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No. Ten years ago most conservatives, liberals, and moderates supported being able to have rational discussions with people that had disagreements on policies. They could disagree on issues without needing to vilify the individual. There was some common understanding of the importance of facts. Back then I would have considered myself a conservative except for my positions on personal liberties like marriage equality and abortion rights. Lots of my skydiving friends were way more liberal than 10 year younger me. I didn't want to destroy any of them, and I could have polite constructive conversations with them where we actually could debate the reasons behind our positions. Ten years later I absolutely wouldn't consider myself a conservative. Not because my views have changed that drastically, but because the right has sprinted off towards extremism while I remained mostly sane. I don't want to destroy the GOP, I just would like them to return to reality. I would like for there to be a sanity check around personal liberties, I would like a return to some amount of civility, and I would like people to go back to respecting facts and intellectual honesty. There are currently over a million conservatives who actually believe in the validity of QAnon. There are people way too many people that genuinely believe all of Trump's election fraud falsehoods. Lets not forget all of the anti-science and insane quackery during the peak of covid. Horse dewormer anyone? I didn't willfully sign up to have that be a significant part of my nations political environment. I don't want to destroy them, but some mental healthcare would be a compassionate response.

Flyjack wrote: “Also, I don't think there is necessarily a significant difference in functionality between 24 and 26 foot chutes as people make it out to be,,, The 26 ft container was originally a 24 ft,, and 24 was more common in WW2.. Also, chutes of different sizes can have the same descent rate.. Cossey "claimed" he made them the same descent rate.” As far as I know there was only one 26 ft military canopy and that was the famous 26 ft Navy Conical. It wasn’t the same “flat circular” design as T5 or C9 canopies. It had far better stability and a slower descent rate than the common 24 ft round military canopies. I owe my life to a 26 ft Navy Conical that was my plan B canopy (reserve) back in 1972 when I had a high speed malfunction on my 28 ft C9 main. I did a cutaway and did a soft standup landing under that wonderful reserve. it’s true that canopies of different sizes can have similar descent rates. But trust me, if you have a choice, you DEFINITELY want to be under a 28 ft C9 or 26 ft Navy Conical rather than a 24 ft military round. The mil surplus 24 ft ripstop reserves used by skydivers were no fun to land especially for heavier jumpers. Certain death or injury? Of course not. Look at all the WW2 aircrew who landed without injury under 24 ft rounds. But they upped the injury risk compared to larger canopies. My late friend Paul Spellman was a WW2 P 47 pilot. Retired flying DC 8 airliners. I asked him about parachutes and training. He said he never jumped and had only cursory instruction on how to use his parachute. He said, basically they just told you to get clear of the aircraft and pull the ripcord. He had no idea what size or type canopy was in his military container. 377

Here is a WW2 inspection card for a seat bailout rig... kept in the chute pocket https://www.lux-military-antiques.com/en/p/usaaf-an-6510-1-seat-pack-parachute-dated-1942.htm and WW2 pilot training chute cards... https://www.ebay.com/itm/384252693681

Possible it was misread. But that’s exactly how Cary Grant communicated in North by Northwest.

There was a chute found in the South Fork Lewis between the Heisson Bridge and Lucia Falls,, about a mile from the Heisson store. Approx. 4-5 mile drift from the FP at 8:13.. The River has big floods.. The chute was never looked at because it was described as orange and white... Cossey claimed the chute was all white.. but his description was unreliable. Its proximity to Heisson store and FP make it interesting.. and railroad tracks follow the River there and go past Heisson store..

Here's the story from the son of the gentleman in question: The son said that ten days after NORJACK, his father and his father's best friend (who had recently been discharged from the military) were down by the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 9.6 . While down by the Vancouver side near the water, they found a parachute canopy snagged on a log under the bridge. The father's friend immediately recognized it as a military canopy. With the recent Cooper hijacking on their minds, they left and called the Vancouver PD. The dispatcher literally laughed at them on the phone and never even bothered to file a report. They went back the next day and the canopy was gone. I do not know which branch of the military the friend was in. If he had been in the Navy and recognized a Navy-style chute, then that's pretty remarkable IMO. For reference, Tena Bar is approximately 10 miles downstream from this location. I have the names of those involved, but the father is very ill and the friend is deceased. The son of the friend is alive and well, and could provide additional details about his father's experience, but the name is very common so a search for him has proved fruitless.

