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I love to track on skydives, (not that good at it though) a friend of mine came to visit me for a holiday, he's a base jumper & told me of the Smoking Pants increasing the track distence ( too much Vodka consumed to remember what he said).

Would they be of any use on a skydive tracking dive or not, this is just for my own information, thanks.

Mush

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Check out this thread, in which the Smoking Man himself discusses his creation.

OK, got it from that, way cool.

I know this is a BASE forum, BUT, are these only used for tracking dives in skydiving or can they be used for FF/ flat dives for better seperation after the dive, this is the last question,

Weelllll .. You CAN use them for FF/ flat dives for better seperation after the dive, but they are truly best suited for tracking. They inflate to create a larger surface area on the legs, something not well suited for regular skydiving.

I do highly recommend honing your tracking skills minus the Smoke Pants first. It doesn't take long to get good at tracking. Get some good tracking technique advice from a very good tracker and go practice a few times. Then throw on a pair of some homemade Smoke Pants and have a ball.

Hope that helps

Good thinking! Don't waste your money on a pair of high dollar Pantz. A good tracker in a pair of smoke pants is absolutely amazing. You might have to start smoking though.

I love tracking & not to take up any more time here, whats the best forum.

Cheers

Mush

Iv'e got a smoking t-shirt, bomb holes all over the place

I've taken my Smoking Pants on four skydives so far and just thought I could share my (limited) experience. First of all, I wouldn't say I'm an exceptionally bad tracker, but I do most of my tracking at break-offs from ff jumps, so I usually have a lot more vertical speed to transform to forward motion. The closest I've come to a base jump (or rather just a base exit) is the balloon described below.

On my first jump with the Pants, I was tracking over clouds, so the reference point for forward speed was a 1000 meters closer than usual. I was moving pretty fast, but my vertical speed was also quite above 200 kmh, which means I was flying in a very head low pose.

The second jump was from a balloon at 1000 meters, and, with all honesty, sucked completely. I kept rocking back and forth as the Pants tried to put me head low and I kept trying to get into a flatter position again. Also, I opened a bit low, but that had more to do with the thrill-seeking idiot part of me than with the Pants or loss of altitude awareness.

The last two jumps I did last week from 4000 meters and they were easily the best so far, although I suppose they were still quite average. I got 74 seconds of freefall on both of them, but I stopped the track at about 1300m and pulled at ~1100. Coming out of the track, I had a feeling similar to a dead-air exit as I suddenly started to accelerate downwards. My Neptune logged 130kmh at 2000m on one of the jumps, but I can't comment much more on vertical speeds until I see the graph of the dive. Anyway, I was flying well below terminal speed most of the time and covered (guesstimate from a map of the area) around 1500-2000 meters horizontally.

On the setup; my Pants have mesh inlets at the top which are a bit big, due to the fact that the first time I made them, the mesh tore and I had to make new holes. The crotch is quite high compared to Atle's Pants and I buckled mine around the ankles, not around the shoes. I wore a relatively tight fleece jacket on top.
On my tracking; I was really working my abs the whole time. My hands were more in a regular tracking position than a delta, palms cupped downward and close to the body, shoulders rolled in. I believe I went the slowest when my feet were pointing outward and back.
In conclusion, I could probably modify my Pants a bit (stitch them together at the crotch, buckle them around my heels) and wear a baggier rain jacket on top to get more efficient gear. A tracking dive in my usual ff suit would be good to compare speeds and distance covered, and of course, a few more jumps are needed for me to improve my tracking skills. And I suppose I'll see you at a terminal wall in a year or two.

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Do you think those two things could be related? If you move your arms out wider, does it help you stay out of the "head low" position?

I was thinking the exact thing. Many people trying the Birdman Pantz for the first time experience the same thing until they learn to adjust their arm position to get a horizontal body position. After that , it's cake.

Sorry, I was a bit vague on that. I held a relatively normal tracking position on the two dives that went well. On the balloon jump, I held my arms wider initially, but I don't remember where exactly I was putting them after the rocking started. (The whole jump was a bit of a sensory overload, as it was the first time I jumped a balloon)
[edited after I read Lou's post] I now think that the first two times I jumped witht he Pants, I was trying to compensate with my arms too much, spreading them too wide and making my upper body surface less efficient. On the two dives from 4000m, I just flew the way it felt flat (i.e., arms closer to the body, cupping as much air with my torso as possible)

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Down in Eloy, exiting from 13.5k and dumping at around 2k, I was consistently getting over 90 seconds of freefall (93, 97, 98 x 2, and 99) in an attempt to break 100 seconds in my Pantz (I have the BASE version). I don't fly arms apart at all and don't wear anything excessively baggy on my arms, either. Instead, I just fly a little head high, making the "peak" of my d-arch higher up on my back instead of at the hips. I found that I was falling faster and had far less forward speed with arms out or with a freefly jacket on.

I only have a couple of jumps on my smoking suit (pants and jacket). My Pantz fall rate is better and forward speed is significantly better, but I've also taken the time to figure out how to fly them. I also may need to make the cuffs a wee bit tighter on my smoking suit to maintain inflation (though I didn't lose much air to begin with).

I'm maintaining about 78 - 82 MPH down in my Pantz vs 84 - 90 in my smoking suit. I think I could get a better fall rate in my smoking suit if I worked at it, but always a better glide ratio in my Pantz. Now if they come out with that jacket... hmmm...