Air Dropping Equipment

[MrDoolittle]

I am planning a trip that will require dropping gear/food/fuel from a plane onto a glacier. Any suggestions, based on actual experiences? How do you package the fuel, for example. Parachute?

Thanks a bunch,

-J

[snoboy]

There was an article on this in a CAJ or VOCJ, maybe fern or dru will have a better memory than me...

[MrDoolittle]

What is VOCJ, pardon my ignorance?

[snoboy]

Varsity Outdoor Club Journal.

 

UBC outings club... agtwhba

[fern]

 

Article is called 'Air Drop' , by Roland Burton.

 

It is in the Canadian Mountaineering Anthology edited by Bruce Fairley.

 

But it is mainly a humour piece, and very old school (1970 or so). Still a good read. They had instances of the bottoms of their whitegas jugs blasting right out on impact etc. I think the main lesson was to drop twice as much supplies as you need.

[jon]

Hey Doolittle, for $1000 the Russians will air drop in your favorite member of Nsync.

[Alpinfox]

Hey Doolittle, for $1000 the Russians will air drop in your favorite member of Nsync.

 

If they promise not to use a parachute that would be a good deal!

[MrDoolittle]

Sadly, you can't melt much snow with a dead boy-band singer.

 

And dropping 2x the gear means I would have to carry the other 1/2 back to the LZ after the trip is over. MAJOR SUCK!!

[AlpineK]

We dropped a bunch of stuff out of a plane when we went to Lotus Flower. We put most everything in these screw top 2 gal containers. The pilot did a bunch of circles where we had a 5 second window to drop stuff into Fairy Meadow. The pilot flew as low and slow as he could. We had a lot of canned food that survived in a semi mangled condition and one container hit a rock in a streambed and exploded.

 

I don't think I would drop a regular 1 gal white gas can. I'd pad a container and put a few metal fuel cans. Just make sure you have a back up plan if things explode, and don't use your $500 down parka as padding.

[Don_Serl]

see page 33 of the waddington guide - most of the "rules" gleaned from years of doing this in the old days are there.

bottom lines: carry enough fuel to "get by". don't mix heavy and light. mix categories between boxes - sometimes a box will disappear or get destroyed. don't worry too much about "low and slow" except for accuracy - the box is going terminal when it hits, anyway...

cheers,

[Dru]

I am planning a trip that will require dropping gear/food/fuel from a plane onto a glacier. Any suggestions, based on actual experiences? How do you package the fuel, for example. Parachute?

Thanks a bunch,

-J

 

are you planning to air drop coils on jordop's head?

 

if you drop enough extra fuel you won't have to ski out with all your shit. you can torch it and make a bonfire visible from Vancouver Island!

[crotch]

met some peeps last year that dropped a bag with pins and stoppers. their stoppers were right next to the pins and the wires got crimped by the edge of the angles on impact. so keep them wires and angles separated.

[lummox]

you can get parachutes like those that the firefighter use for cargo. i forget the name. they work great. nothing will be damaged. get em used at a surplus store then get someone who knows wtf they are doing to pack em for you. they deploy with a static cord. but put fuel in more than one bundle (all your eggs in one basket can be disasterous). it aint a bad idea to anchor youself while you shove the shit out the plane.

[Alex]

Speaking of which, can anyone lend some guidance on whether air drops onto a glacier is an acceptable practice inside a wilderness area (but outside NP boundaries)?

[lummox]

Speaking of which, can anyone lend some guidance on whether air drops onto a glacier is an acceptable practice inside a wilderness area (but outside NP boundaries)?

not. dont get caught.

[kurthicks]

yep, it's illegal.

[Squid]

This is the kind of thread that keeps me coming back to cc.com. Cool.

[foraker]

Dude, do what they do at Nasa Place

 

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA04999_modest.jpg

[Jake]

Speaking of which, can anyone lend some guidance on whether air drops onto a glacier is an acceptable practice inside a wilderness area (but outside NP boundaries)?

not. dont get caught.

 

Yeah - air dropping food in the Wilderness seems like such a dastardly act. The damage to the environment is unimaginable!

[lummox]

Speaking of which, can anyone lend some guidance on whether air drops onto a glacier is an acceptable practice inside a wilderness area (but outside NP boundaries)?

not. dont get caught.

 

Yeah - air dropping food in the Wilderness seems like such a dastardly act. The damage to the environment is unimaginable!

it is the damage to the wallet that is the worry.

[iain]

Yeah - air dropping food in the Wilderness seems like such a dastardly act. The damage to the environment is unimaginable!

It's not about damage to the ecosystem. It is about people don't want to look at your crap you leave behind in the wilderness. Like all that trash on everest. It doesn't damage the ecosystem, but it is an unacceptable and insulting eyesore.

[MrDoolittle]

Assuming that you leave stuff behind, which is never the plan.

 

I'm thinking cardboard boxes, burn em when your done, pack out the duct tape. I'd like to try a parachute system, just for fun, but don't really want to pack them out.

[Bug]

Parachutes burn amazingly fast. I got helied into a few fires with our gear dropped by plane first. We watched the gear land, then got dropped on a rdge nearby. One rail on the ridgge, one floating in air. We boogied down to the drop area and found everything intact. Now they longline everything in by helicopter. You might look up a few old packmasters from the airdrop days to get some hints.

One thing I remember is that everything was piled on light wood pallets made for the purpose. They definately absorbed alot of abuse.

[lummox]

if you got cheapass haul bags just pack em like to throw off el cap: empty and open water bottles on the bottom and a streamer to keep the thing upright. huck it and fuck it.