Flying with and refilling Snowpulse Airbag canister / cylinder

[tobyskier]

I recently bought a Snowpulse Airbag and thought I would collate some info from Jackass and add my own experiences to give people a better idea of what's involved in flying with the Airbag canister:

Jackass post 1 (also posted elsewhere on TGF):

So here I am, flying from Amsterdam to Jackson Hole with my Snowpulse 30 liter pack (WITHOUT the American 3000 psi cylinder) as carry on and the pressurized cylinder in my checked luggage. Afterwards I found out that is somewhat legal (or somewhat illegal) because I was technically on a rescue mission. The good news was that whoever is in charge of checked luggage safety in Amsterdam airport never blew the whistle on the cylinder, neither at any checkpoints (for checked luggage) in Chicago and Denver, my stops and plane changes on the way to the sickest ski mountain south of Valdez.

Going back was a different story. Seeing the big screening tunnels for checked bagage, I'd figured it would be wise to tell the airline I was on a rescue mission. The station manager of UA came over and said: I don't give a damn if you're on a rescue mission or if somebody will die or not, but this cylinder can only fly on my airplane if you empty it. After some - I stayed fairly nice, because the UA station manager is still alive - discussion, I pulled the handle and inflated the Snowpulse airbag right in the check-in area. Gave the folks some air for their refusal of listening to my rescue mission BS story.

Then about every (in JH airport there are about 60 TSA officers, so it seemed) TSA person started to make comments about the EMPTY cylinder. Finally the big TSA chief (he with the nicest character......) himself came over and explained the rule that they must look inside the cylinder and the valve housing must come off. I drove into town (in a blinding snowstorm), run into Hoback Sports (coolest Sport shop in the lower 48's), ran to their vise, got hold of their largest wrench and unscrewed the valve housing. Did some illegal fast driving back to the JH airport, only to find out my flight was cancelled because of weather conditions.

This is what I arranged with the Snowpulse manufacturer once I got back to Europe:

1. I took the somewhat official Snowpulse online course for filling the cylinder myself.
2. After I graduated this course with honours, I had Snowpulse send me a refill kit (O-rings, grease, etc)
3. I bought for about 50 bucks a SCUBA-paintball adapter. Note there is also SCUBA DIN-paintball adapter, but these go to 300 bar which is way too much).
4. I bought an adapter for SCBA (that is the stuff the fire department uses) to SCUBA.

Now I can travel around the world with my empty cylinder, with the valve housing on the cylinder (this time without loctite ;-) when I fly towards Uncle Sam and with the valve housing unscrewed when I depart from a country with a high density of TSA people. When I have to fill the cylinder, I have three choices: A paintball area, club or shop, a diving shop or club, or a fire department. And no, you cannot fill the cylinder in a gasstation. In a gasstation you can get gas, candies, drinks, newspapers, rubbers, air for your tires up to about 100 psi, but no 3000 psi air...............

Hope this helps from this - slightly bona fide because of low post count - pow addict.

__________________________________________________ ________

Jackass private communication with me (with his permission):

some considerations:

1. for usa airports where tsa people could (it varies from person to person) demand to look into the cylinder, whether it is in the hold or cabin bagage, I recommend to unscrew the valve housing from the cylinder. note snowpulse put loctite on the threads, so you need a big wrench to hold the cylinder and another big wrench to unsrew the valve housing. between the valve housing and the cylinder is a big o ring, don't loose it ! after this first time, you don't need wrenches anymore to unscrew the valve housing. obviously you only want to unscrew the valve housing when the cylinder is EMPTY !
btw: I am in contact with snowpulse about the need of the loctite.......

2. if you have the adapter and the american (larger) cylinder, refilling is a cinch. just make sure the scuba tank is filled to the maximum (a little over 200 bar) from the scuba air compressor station.
mount the adapter on the scuba tank, fill the snowpulse cylinder slowly, close the valve on the scuba tank, let off the pressure in the adapter, unhook the cylinder and cool it down (it get't warm because of the filling) with snow, cold water or ice water. top off the scuba tank again to the max pressure available from the scuba compressor. remount the adapter and top of the snowpulse cylinder. after it't cooled down again, the pressure indicator should be on the green spot. if it's lower, you must ask the scuba station operator to put a little bit more pressure in the scuba tank you used for filling, and try to top off again.

