Wingsuit Ash Flight - help / ideas needed

[fergs 0]

We lost Darryl last month. He’d been in a coma for the past 16 years and despite his body fighting off all adversaries over the years, a sudden cold quickly developed into pneumonia and he slipped away overnight.

Darryl had been a keen and talented skydiver before the motorcycle accident that caused his coma. In fact I guess it was myself who'd had the privilege of instructing his first jump course and seeing him develop into a safe experienced jumper. He also became a very good friend.

I could write for ages on Darryl and events that took place before and during his coma – but really prefer to focus on the reason for this post.

Darryl’s family has asked me to scatter his ashes. In fact, his mother passed away a few months back – and I’ve been asked to take them skydiving together. Darryl’s son wants to be a part of the jump, but as a non-skydiver, his only way to be in the air with Darryl is as a tandem passenger.

I really want to take Darryl on his first (and last) wingsuit skydive.

So the plan at this stage is to mix Darryl and his mum’s ashes together and split them – some for his son to release in tandem free-fall and the rest for me to release in a wingsuit flight on the same load.

So here’s the question. I am trying to work out the safest way to take and release ashes during wingsuit flight (the tandem ash release will be a more conventional procedure). I’ve discounted having anything attached to or held by hand – due to the potential hazards that would be created.

So I think that only leaves three possibilities.

The first is to design a canister and foot-mount, not unlike a free-fall smoke setup. The canister may need only to have a number of holes that are covered by tape in the aircraft – tape ripped off prior to exit and then ashes are blown out during my flight.

Second thought is to unpick part of the trailing edge seams of middle two back deflector cells (S3) and put the ashes inside the two cells. Then the ashes would be progressively blown out in flight.

Third thought is to fill each cell of the arm deflector with as much ash as possible. Hold all in with gaffer tape – tape off prior to exit and have it simply blow out in flight.

So what great minds out there can come up with a solution / design for Darryl and his mum?

Remember, the solution can work for all of us at some time in the future when we are making our own final flight compliments of one of our wingsuiting friends.

At the end of the day, Darryl will have a wingsuit flight. He’ll also have his last skydive.

Please help me design the best and safest method of helping Darryl. Thanks,

Blue Skies,

fergbird

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

My first thoughts are that, out of the three, the foot canister idea seems most viable. I have done two ash release dives, but on both occasions we held them in the typical velcro-closed bag and released them out in front of us (once with me as TM to the son of the deceased). I can't see any way to use a standard bag in your application. What springs to mind is a bag, much like a long sock, with "cuffs" on the ends which would be held taut between your ankles and right at the end of your leg-wing (but not attached to the suit per se.) You could rig it closed in the middle or linearly with an LQRS handle. If closed in the middle, like linked sausage, you could close off the two separate ends with a loop and three grommets, just like an army duffel bags. Instead of closing the "duffel" ends with a metal snap, you simply run one LQRS cable (separate of course) through both of the loops (which run through the grommets, closing each end of the sausage bag setup). You attach the cable to the back of your tail wing and over to your left hip with gaffer tape, thus allowing for a big "puff of smoke" release at your leisure. Once you pull the handle, both sections of bag release each other and the ends come open. Kicking your feet will ensure that both bags empty quickly.

Just my thoughts.

Chuck

[jmfreefly 0]

Don't even think about putting it in your suit, it will be a mess. Ash will easily stain. Just take a look at the trim tape on this ash bag, post deployment.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=26659;

I was thinking as a foot mount, like smoke. Like chuck suggested, I would choose a cutaway mechanism to open the bag. I would probably go for a slow deployment over a 'burst'. With all that altitude, the bag will have plenty of time to empty. (it will probably leave a 'contrail' cloud too, if it is the right conditions).

The only thing about a cutaway is what happens to the cable after you pull it. Maybe you could rig a shock cord to pull it back close to the body. Ah, I got it..

Make the cable between your legs, so that after exit, you spread your legs for flight, that it opens the bag. You just have to be careful not to spread them in the plane.

But, by all means, test jump the mount with flour beforehand.

j