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It's a good question but you also have to include the fact that he's already so delayed by the fueling et al; Cooper has to weigh the value of each moment he's still on the ground as it's far more likely to impact his ability to complete his heist. No one can storm the plane in the air and so he might make decisions that are counterintuitive if we are trying to pin down his level of experience off of one or two actions.

Clearly gratuitous cruelty is the point. Why is MAGA so consumed with hatred? I don't want to even think about how low these monsters will go.

He seemed totally indifferent to what parachutes he was going to be given, otherwise he’d have been more specific beyond just describing in broad terms what he wanted when he said fronts and backs. I’ve used the analogy many times and I’ll stick with it. Cooper essentially asked for a truck and a trailer. He could have specified a Ford F-150 or a Chevy Silverado, but he didn’t. “Truck and a trailer” is as generic as “front and back”. You’re simply describing in the most general terms what you want. So they delivered Cooper a truck and a trailer but the truck had no trailer hitch. He bitches briefly about the lack of a trailer hitch but never bitched about the generic truck they gave him. As Chilton just said, this indicates that he didn’t care what type of truck they gave him or didn’t know trucks well enough to specify in the first place.

This is probably the most important point regarding everything that happens post landing in Seattle; Cooper already feels like it's taken longer than it should have to get on the ground again and then it takes forever to get the fuel on board. Each new stage of the hijacking (getting the money, chutes, etc.) has to be fast tracked and trying to use his actions at this point to identify who he was or what level of experience he had is going to be somewhat flawed. His ability to keep moving under those circumstances is good evidence that he a) felt comfortable when it came to parachuting and b) had his wits about him to not freak out and keep moving forward with the plan, adapting to try and keep to a basic schedule as best he could. Cooper knew parachutes enough to deal with what he got.

Unlike the rest of you, I am not trying to solve this case. I do like absolutes though, they separate speculation from reasonable assumptions. I have to disagree with your conclusion. I think you're putting too much importance on the cards.* The biggest indicator is the D-rings or lack thereof. The D-rings are installed in the harness at manufacturing. It's not like someone would 'forget to include them'. If Cooper has any experience and knows gear at all, he most likely knows the difference between mains and emergency (bailout) rigs. He knows enough to ask for fronts and backs, and he knows how to put them on. And when he gets them he's not scratching his head trying to figure out how they attach, he knows that there are no D-rings. So he most likely knows that he does not have mains. Therefore they must be bailouts. There really isn't a third option. I think he doesn't ask for more for the same reason he doesn't ask for a proper backpack. He doesn't want to waste any more time. He's going to make do with what he has and "get the show on the road". *Packing cards - They are on reserves and bailout rigs for reasons previously described. The reason the military puts them on mains is so they can tell which loft and what packer handled them. If there is an issue in the field, they can backtrack where they came from. If a loft needs to issue a service bulletin or airworthiness directive, the people in the field can determine whether they have affected gear.

I got to Fitz a day or two before the boogie last year and there was a family living in a tent at the airport. They up and left leaving their dog tied up / just abandoned it. Dog didn’t get eaten. It had a happy ending as a skydiver either adopted it or got it re homed as the local dog pound puts dogs down if they aren’t taken. It was a pretty sad situation and I feel reflected the stuff some Americans are facing, but also the number of good people that are willing to make a difference.