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drenaline

How do you jump with skydivers smoke (smoke cans)?

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Next year we are celebrating the 100 year of aviation and the 100 year b-day of panama (I think, am bad in history) and there are some thoughts of jumping with smoke.

My question is: How does it work? how and where you strap them? is it hot or cold smoke? dangers of jumping smoke? when and how you turn them on? additional advices? Who sells them (only store I know is paragear)?

FYI it will only be jumped by 600+ jumps skydivers.

HISPA 21
www.panamafreefall.com

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There's a thread that covers a lot of these issues already HERE.

Basically, jumping smoke is a fire hazard and a snag hazard and you might want to consider getting some advice from a local Pro Rated jumper (since in theory they were required to jump smoke to get the rating). BTW, when I say "might want to" in any of these discussions, what I usually mean is don't come crying to me if you don't and you end up dead. ;)

Paragear sells the smoke, but not the brackets that go with them. If you contact jimwallaceskydiving.com he might have some smoke brackets in stock that fit the paragear smoke. I'm not certain he'll sell them to you without you having a Pro Rating, but it never hurts to ask.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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>how and where you strap them?

You need a bracket, and enough practice to exit and land with them.

>is it hot or cold smoke?

Quite hot, usually. Depends on the smoke. I know several people who have been burned and damaged their jumpsuits from poorly mounted canisters. You should have a bucket of water at the landing area to throw them in.

>dangers of jumping smoke?

Setting fire to the ground. Setting fire to your rig. You will probably burn some holes in your canopy if you use it in freefall. If you set it off in the plane accidentally (easy to do) you can blind and/or asphyxiate the pilot, which is bad.

>when and how you turn them on?

Depends on the smoke.

>FYI it will only be jumped by 600+ jumps skydivers.

Saying it would be jumped by PRO-rated jumpers would mean a lot more. If you do decide to do this:

1. Get instruction from someone who has a PRO rating and has done it before.

2. Jump the bracket and a dummy canister at your DZ, then jump with a bracket and a live canister to practice.

3. Make sure that the person in charge of the demo is PRO-rated, at the very least.

And whatever you do, do not fall into the trap of thinking that a demo is just another skydive.

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Hiya quade,

Thanks for the thread link, took a look at it but its not that informative.

We don't have PRO rating skydivers (they have the skills to get it but they don't have the money or time to go to the US and get it). In the old days (10 years ago) they used to jump with a smoke canister that was activated like a hand grenade but was to hot and they had to tie it (don't ask me how) to the sole of the boot cause it was to hot to do it in any other way so they ask me the favor of asking some info about the new models of smoke cans and how you do it now.

I will not jump that thing, NO thanks! :)


HISPA 21
www.panamafreefall.com

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And whatever you do, do not fall into the trap of thinking that a demo is just another skydive.



The skydiving motto: "it only takes ONE jump" to make your life miserable.

We are very strict with safety even more strict than some dz's in the US.

HISPA 21
www.panamafreefall.com

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OK, I'm not PRO rated, but I was a member of the Air Force Academy Demo team for 2 years, and I've done a lot of smoke jumps into large demos.

You'll need to find a bracket that you can strap to your boot (and DO wear boots if you're going to do it) that will keep the smoke canister secure, but is easily releasable in case of an emergency.

Also, I would HIGHLY recommend NOT wearing baggy pants/freefly suit/booties. the extra material can catch on fire. If you have a Nomex flight suit, that would be the best. Nomex is what military fllight suits are made of...it's very fire resistant.

The way we always deployed smoke is by tying a piece of 550 cord or other some such non-flammable string to the trigger on the canister, then leaving a long enough line to be able to tape it to your upper thigh. Leave a loop in the end to grab. Then when you exit, you just reach down and yank on the cord, and it pulls the smoke. The tape is just to hold it there, you'll have no problem pulling the cord.

We'd pull the smoke just after exit, and it would usually last until sometime in the middle of the canopy ride. We were jumping big slow canopies, so it was a slightly longer descent than under normal sport canopies. When we'd land, we'd have our ground crew remove the entire smoke bracket from our foot, put down our gear, and do a line-up.

Basically, it's important to have an experienced ground crew as well, just in case of emergencies, and to help you when you land. You'll definitely want to remove the entire bracket BEFORE you take your rig off.

Finally, when wearing smoke, take SPECIAL care to never EVER overfly the crowd, because you never know when that hot canister could fall off your foot, or the slag could fall into the crowd. One other thing...if you use colored smoke, be prepared to have a tinted canopy!

Hope that helps a little...but your best bet would be to talk to someone (in person) who has experience.
Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

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Bikerbabe has a lot of good info. I have rough patterns for two different brackets. One goes on the toe, and is made out of aluminum. The other goes on the outside of the foot, and also is made out of aluminum. The should be equiped with a quick release in case of entanglement. At stated, expect to damage your rig and or canopy if jumping freefall smoke.

In addition to freefall smoke you can tether smoke under canopy. Advantages, you won't set the plane on fire, you won't put burn holes in your canopy during opening, you won't burn your leg off. Use stainless cable to make a "leader". I use cable one size smaller than ripcord cable and nicropress sleeves to form loops on each end. Test for strength. Then I use stainless hose clamps to attach the cable to the smoke canister. Dangle the whole thing with appropriate cord, deployed after opening. Paragear smoke is ok, military smoke in colors shows up better but is much harder to get these days, seems to burn hotter, and some of the color stain and put out burning embers more than others. Military smoke is going for up to $40 a canister and higher. There was a bunch of East German military smoke on the gun show circuit before Y2K. It was cheap and pretty dense. I have use it a couple of times and have a bunch left. And beaware that any smoke you order will require extra hazardous shipping charges.

An alternative to smoke under canopy is long streamers like the Seoul Olympics. I've made nylon ones but for high school football games I've used crepe paper. Roll out the appropriate colors, reenforce center with duct tape, fold in half around piece of cord and reenforce with more duct tape. Roll up and stow in fanny pack or jumpsuit. Attach to appropriate place and let stream behind after opening. Experiment with length for best effect.

I've seen freefall brackest that looked like 20 pound leg braces and others that were a little sheet metal, a little webbing and no big deal. Email me if you want the rough drawings.
I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

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No one has mentioned jumping with a small bag of flour, letting the flour out as you fall. A couple guys at my old DZ would do that every once in a while just for kicks, it still gives a smoke like look under canopy, without burning anything.

Well, I guess flour could spontaniously combust, but if that happened in freefall, I think you'd be screwed anyways.:P

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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B|Dont do like I did and read"hand held smoke"on the cannister,and proceed to duct tape to your leg on a water demo.When I finally hit the water it went shssssssssss!Third degree burns are a bitch!:D[:/].Yea you can wave it around in your yard but when it gets in freefall.......note....duct tape dosent tear too easy and this coonass was trying!

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b.a.r.inductries has developed a new cold casing extended burn color smoke cartridge strictly for sky diving.
final testing underway



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This is a 5 year old thread ya dug up to advertise, we got the idea, been hearing about your smoke for 6 months.
Cool burning -15.00 a bomb- etc. lets SEE SOME! ;)











~ "Pack Fast, Pull Low... and Date Your Riggers WIFE!" ~

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