NickDG

Hey, how come I got locked - I scooped everyone! My post was @ 1:32 PM Royder deleted his when he saw mine. Cocheese was third @ 1:36 PM Skyejumper was a dismal fourth @ 2:17 (That's practically tomorrow) !!! NickD

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/11/30/kneviel.ap/index.html?cnn=yes NickD

The "best" way with students (in a small Cessna) is one student next to pilot (up against the panel) facing aft, the JM between, or straddling, their legs facing forward and the rest in the back. That way the JM can reach all the students if they start doing something weird or need help with anything. After the first student exits the JM turns around and hooks up the next guy, does a gear check, and then moves 'em forward to the door. Rinse & repeat . . . NickD

Airtwardo - SPICOLI! Now I get it . . . NickD

If you watch closely he lands with a square but before he cuts up the suspension lines for something the parachute turns into an old round. Also in a few shots he lands with a normal skydiving container but when he starts hiking around it turns into a much lighter pilot's rig. And what's with all that blessing himself before exit? I always hate when students do that as I'm afraid God will notice us and say, "Ah, there's that NickD sinner guy!" NickD

We were already very witty back in those days. I like this one . . . NickD

The Bonfire thread about past trolls, made me think of the early days of Usenet and rec.skydiving a time when most only had internet access through universities. When I first came online in 1985 it was through local bulletin boards (BBS) and a bit later through GEnie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEnie There weren't "trolls" per se in those days, but "flame wars" were rampant. And most of these revolved around issues of moderating and censorship. We resisted those things back then, but it was either that or what happened to rec.skydive when it turned into wreck.skydive. And if you look at rec.skydive today it’s nothing but a big spamfest. I'm pretty sure the below attachment shows the very beginning of rec.skydiving The actual page is here: http://groups.google.com/group/net.rec.skydive/topics?start=120&sa=N And you can read some other early threads here, just click on some of the "all time posters": http://groups.google.com/group/net.rec.skydive/about NickD

Early Canadian "Innovator" ??? NickD

Just some Cooper odds & ends . . . The control yoke from the Cooper 727 is here: www.angelfire.com/il2/aphs/wheels/wheels.html And Brian Ingram, the 8-year old boy who found the money ($5800) is grown up now and selling some of the bills . . . [From the Website] "His life now is quiet compared to the time when he was eight years old and suddenly found himself in the spot light of cameras and news reporters. It was a day that changed the Ingram lives when Brian uncovered three bundles of tattered bills from a Columbia River sandbank. It was evidence in Americas most famous hijacking that still goes unsolved today. For the past 20 years the bills have been apart of a private collection treasured as a family heirloom. Not until recently has Brian decided to part with some of his treasure." In all 29 bills are for sale, some are partial bills and some almost intact, and you can make offers via email here: www.dbcoopermoney.com/default.htm I wonder what he thinks they are worth? The last attachment is from an Asian site I couldn't read, but is supposed to be an aged sketch of D.B. Cooper. NickD

Gets help from the crowd . . . Way to be, America! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhcZRFcjbhw NickD

It's hard to pick just one, but there's this one. The Gangbangers . . . I was done for the day at Cal City, having taught an AFF first jump course and going up with a couple of level ones when two guys showed up. I was in the office with Bob the DZO, and about to open a beer, when I saw these two peeking in the hanger door. I watched them through the glass window and they looked like they were up to no good. They were Mexican mafia types and looked like stone cold killers straight out of central casting. "Hey, Bob," I said, "either your cousins are here, or we're about to get robbed." Bob looked up and went, "What the fuck," but it was more a statement than a question. "Well, you're the chief Instructor," he said, "go see what they want." I raised my eyebrows so he added, "go ahead, I'll cover you from in here." I'd been out shooting with Bob in the desert so when I ventured out of the office I kept my distance. "Hi fellows," I smiled, "what can I do for you?" Then behind me I heard Bob throwing the lock on the office door. "We want to jump, man" said the bigger of the two, "what's the fare?" I started to relax a bit and explained both AFF and tandems to them. "Tandooms!" The smaller one shouted out, "that's what we wanna do, tandooms!" Oh boy, I thought . . . The pilot had the Cessna 402 down at the fuel pumps so I called him on the hand held and got Bob to unlock the office door. Richard Park was in another part of the building and I fetched him saying, "Come on, you’re gonna love this." I guess before going further it must be said there was nothing likable about these two guys. They were loud, foul, and obnoxious. Just tandem training them was a chore as they wouldn’t pay attention or take anything seriously. They both wore bandanas low on their foreheads and they were looking at me with their heads way back. Every once in a while I'd catch a glance of Bob in the office laughing his ass off. Richard and I suited them up and we all got in the plane. All the way to altitude these two are going on about how macho they were, how the Latinas would be loving them now, and continually yelling, "tandooms!!!" I exited with the big guy and it went all right except I felt him squirming around a lot in freefall. Once open I asked how he was and he just mumbled something I couldn’t hear. But I knew he was starting to pass out right before he went limp. I loosened him up as best I could and took it easy on the turns. I kept trying to wake him up before landing when I suddenly felt something warm. He was peeing all over me. I unsnapped both laterals and brought my knees up to push him as far away as possible. It was windy (good old Cal City) so I wasn't too worried about hurting him on landing but knew he was going to fall back on me all pee soaked. We landed and I unsnapped the top hooks and pushed him away. I checked to see if he was breathing and then stripped down to my shorts. I was swimming in this guy's pee. I wanted to crawl out of my skin. I've got the patience of Jove with difficult students but I'd had it with this guy. Richard landed and Bob drove up in the truck and I doused myself from the water jug. My guy finally came to and went right to telling his buddy how good he did and they went back to carrying on like idiots. I usually ride in the back of the truck with students but this time I rode up front with Bob. And he's busting a gut all the way back to the hangar. All I could do is repeat over and over, "Tandooms, fucking tandooms . . ." NickD

