This summer, I had the opportunity to fly Smokejumpers in Alaska. I’ve been a pilot for a while, but didn’t know anything about the smoke jumper world, nor had I spent much time up in Alaska. Both peaked my curiosity... so I packed my bags and spent the summer learning about a unique and talented group of individuals, the Alaska Smokejumpers.
If you're wondering how a group of fire-fighters jump out of a plane to stop a forest fire, you are not alone. I had many questions about this myself. The short and over-simplified answer is: Smokejumpers are deployed for generally small(er) fires to help stop and prevent them from becoming large(r) and uncontrollable fires. So, the reason you don’t often hear about Smokejumpers and the fires they manage is because if they do their job right, the fire will never become news worthy.
I want to start out by saying, flat out, that I really like these guys (and gals). Their culture reminded me a lot of my time in the military, but with a lot more personality mixed in. I’ve heard Smokejumpers called the “Hippie Special Forces” and while that example might be a bit abstract, it does capture a lot of their culture.
As you walk through their rigging loft (*where they make and repair their parachuting equipment), you will find a variety of taxidermy animals.... some of which might be wearing a Dr. Sues hat.
This flare for creative self-expression is evident at all levels of the Smokejumper culture, and is something that I really liked. They have mastered walking a fine line of being "the very best at what they do", while also "not taking themselves too seriously". Being surrounded by people like that was for me....a breath of fresh air.
While getting around the various Smokejumper bases in Alaska, bicycles and skateboards are the main form of transportation. I was inspired by the jumpers to get a skateboard for my 40th birthday this summer. Minus one epic fall while learning how to push with my back foot (I learned as a kid to push with my front foot), I’ve knocked most of the rust off my basic skateboarding ability. I can still wheelie a bicycle pretty darn good, so..... I’ve got that trick down at least.
An example of the artistic and creative talent amongst the jumpers can be found on the front of this tug. Between the giant ape-hanger handlebars on some of the bikes, and the custom painted artwork, I often felt strong "burning man vibes" around the Smokejumper base.
As you might expect from a group of “hippies”, they have a large and flourishing garden on the property, and it wasn’t uncommon to find one of the jumpers, or a lady friend, cleaning salmon from a recent fishing adventure on one of their rare days off.
Juxtaposition was a theme that seemed to replay itself many times over the summer. A small example of that can be seen here: next to a thriving flower box are the decaying remains of animals, bones and antlers that were most likely found while out fighting a fire and brought back as decorations. You can also see a Pulaski leaned against the fence. A weapon used to bring down trees and cut brush in a violent manner, delicately placed next to a bed of flowers tended by the jumpers themselves.
If you assumed that a building with an array of pull-up bars in front of it has a strong culture of refining you physical abilities, you would be correct. Every morning the jumpers all work out, which is smart considering part of their job requires them to walk around in the woods with a 100+ lb backpack.
Regardless of their age or gender, a common thread amongst the jumpers is they are all physically fit. During rookie training, the physical stress generally eliminates the insincere candidates as well as those who are not physically/mentally up for the job. They remind me of the kind of people I would go to war with. Along that same theme, most of the jumpers are highly competitive.
It would show during the afternoon pickle-ball matches;-)
Well.... I might as well share a little bit about my contribution to the Smokejumper world during this trip. I spent the summer as a co-pilot in a DHC-8. When actually deploying jumpers, we fly at a generally low altitude and the air is often quite smokey. But on this flight, we were lucky with clear skies and amazing visibility. Pretty KAVU really...... not a bad view from the “office”!
The DHC-8 100 series is a large, transport category, multi-engine turbo prop aircraft. If you see an airliner flying around that has propellers on it, it is likely a 400 series -8, the bigger brother of this same lineage of aircraft from De Havilland. The DHC-8 is popular around the world because of it’s robust design and excellent flying performance.
The baggage door was modified to allow it to be opened in flight. If you look at the leading edge of the door, you can see small air deflectors that give the jumpers a small pocket of calm air before hitting the full force of the prop blast when jumping out.
Inside the plane are large pallets of cargo which are physically pushed out of the plane after the jumpers land. These bundles carry the bulk of the gear the jumpers will use. The pallets can contain food, water, sleeping bags, axes, chainsaws, fuel, pumps, hose and anything else a jumper might need while fighting a wilderness fire.
It was interesting to see what the jumpers wear. Imagine taking a hockey player and putting a parachute on them. That’s about the closest comparison I can make to the amount of protective gear the jumpers use.
Rightly so.... as many of their landing areas are covered in rocks, roots, downed trees, boulders and other unmarked obstacles. The jumpers uniform embodies the saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. I’ll let the face mask and mouthpiece speak for themselves if you want to take a guess regarding the challenges of landing parachutes in the wilderness. However, most of the time the jumpers are using their skill and experience to avoid injury, and the body armor is more of a back-up.
When the siren goes off at the base, the jumpers have three minutes to get their gear on and to be walking out to the plane. The plane is expected to be airborne within 15 minutes and both of those are pretty quick timelines to make.
Basically, when the siren goes off, everyone moves with a sense of urgency.
Once airborne, we fly the plane to a lat/long where the fire is reported. A suitable parachute landing zone is identified and streamers are thrown to calculate the wind-drift. The jumpers exit the plane from 3,000’ AGL and then the pilots get to have their fun.
Cargo passes are flown at 250’ AGL. This is a real treat! There aren't many flying jobs where you get to fly a transport category aircraft at low-level in the mountains. The reason for the low-level cargo drops is that the less time the parachute is in their air, the less time it has to drift, allowing very accurate placement of the equipment. Every now and then a parachute lands in a tree and the jumpers simply climb it and cut the equipment down. As the pilot, you can expect to get heckled if you “tree” a cargo chute. All part of the fun.
This is the last fire we dropped jumpers on for the season. You can see above the smoke, in the open field the little dots..... those are the jumpers and cargo parachutes. This is an example of a small fire that the jumpers will contain to prevent it from potentially destroying thousands of acres.
After dropping the jumpers and cargo, we fly back to base and wait for the next fire call. The jumpers will be out on the fire for as short as a couple days, or as long as a couple weeks.
When they get back, the prepare their gear to be ready for the next fire call, and make any necessary repairs to their equipment. You wouldn’t expect it from their rough and tough exterior, but many of the smoke jumpers are experts with a sewing machine.
If you are wondering who packs their parachutes.... you can guess who does that, the Smokejumpers!
They pack all their own chutes. Not all of them love doing it, as is the case with civilian skydivers as well, but they all know how to do it.
Before I knew it, the temperature began to cool off, the trees changed color, and it started to rain in Alaska. My first Smokejumper pilot season ended just as fast as it began. They say "time flies when you’re having fun", and this summer flew right by. I began the season worried that I would stand out with my long hair (I was happy to learn beards and long hair are common with Smokejumpers), and ended the season with a skateboard and pickle-ball paddle, determined to be better at both things before returning next summer to Alaska.
I can’t speak highly enough of the Smokejumpers and the unique world they live in. They are a breed of their own, the best in the world at what they do.... and, an absolute blast to work with.
Thanks for letting me play my small part in the world of Smokejumping....
....and see you all next year!
Neil Amonson KAVU
IG
FB
Absolute Flight Training
© 2026 KAVU
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