jumper03 0 #1 July 19, 2003 Being bored at work has it's dangers.... Now I know a skydiver with a smoke trail will never be able to draw out a Q in the sky but what about this.... Imagine, 10 or so divers exit and get them selves online at regular intervals (level or not isn't going to matter). Now, each of these divers has a smoke can and a PDA stuffed somewhere in their suit. One of the divers, has a PDA that is set up as the "server" and each PDA is connected to an altimeter and a wireless connection to the server. Each PDA is also connected to and controls the smoke release. As soon as the dive starts, the server PDA tells the rest what altitude they should release a puff at relative to itself and each PDA in turn releases it's puff. So in theory you can put a strip message in the sky like an old dot matrix printer. More divers, wider strip, use different colors, etc. So in Boston you could jump out and write "GO SOX" or some such trash. Questions for the gurus - how do the smoke cans work? Can they be switched on and off? or once they are on, they are on until they run out? Has anyone ever tried this? Damn I hate being at work on a nice saturday...... JumpScars remind us that the past is real Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LouDiamond 1 #2 July 19, 2003 Nice idea but a bit on the "hollywood" side as far as being realisticaly doable. On the PDA thing i take it you know how all that works so i won't go there. The smoke on the otherhand is an issue. Civillian smoke canisters have a pull cord and are non heat producing. Military M18 smoke is activated by removing the pin and allowing the spring tensioned striker to hit the primer which in turn ignites the fuze body inside the canister which then causes the solid mixture of magnesium and color to burn and pour smoke out from the opening on the bottom of the canister which is sealed with a piece of tape. Since both types of smoke require a manual release to initiate them the use of PDAs isn't an option to do what you described. The only option that might be possible would be to use an electrical match or squib to initiate the burn on a military smoke. Thats simple to rig up but the hard part would be figuring out how to have the PDA output the right electrical current to initiate the squib, if it even has the ability to output that much power. One would have to disassemble all the PDAS and configure them to accept a hook up to the squib. While this could be done somewhat easily say hooked up to a alarm function on the PDA , doing what you described may prove more dificult to do. I won't say it's impossible but for what you want to do with it , it seems a bit of a reach for the desired endstate. Besides the smoke stream would be in a continuous vertical line and would be hard to read as opposed to what skywriters do."It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required" Some people dream about flying, I live my dream SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkymonkeyONE 4 #3 July 19, 2003 Not military smoke. it's activated by means of a striker and a primer sort of like in the back of a bullet. Once it's burning (yes, it burns), there is no turning it off, just like the solid rocket boosters on a spacecraft. Still, there are skywriting groups out there that fly around in formation and lay out computer choreographed smoke generators. I saw the system in action over somewhere in New Jersey on my way back from The Ranch one year. Chuck Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pilotdave 0 #4 July 20, 2003 There's a company that does something like that with planes (6 or 8 T-6s that fly side by side). But all they have to do to generate smoke is to inject some oil into their exhausts. It would be a bit trickier for skydivers. Dave Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jumper03 0 #5 July 21, 2003 QuoteThere's a company that does something like that with planes (6 or 8 T-6s that fly side by side). But all they have to do to generate smoke is to inject some oil into their exhausts. It would be a bit trickier for skydivers. Dave Unless they all had bean burritos the night before. The method of smoke generation is going to be the hard part. I got some ideas but it's back to the lab now to see what I can cook up JumpScars remind us that the past is real Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