Achmed the Dead Terrorist . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go NickD

I've never found a 31-15 manual online. Here's a page full of free Singer manuals, but unfortunately the 31-15 is not one of them. http://parts.singerco.com/IPsvcManuals/ But, there is one on Ebay at: http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-SEWING-MACHINE-MANUAL-FOR-SINGER-31-15_W0QQitemZ160183438963QQihZ006QQcategoryZ41246QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem And here's a few "parts" manuals for the 31-15 if you ever need the numbers: http://parts.singerco.com/IPpartCharts/31-15.pdf http://parts.singerco.com/IPpartCharts/31-15_20.pdf http://industrialsewmachine.com/webdoc1/used/used-brochures/31class.htm And if interested in your machine's birthday you can call Singer at (877) 738 - 9869 with the serial# and they will tell you the exact date the machine was built . . . NickD

Poor guy . . . ! NickD

>>provide me with downscaled drawings. But I assume that they are secrets and will not be handed out.

I realize you are here to pick up information and maybe hoping against hope one of us is Cooper and we let something only he and you know slip out. So be careful, Airtwardo . . . What the experienced jumpers here are telling you is to stop approaching this from the standpoint that the jump was not "feasible." I get the feeling you hope it wasn't feasible so you don’t have to ponder the fact this guy may have beaten you. Break it down and this was nothing more than a simple parachute jump. There is nothing in the night air that can hurt you. And the speed at exit? A bit faster than a normal exit, but calling it "violent" is a stretch. Violent is when you eject from a fighter at 600 knots. And I'd think a man apt to panic in freefall would not have had the nerve to descend down those air-stairs in the first place. Look at all the people Al Capone ordered murdered and all he went down for was tax evasion. You win some and you lose some. Maybe you should just declare Cooper dead and the case closed. After all people have a short memory and doesn't this just make the Bureau look bad every time it makes the news? You have been going off the same information all along and it’s led nowhere. You have descriptions from two scared stiff young woman, (we should all shudder thinking of the poor schnooks who went to the electric chair on the basis of an eyeball witness' who weren't trained observers). Then there's these murky, at best, connotations into someone's smoking and drinking habits, on the basis of what? You might as well try a psychic. And the fact no one reported someone of similar description missing could mean your description is way off or the guy isn’t missing. Let's start thinking outside the box. >>The next day, Earl Cossey, an instructor at a nearby skydiving school that supplied the chest chutes, realized that one of them -- marked with an X -- was used only for classroom demonstrations. That's the one the hijacker apparently took.

I'd ask people to remove rings that were snaggy, but not plain wedding bands . . . NickD

Here's me putting out S/L students from a cargo door u-206 in about 1981. We wore our caps backwards in those days not because we wanted to look like Gangsters, but because the frigging wind blew them off otherwise . . . NickD

ParaGear sells E thread (#69) for $25.00 for an 8 oz spool. This company has it for $6.95 for a 4 oz spool so overall it's about half price and the smaller spools work fine if you aren’t doing production work . . . http://www.threadart.com/shop/category.asp?catid=63 NickD

A special holiday message from a friend of ours . . . Here NickD

>>The AFF rating had no requirements as to ability to teach safe canopy flight. And that's a problem.

Better to jump and try, than stay and fry . . . NickD

I remember, and it must be from the late 70s, when they kept track of GS bounces on the wall of the hanger at Lake Elsinore. There was no internet then and USPA, as usual, was way behind getting the word out . . . NickD

Gee, USPA, what's next, boxtops . . . NickD

I just looked at the second video at the upboard link and maybe it's just me being overly skeptical but there's few things that are jinking my smell meter . . . In the shorter first video he shows where the canopy snagged on something and ripped during landing. In that shot, and I'm not 100% sure, it looks like a round of some type. He also says he just had the parachute repacked the day before and mentions the rigger by first name and calls him, "Lee." And all that makes sense. But in the second longer video he mentions releasing the brakes on the canopy, but maybe he just misspoke, or isn’t used to jumping rounds. But he does say he has a 1000 jumps and mentions being fomer "para-rescue" and I would imagine that would be on rounds. However, they also call folks who jump 20-feet into the water from a helicopter "para-rescue." But even so, would any para-rescue person make a 1000 parachute jumps in an entire career? I'd doubt it unless he's counting sport jumps too. But he mentions, "hitting the silk" and that's not really something sport jumpers say out loud. Another thing he says is he had six to seven reserve rides and that sounds unduly high for a 1000 jumps. We all know pilots and jumpers never exaggerate so I'm just wondering. NickD