Beyond speculation we can't know why he chose one over the other... The BIG takeaway is that the FBI was looking for the wrong chute based on Cossey's false description.. There were many chutes found and rejected based on Cossey's description, one I think is particularly interesting is one found in the South Fork Lewis a mile from the Heisson store..

People on here aren’t senior party officials making speeches to kids. Hell, if a Democrat said that at a school event in Florida DeSantis would have a bill banning it ready to go tomorrow.

No. Look back over the past two years. Which party has compromised? And which party has tried to "tear it all down" to hurt the other side? Consider two political issues - support for new nuclear power plants and support for gender-affirming care. On the nuclear power issue you'll get close to 100% support on the right (since they have adopted that as an issue) and something like 25% support on the left. Some liberals will support nuclear since it's a low-carbon power source. Most will not due to concerns over safety and nuclear waste. On the gender-affirming care issue, you will get 95% support from liberals, and exactly 0% from conservatives. For them the issue is not whether that sort of care is a good thing or not. Their one and only issue is destroying the woke libs - as Sabatini pointed out.

I think my question is: if someone jumping a pocket rocket lands with a 70mph long final landing path, and one of his admiring buddies says “nice swoop,” are they going to say “oh, I’m not swooping.” Unless, of course, it’s like the scene in “Crocodile Dundee,” where he says “you call that a knife? Now THIS is a knife!” Wendy P.

Because one party still believes in democracy.

Yes that is exactly what you said. Wendy asked if it was OK to "kill 10 (or whatever) innocents to justify the means to kill 2 miscreants." She was obviously not discussing any specific incidents. Hence the "whatever." She was talking about that sort of ratio. You said "comparing two incidents, 10 vs. 2, has no validity." And again, there was no incident that Wendy was talking about where 10 people had been killed. She was using that as the ratio. I have absolutely no doubt that you would consider any research that shows that defensive gun use is not as prevalent as you imagine it to be "unreliable." But from the best data we have, guns are used to harm people far more often than they are used to prevent harm. And from the best data we have, guns are used to kill innocent people far more often than they are used to kill criminals - suspected OR convicted. I would note that the REASON we do not have even better data is that republicans have managed to successfully cancel any such research. They know what it will show, and they do not want that information out there. For them, ignorance is far preferable to certainty.

No quibbling over these data. https://apnews.com/article/mass-killings-record-gun-violence-0174103c37756fe4d247fd15cd3bc009 "Six months. 181 days. 28 mass killings. 140 victims. One country."

Army paratroopers were static line jumpers not freefall. Two totally different disciplines. Army paratroopers would never accept USAF bailout chutes. They would have no knowledge of them. He seemingly didn't know or didn't care when he was provided with Navy chutes. When presented with an older chute who would get him on the ground safely or a newer chute that would get him on the ground with a sprained ankle at best, he chose the latter. Nothing suggests he was US Army paratrooper. In fact, it seems he wasn't anything except a guy with a sliver of sport parachute experience who, in the end, really didn't know what he was doing.

Couldn’t an argument be made that he wanted to get to the ground as fast as possible?

Yes, we all know you figured out the packing cards. I doubt he had military experience because the US military doesn't use packing cards. They use log books. Also, military paratroopers did not use freefall jumping. So, IMO if Cooper knew about packing cards, he learned them from civilian skydiving.

Well he sure as shit talked to them when he was trying to get his chute back. The real question is where did that packing card go. Was hoping that it might have been in the 1A envelope, but now with the latest vault we know that it’s not in there. It was probably still in Hayden’s chute when he got it back. Probably shoved it in a drawer somewhere and forgot about it. Lost to history now.

I agree, there was a lot of debate in the past in the Vortex about the 24' being accurate... or a typo.. or that a 24' emerg backchute existed.. It is accurate,, IMO.. The FBI was looking for the wrong chute... based on Cossey's description.

