Chaucer

Here's the thing to keep in mind: Cooper did not specify civilian or military. He did not specify Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. He did not specify civilian sport. In fact, he seemed to assumed that the rigs would come from McChord AFB. And why not? Any schlub would assume that the Air Force would probably have parachutes. I think this underscores Cooper's inexperience with jumping. If he was an Army paratrooper, why not specify Army chutes? Why assume the chutes would come from an Air Force base? Why, when he received them, he made no comment on the quality or condition? Again, Cooper sorta knew something about jumping, but he was FAR from experienced, and I don't think being a paratrooper or a jumpmaster would give him the experience to pull off what he did. Cooper strikes me as a guy who did a couple sport jumps at some obscure DZ in OR or WA and figured he knew enough to pull it off.

It's not a hill I'm willing to die on, but in my conversations with military folks, packing cards are a not a thing like they are in civilian sport parachute clubs.

This is a great thought one that had not occurred to me .

I will certainly be prepared to be wrong, but I am confident in saying that no military branch used packing cards. Packing cards were purely a civilian "thing".

I can't speak to the existence of packing cards for those groups. I will say this. The groups you mentioned, they prayed they never had to use their chutes. Jumping out of an airplane meant failure. Cooper was a guy who was comfortable jumping intentionally, not because he was forced to.

Feel free to fact-check me. To the best of my knowledge, Army paratroopers did not have packing cards. Either way, Army paratroopers did not use freefall jumps, so Cooper could not have learned freefall jumping unless he was a HALO jumper or a civilian parachutist. The FBI investigated both of those groups, so I think Cooper was probably somewhere in the middle: a sport parachutists with a handful of jumps that was not registered with any official organization.

I think this is exactly what he wanted to do. That's why he wanted the stairs down ASAP. It allows him to jump early and extend the search area for law enforcement from Seattle to Mexico.

I cannot speak for bailout parachutes for the Navy and Air Force, but US Army paratroopers did not have packing cards. They had log books that were filled out and kept on the ground.

Nope. A log book was kept on the ground with the jumpmaster.

The fatal flaw of the FBI in this case is that they relied on outside sources to guide their investigation. They relied on Cossey for their parachute information, and they relied on the NWA for their drop zone information. I can't blame them for their ignorance on either of these issues. They were glorified cops and lawyers. Once couldn't expect them to have knowledge of skydiving, avionics, aviation, and communications. Unfortunately for the FBI, the folks that they relied on for information ended up being wrong in spectacular ways.

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.

Olemisscub, despite his SEC education, has done exhaustive research on this, and it has been discussed at length on the FB group. There is no doubt the canopy Cooper jumped with was 24' which by every measure was the inferior chute. It would appear that Cooper chose the newer chute (1960) over the older chute (1957) with little regard for the canopy. This means two things. Cooper probably had enough experience to check the packing cards, but not enough experience to know the difference between a 28' canopy and a 24' canopy which was significant. Cooper may not have been a whuffo, but he certainly wasn't an expert skydiver either.

For comparison, there are multiple fingerprints related to the Zodiac Killer case. Most of these were found on letters, including a full palm print. While those prints have been used to eliminate suspects, they have never confirmed one. The Zodiac claimed to have used "airplane glue", which most assume to be model plane glue, on his fingertips to prevent leaving prints. However, the Zodiac lied and exaggerated to an extreme degree, so it's likely the airplane glue was a fabrication. Frankly, I don't see anything about Cooper that indicates a that level of sophisticated criminality.

Sorry, this simply isn't true. In your original posts you said that the FBI was planning a ground search until March 8th when Tina's article appeared in an newspaper. This implies that the article was a plant by the brother-in-law to make the FBI second-guess the ground search. Is this not correct? Now, to give you the benefit of the doubt, in that the brother-in-law wasn't trying to get the FBI to suspend the search but rather massage Tina's persona in the media ahead of any potential money find, again I have to ask, if the money was found and a bundle was missing, would the media even know and the FBI even care? This seems like overly calculated overkill on the part of the brother-in-law. More likely, I think it is the result of an over active imagination.

If money was found with a bundle missing, the media wouldn't look at Tina because they would have no knowledge of her accepting any money. The FBI would not care because it was a fractional amount possibly accepted by a victim under duress. This is enough for the FBI to suspend a ground search?

What money? All the money was missing. If they found the money buried in a ditch near Heisson with $6000 missing, you really think they'd come looking for Tina? And you really think the FBI would come at Tina guns blazing over $6000 that she accepted under duress? I think you're thinking the FBI would kill a fly with a flamethrower. Weird.

Fair enough. I won't press the matter, but you do seem to suggest that there was some "insider trading" regarding Tina's brother-in-law. This seems nonsensical since only the FBI knew anything about her being offered money from Cooper, and she told them she refused it. Even if she had accepted it, it's not like the FBI would throw the book at her since she was under duress from a man threatening to kill her and her co-workers. Moreover, the idea that any media report would forestall a planned ground search is woo-woo to the extreme. Frankly, I find the the "Tina Mucklow Conspiracy Theories" to be tiresome.