3. don't forget to get the snowpulse filling kit, with small o rings, grease, needlenose pliers, etc. and study their manual online very very carefully. you want to make sure everything works when you pull the handle ;-)

although these instructions seem daunting at first, after some trials (I mean the filling) everything falls into place. I am convinced the snowpulse has 2 great advantages over abs: 1. you can travel with it in airplanes (when it's empty ofcourse), 2. it protects your neck.

last comment: some heliski operators are afraid it may go off accidentally and blow the skibin open, etc. chuck gorton, the n a snowpulse distributor helped me out one time when I ran into this problem. he sent an email to the heliski operator, explaining the snowpulse is a venturi operated bag and cannot blow out windows or bins. if an operator still forbids you to use a snowpulse, tell him/her it's okay with you, but they are ofcourse liable (even if you signed a waiver) for restricting you to use a safety device. they will then back off........

have fun and stay alive,

jack

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My own experience:

I deployed the airbag before flying, and put the yellow plastic caps over the knobs at top of cylinder. The pressure gauge clearly showed zero pressure. Each time I flew I had the whole Snowpulse Airbag backpack with cylinder as my carry-on luggage.

1. Geneva airport: Inspector at scanner called over the in charge inspector who was familiar with canister and airbag and after checking pressure gauge let me through.

2. Munich airport: Inspectors at scanner didn't even ask to see canister but asked a few questions about the Marker Duke bindings which I had strapped to the outside of my Snowpulse backpack.

3. Istanbul airport: Inspectors at scanner wanted to see canister and after explination of its use, and reinforcing that when full it is NOT filled with anything explosive, let me through.

4. Melbourne airport (Australia, domestic terminal): Inspector called manager who called airline representative. All came down and had a discussion over about 30min, and eventually let me through. Although I carry all the documentation that comes with the pack (on a CDROM) on my laptop, they didn't want to see it.

5. Sydney airport (international): Inspectors at scanner didn't even ask to look in my bag.

I did unscrew the valve housing from the canister on Jackass' advice and this was possible just with bare hands. There didn't appear to be any loctite on my cylinder (there was a small amount of sealant). You do need to buy a new o-ring from any local hardware store to replace the one that is present over this thread.

When I arrived in Santiago, Chile, I got in contact with Mark Jones at Chilean Heliski (http://chileanheliski.com/) who is also the Chilean Snowpulse distributor. He has a cylinder with all the attachements, although he did want an o-ring (which I had). He charged me about $30USD (can't remember exact amount) to refill the canister. In fact he exchanged my empty one with a full one he had just because we were kind of rushed for time.

Well, I hope that info helps.

[Toby]

I haven't had problems with my ABS bag (in European, Australian and Japanese airports) but I've always got permission way in advance from the airline, and travelled with the bag as carryon but the cylinders/triggers as checked baggage.

[mikedski]

Thanks for the info, guys. I've faced similar challenges over the past year and a half. After my first experience at the airport I just started emptying the cylinder before leaving (the last thing I wanted to do is re-pack in a hurry).

The biggest challenge I've faced since then is just finding a place to re-fill. It's not nearly as easy as I thought it would be. Last season I bought another full cylinder and left it with friends in Europe, so now I have one in NA and one in Europe. Of course, not everyone can do this. I'd love to see a cylinder bank in all the key places (AK, Cham, Colorado, Utah, Santiago, Whistler, etc.) so you could just rent one for your trip. I don't know how realistic it is, but it would sure make life easier.

[Poop~Ghost]

Mine got yanked on my return flight from euro-land to US.

Got permission in advance, checked with TSA, declared it during check in, etc. ... wrapped it up nice and had all the proper paperwork taped to the container... still got yanked.

Got a nasty certified mail from FAA that I had not notified them that I was trying to move haz-mat. I had to type up 2 pages of explanation and fax it in to them.

Lost bottle. Thankfully I had a spare at home.

Moral of the story, they clearly don't have their shit together between check-in and the guys x-raying bags at stop overs.

[Toby]

The half-assed TSA is a big reason why I'm not particularly interested in visiting the USA anytime soon.

I wonder what difficulties old invalid people in wheelchairs with oxygen bottles have to go through? Is it as difficult? Same thing, a pressurised bottle.

[Ripzalot]

some guy emailed me for last minute questions on flying to verbier with his snowpulse last season. found that the US and Euro versions are compatible with each others cylinders so i rec'd that he leave his at home and found a shop in Verbier to rent one. i think he ended up getting one for about 30chfs for several days (or a week?) of use. saves a bunch of money on blowing filled tanks both ways just to fly with it.

TSA are a bunch of retards. i called them twice just as a test and two different people told me two different things. and if their infoline can't get it right consistently, i don't hold much faith in the ground crew.

[ishotit]

I just flew with my Snowpulse Guide 30 from Toronto to Vancouver on Air Canada. No problem.

I figured I'd be fine after checking this information online,

http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelin...che_equipement

I thought I'd play it safe when checking in, so I told the agent my baggage contained and avalanche airbag. She asked me what it was, and when I explained that it was a self-inflating avalanche vest with a compressed air cartridge, she didn't seem to care. I had to take my ski bag to oversize baggage where they x-rayed it. The operator didn't seem to find issue with what she saw and sent my gear on its happy way.