There is controversy about the size of the chute Cooper used,, the one left behind and given to Hayden was a 26' and Cossey claimed the other was a 28',, but the packing card said 24'.. some people said they don't exist in a back only fronts are 24'.. Cossey is unreliable.. So, I looked for and found a Pioneer 24' emergency back chute... they do exist..

Oh no, say it ain't so. Johnny Crews....what a guy! One of the first jumpers I met back in Pelicanland in '73 then from '75-'77. Quite the character. An original. RIP, Johnny, and condolences to Sandy and other Pelicans.

I actually asked Carr just yesterday about the "partial prints". I essentially asked if he remembered what they looked like. Was curious if they could be used to eliminate suspects even though they were partials. Obviously they were determined to be of no value when it was suggested that they be fed into a database, which makes sense for partials. But even though they were partials could you still use what was left to compare to someone's prints. Your post about McCoy makes me think that it was possible. As for Larry's answer, he said "I've seen them but can't make a judgment on how useful they may be. If I recall, there needs to be 8 points of comparison for a print to be of value. I'm not sure how many points are on the partials in the file. Could be worth another look."

Your constitution has the same problem communism has. The idea is alright, but greed/lust for power will eventually ruin it all.

I'll bet that you've never been in terminal freefall below 1500 feet. Trust me, there are visual differences. Magical? That's up to the observer.

Have you ever been at terminal <1.5k?

Nah, pulling low would get you grounded and you’d get a lecture about how dumb it is to pull low before CYPRES’ were the norm - at least that was the case at the FL DZs I was jumping at during the early 90s. So, USPA and DZs collectively had enough of people bouncing from low pulls and began cracking down on low openings before then. Now, 30 years later, most skydivers talk about pulling at 3k as low, LOL. That’s the result of a culture change. (As a side note, I believe Tom Piras’ death in Dec of ‘92 was very influential the wide-spread adoption of the CYPRES throughout the mid/late 90s. Ironically, Piras was also highly responsible for popularizing hook turn landings.) As for @gowlerk’s questions, as long as high performance landings and “Canopy Piloting” are promoted as “This is what the best in the world do, these ‘athletes’ are demonstrating the pinnacle of skydiving” it will be viewed downstream as something to mimic and strive for. If the culture of the skydiving community is one that admires high performance landings with small canopies, the skydiving community will continue to lose people to high performance landings. USPA can’t promote canopy piloting competitions in its current format and simultaneously promote a goal of zero deaths because the two are mutually exclusive.

He was beyond an American Hero! Early in my skydiving path, I started collecting his autographed items. He was incarcerated in the Hanoi Hilton also. He was a FNG vs a FOG. That's fucking new guy vs fucking old guy! Bigger hero and bigger than life! Books on the Col. The Long Lonely Leap! Come up and Get me!

Inflammatory? It is simply the plain truth. Americans are just plain blinded and you personally are among the most blind.

Less than a handful of voter fraud cases and the GOP feels that much stricter access to voting is required. Tens of thousands a year dead with guns and the answer is supposedly, more guns.

Easy BIGUN, we all know its a generalization arising from frustration borne of concern. If he wasn't frustrated and didn't care....well you know. To the topic at hand: "Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, the man accused of killing 10 people in a grocery store attack in Colorado, was found guilty of misdemeanor assault when he was a high school senior, and the police in his hometown, Arvada, a suburb of Denver, said they had a separate encounter with him based on a report of “criminal mischief.” According to a police affidavit, just a week ago, he bought a Ruger AR-556 pistol, though it is not clear that was the weapon used in the killings. Students at Arvada West High School recalled Mr. Alissa in interviews as being prone to angry outbursts, and one said that “out of nowhere” he had became enraged and beat up another student during a class — apparently the incident that led to the assault conviction. On Monday, law enforcement officials say Mr. Alissa, 21, who lived in Arvada, went to a King Soopers store in nearby Boulder and killed 10 people." So a man who was violent, short-tempered and paranoid during high school, his former classmates said Tuesday. doesn't preclude purchase of such firearms in Colorado! This story should be read as it outlines who should not own guns.

Weird how it's only the US that has such a "mental health" problem

That made the 7th mass shooting in 7 days. Is that what freedom is like?

It is a people problem. It is caused by the selfish entitled American people who feel that the "right" to possess the tools of war as toys is more important than the damage it causes.