I do this, then after the 5 years I feel like I need to start over from the beginning so I know the story. Then I stop just before the end again.

I think a stupidly bright flashlight is preferable to a laser, but the idea of signalling for help with a light can work. Please don’t use lasers.

You say that, but once someone on the ground was shining a bright ass flashlight, not a laser but just as bright, at us and they were flashing …—… (SOS in Morse). Apparently we were the 4th plane to report it to air traffic control. I’ve never seen that before or since, but at least that time it worked.