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Hi Phil, There it is in a nutshell. Bill E just wants to continually confuse the discussion with his red herrings; that have nothing to do with the discussion. That is the killings from Columbine to Uvalde. Jerry Baumchen

Husband has been an AFF I for 20 years, I/E for over 10. We've talked about this stuff quite a bit. BITD, the cert course was a test and you best not fuck it up. You likely weren't at your home dz, you probably didn't know the evaluators (who's job description included being assholes) and they ramped up the pressure to 11. Your only jumps at the course were evaluation jumps. With rare exceptions, if you went home with a rating you earned and deserved it. Yes, there were flaws in the system, but it produced excellent AFFI's. Today the courses are usually held at the candidate's dz. Often one or more of the evaluators are local jumpers.The first few days are practice jumps. A candidate doesn't start doing actual eval jumps until they are "ready". A candidate could do all of their practice jumps and all of their eval jumps with the same evaluator. While the course material may be exactly the same, the pressure put on the candidate is far less than 20 years ago. I'd submit that in many cases the candidates are too comfortable throughout the course. Being an AFF instructor isn't always comfortable and fun. Becoming one shouldn't be either. Practice jumps and evaluation jumps should be done with different evaluators. Each evaluation jump should be done with a different evaluator. Evaluators should not be from the candidates dropzone. Perhaps a return to the old method of the cert course being the test - if you need practice beforehand, take a pre-course. Show up at the cert course ready to have your ass handed to you. Candidates flying skills.There's a big difference between belly fliers and freefliers, Belly fliers can usually pull an exit without funneling it; linked exits to belly are challenging for those who primarily freefly and you can't learn or practice exits in the tunnel. What wasn't so obvious to me is that many freefliers and those who have been primarily camera fliers or TM's have issues closing on a spinning student and even with staying close enough after release - they aren't used to being that close to anybody in freefall. There are some folks who are chasing the AFF Examiner rating primarily to have it - as in I have all the other ones, this is the last and most prestigious one to have. Others are doing the bare minimum to keep the rating (one course every two years). Neither of these groups add anything to the examiner pool in terms of quality - if you aren't doing at least a couple courses per year, are you really current at skydiving like shit? (that's a joke btw - it's way harder than it looks to skydive that bad) Can't blame the examiners for rating a candidate who meets the standards. Even if the examiner has a bit of a question in the back of their mind, the minimums were met. Can't pass Bob and fail Steve if they both met the same performance standards because you think Steve might not has what it takes in some intangible way. C's get degrees. How does an examiner keep the "got a feeling about this one" candidate who meets the minimums from being rated without it looking political or personal? Every skydive has video. These things can be checked. I'd hope that all examiners have zero desire to rate someone who they don't think has what it takes. I'd hope that all examiners have the ability to tell when someone doesn't have what it takes. Regardless, they have to rate someone who meets the minimums. If you know an Examiner, talk to them about your concerns. It's likely they share some of them.

Yet it is these same people who want the government to control what women can (and cannot) do with their own bodies, and whom someone can (and cannot) marry. Lack of education has consequences.

This has always been an interesting report. Did any followup occur? More 302s about it? Did the guy spotted have a bag or a brief case? Any real evidence dredging spoils at the Lewis mouth were transported to Tena Bar? If that can be proved then we may have the source of the Ingram money and fragments ? People may be missing something important about the diatoms and money. Simply, what condition were the bills in when exposed to diatoms? Were they new bills with full borders or already deteriorated bills like that turned in by the Ingrams? What does the distribution Tom found suggest ? If the bills were already deteriorated when exposed to diatoms, that sets a time limit on when diatoms and money came into contact. If it could be proved that Lewis River sediments were transported to Tena Bar the Lewis could be the source of the Cooper money. That could open a whole new chapter in the case. Its also worth noting again that nobody saw money at Tena Bar beach prior to the Ingram discovery, and neither did the Ingrams. It took the act of kids digging to expose money! The money was buried under sand. More time and erosion might have exposed it to view of fishermen. But that had not happened yet until the Ingram children happened to be probing and digging ... and the Lewis River has always been a favorite target with respect to the flight path and the timing of Cooper's jump window... the Lewis area could be key to everything. Any chance Tom can get some of the fragments to test for diatoms ??????????????

Damn. You just gave me a bad headache with this! I think for human intervention to be considered, we need to start with the one human that we knew had the money, and that is Cooper himself. Maybe he hid the money somewhere close to the Columbia with the intention of retrieving it later? Perhaps he tossed the money in the Columbia knowing that the serial numbers were being checked and he though he wouldn't be able to spend it. Maybe something spooked him and he decided to toss the money. Maybe seeing McCoy get busted red handed with his ransom in his home made him decide to toss it in the spring of 72? So may possibilities. Either of these may not be what happened, but no need to move the flight path or landing zone with these scenarios. I'm a pessimist about pretty much everything. Glass half empty. But I don't think we will ever know how that money wound up in the Columbia and onto Tena Bar. Even if we find out who Cooper is.

This is interesting,, Bill Rollins posted a video about his suspect but he also tracked down a woman who saw a man walking West in black slacks and white dress-type shirt and he identified Lewis River Road and the cross street as Fredrickson Road. The man was approx. 6 ft, medium build, dark short hair and 30-40 yrs.. That street location had been redacted in the FBI file.. This location is right under the flightpath right at the 8:10 time. It is the northern end of Cooper's LZ just N of the Lewis River. The woman seems very credible... the description and location match Cooper.. Bill Rollins video..

No doubt that on a percentage basis that's correct. The actual number of hunters has remained fairly stable. They contribute approximately $38 billion to the economy including $12 billion in taxes and license fees toward. Those funds are used for conservation and they perform a critical service in wildlife management. Hunters are not the problem. The defund the police actions and the increase in crime are two reasons folks have been buying guns. The Obama years were record breaking for gun sales.

That is problem and lure of the Cooper Vortex... I have gone through and tried to list all the info we have on Cooper for a profile and we actually have very few facts.. lots of inferences but few hard facts. You can question almost everything. It is like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle with only 40% of the pieces for that puzzle, 30% are from a completely different puzzle and 30% is missing/unknown..

Looking back at my 1,000 jump in 2007.....was a 16 way. 4 of my buds have made their last track into the sunset. Tell your friends that you love them and wish them well!!

I was in the left trail plane and followed the wrong person on a 75 way. Realized my mistake and flew all the way over to the other side, cutting people off as I went! Still docked in my slot. I thought it was an excellent example of some awesome flying but I was disabused of that belief at the de-brief!