Why would Tina get "public and legal scrutiny", if only the FBI knew about Cooper offering her money? You're making it seem like her brother-in-law was playing 4 dimensional chess over $6000 that Cooper offered her while she was under duress.

No, you didn't say that, but you alluded to it. And, yes, it does sound crazy. And frankly, for a person who fancies himself as the end all and be all of the Cooper investigation - the TOP GUY - conspiracy nonsense like this seems beneath you. But, as I pointed out, there are a lot of prominent names in this case attached to wild, unsubstantiated conspiracies, so I guess we add your name too.

I mean there are well known researchers in this case that think that a guy in Pittsburgh read about the floods in the Columbia, flew out to Portland, drove to Tena Bar at night, and dug through the sand for stolen loot in 3 feet of water by moonlight. Other well known researchers believe that the crew of 305 ignored their prescribed flight path and flew from the Malay Intersection directly to the Canby Intersection without ATC knowing or caring, and then the entire military-security apparatus of the United States either overlooked this fact or actively covered it up for reasons unknown. So, if you think Mucklow's brother-in-law caused the suspension of a ground search to protect his sister-in-law from prosecution for accepting $6000 under duress, then I guess you are in good company. Carry on.

This seems far more reasonable than the idea that the FBI suspended a search due to a media report involving Tina Mucklow. That's getting into woo-woo territory.

So, if there was an error, what is your reluctance in sharing it?

You clearly didn't read a thing I wrote, but that's fine. You have your opinions, and I have mine, and they are as inconsequential as most anything in life. DB Cooper is as important as Bachman's guitar. In the grand scheme of things? Meaningless. Again, my posts speak for themselves, and if you want to try to think that volume and density are the same thing, then that's on you, not me. If you think a bill sinks because it's saturated, then that's on you, not me. If you think that your numbers are "better" than mine because they are yours, then that's on you, not me. I wasn't wrong. What's wrong is misreading a key piece of evidence and thinking that Cooper had 1 inch high hair. Those who know will see through you and acknowledge the truth. See, what I have learned in life is that the guy you have to fear isn't the guy who talks a lot of shit at the bar. It's the guy who sits there, sips his drink, and doesn't say a word. The guy who keeps chirping is the one who is insecure with something to prove. The silent guy knows the deal and is quietly deciding if he's going to use his fist, a bullet, or a blade. I know which one I am. Which one are you? In my opinion, you are a jerk, a troll, a coward, and a bully. Many think this about you, but few are brave enough to verbalize it. I'm plenty brave, and if you'd like to talk about it man to man, private message me a time and a place, and I promise you I'll be there. In fact, I beg you to. But, I don't expect you will. You see, I hate bullies, but I won't allow myself to be antagonized and dragged down to your level like I have in the past. I'm trying to be a better man. I am trying to improve the discourse in this case, and I will no longer allow you to drag me down into the sewage with you. You sit here and criticize posts that aren't even made on this site. You don't even have the guts to engage others in other forums. You'd rather cast stones from afar. How sad. How pathetic. You know you are welcome to come and post on Shutter's site or Eric Ulis's Facebook page, but I know you won't. As any other bully, you don't have the guts to face the people you mock and insult head on. It's much easier for you to do it from your safe space. It's why you don't share your "evidence" or your "breakthroughs". It's why you don't show up to Cooper Con or anything like that. You fear that if you actually showed your hand, you'd get laughed out of the building. You're terrified of peer review. Meanwhile, right or wrong, I post my thoughts and ideas. I'm not a coward like you. You'll want the last word I'm sure, so I'll give you that. You get off on the attention like any other narcissistic internet troll. Rather, I am going to give you the one thing you hate the most: indifference. At the end of the day, you're meaningless. A whisper in the darkness. A tiny blip on the radar. You're not even worthy of a response from me. Unless it's face to face, this is the last time I even acknowledge you exist. The truth is that when you're dead, no one will give a shit. Not even the people who you think care most about you. I know you're going to act like a tough guy behind that keyboard - some cutting remark. But I also know - and most importantly you know - that that thought - that your life is meaningless - keeps you up at night. There's no escaping it. Outside of this little, insignificant piece of cyperspace - this silly thread on a skydiving website - you are a nobody. Some of us can accept that fact, and others, bullies like you, need to act like cunts to everyone else to prove to themselves that they matter. Spoiler alert: you don't. Now, take the "L". People respect that.

If it makes you feel better to say I was wrong, go ahead. Anyone with a calculator and common sense understands the difference between a calculation error and using different data points. No one knows the exact size of the bag, so you could plug in any number of options and get different solutions. The point is that the bag with the money inside is less dense than freshwater and would float. You, me, Tom Kaye, or anyone else don't know how long it would float, but it would float. My posts speak for themselves regardless of how you try to color them. Fin. Georger, my post about hair and DNA referred specifically to a new technique in which DNA was extracted from the hair itself, not from the root.