Here I am in Whistler and I thought I'd add one more data point to the knowledge base for all the worried airbag-carrying travellers out there.

YMMV.

[SmittyNYUSA]

That is a GREAT idea! Only problem is that there are too many different systems out there.
Now if the manufacturers would get together and all use the same bottle connector and trigger, then ski shops would only have to stock one type.
I have shipped my tank a few times, I put it in a well packed box (filled) and MAIL by US Post office withing the USA. Yes, I know it's illegal but it works, I'm a bad, bad boy! I don't think I would try this internationally.

[JCCW100]

I don't usually post here but I thought it might be helpful to add my experiences as I do quite a lot of flying with a Snowpulse/Mammut system.

In all countries other than the USA I have had no problems flying with a non-refillable, 300 bar, 249 ml, steel cylinder. I carry a copy of the IATA Table 2.3A and the Snowpulse data sheet for the cylinder (both available on the Snowpulse website) - I put a copy of the documents with the cylinder in its box with it's protective cap on and I generally inform the carrier before I get to the airport but always tell them at check-in. I carry a second set of the documents with me and show these at check-in and make sure that the relevant sections are highlighted. So far I've always carried the cylinder in hold baggage and carried the backpack (against Snowpulse advice) but that is only because I got more trouble at baggage checks carrying the cylinder in the backpack then when putting it in the hold.

As I say I have had no problems at all flying all over Europe and Canada like this.

Flying within the US is a whole different matter. To be safe you have to assume the TSA are as dumb as they generally are. DO NOT think of trying to board a flight in the US (or transferring) with a cylinder that cannot be completely opened for inspection i.e. is empty and has had the valve loosened or removed so it can be opened if they ask. This means the non-refillable steel cylinder and carbon cartridge are not an option. Even using a refillable 207 bar, aluminium cylinder with a contents gauge (despite what you may hear) is really difficult - to the extent it is not even worth trying to talk your way through with an empty cylinder if it can't be opened unless you are happy to risk losing the cylinder.
The TSA are generally not remotely interested that the cylinder shows as being empty or even if you discharge it in front of them in the airport. The only safe way to approach this is to unscrew the whole manifold from the cylinder in advance of security so that you can open it up and let them look inside. This not just a matter of taking the top assembly off that houses the copper trigger cap above the contents gauge but taking the whole valve off which screws into the shoulders of the aluminium vessel.

I believe older cylinders may have had their valves thread-locked on but the new generation are not as difficult to take apart as you'd think. If you invert the cylinder in a vice and clamp the lower part of the valve (below the contents gauge, closest to the cylinder) then a reasonably strong person can actually twist the cylinder by hand to open. If that is too tough a strap wrench securely holding the cylinder works to twist it off. Re-assembly at the other end is just a matter of reversing the process, being careful to reseat the O ring as you screw the valve back in and making sure the valve is seated properly and tightened securely; details are on the Snowpulse website in the document on flying with an avi bag

I then carry the cylinder with the valve loosened in the backpack as carry-on (you want to be there to explain if there are problems), carry both relevant datasheets (IATA and one for the re-fillable cartridge) and am ready to open the cylinder if asked.

Good luck

[emmakmarshall]

Thanks for this post. It helped us a lot in a recent trip from Los Angeles to Anchorage. As @jccw100 says.... the US is a whole different ball game. For us Alaskan Airways specifically states that you cannot fly with avalanche airbag cylinders. This is what we did:

1) Dismantled the airbag cylinders using a strap wrench and a wrench:




2) Pack up the cylinder box with the dismantled air cylinder and documents (as per snowpulse website)... we ziplocked the top of the cylinder so not to loose the rubber ring



3) Make it really obvious that the cylinder is completely empty (we put 'Look Here' on a kebab skewer so it was obvious the cylinder is empty) and then wrote on the box in big letters that the cylinder has been dismantled. This got through TSA no worries on all flights (LAX - Anchorage ; Anchorage to Seattle to LAX):



4) You need to find somewhere to refill the cylinders - we found dive shops in Anchorage were really helpful. In addition we travelled with the strap wrench so we could dismantle for the way back.... (For the wrench we went into Walmart and borrowed one on the shelf - but loads of ppl have wrenches you can borrow)!!

Good luck and hope this helps some people

[rod9301]

I assume flying with the cylinders is a problem even if they are in the checked baggage.

[adrenalated]

I assume flying with the cylinders is a problem even if they are in the checked baggage.

Yes, you're likely to just get your cylinder confiscated if you put it in your checked luggage (empty or full). Take it carry on, and do what the dude above did. That way you can politely explain to the TSA agent what's up.