sight through the hole to
aim the light at your target. A common technique is to hold your finger up;
looking through the hole with your finger aligned with the target, if the
light is hitting your finger, it's also hitting your target.

Interestingly, since the hole in a CD is *much* larger than in the typical
signal mirror, you can keep your target in view at greater angles of mirror
deflection than with a standard signal mirror. This ought to assist in
allowing one to signal a target with the sun farther away from an optimal
position than with a standard signal mirror (I admit, I haven't done an
actual comparison, so that's just theory ).

Pete