377

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Everything posted by 377

  1. 377
    I think about the experience issue a lot. My current thinking (it changes frequently) is that I can't judge whether Copper was a Whuffo or an experienced jumper. The evidence is just too ambiguous. I do wish we knew more about the shoes he jumped with. No experienced jumper would make that jump in easy on loafers. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  2. 377
    Such disarming candor. Honesty as Judo. Clever. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  3. 377
    I think Orange has pointed out where very experienced jumpers have gone in as no pulls on bright sunny days apparently pulling hard on something other than their ripcord all the way down. Some weird kind of brain lock panic must be involved. Add night, fear, odd ripcord location, wild tumbling and you have a good setup for a problem. Experience apparently does not rule out a problem of this kind. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  4. 377
    Quade doesn't get paid. Quade gets the wrath of many jumpers for not shutting down this forum. Quade is not a DB Cooper fanatic, so there is little self interest in preserving the forum, yet he moderates it which takes time and effort. What's wrong with thanking him? Can Quade be thanked or is the act of thanking and kissing butt inextricably intertwined as you see it? Skydivers kiss less authority butt than most people do. They mixed it up with the cops pretty good in Quincy which lead to the WFFC's move to Rantoul. I saw a few giving major attitude to the FAA Flight Standards inspectors at several WFFC events. Do you ever kiss butt Snow? If so, whose? We the accused now ask the inquisitor to confess his sins. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  5. 377
    Poynter makes outboard pull sound like a mod primarily done for student stability. I never saw one. Our DZ jumpmasters were fanatical about having you protect your ripcord handles in the plane. An outboard pull would have been viewed skeptically by them since it is so much more easily snagged than the traditional inboard pull. The mod takes a bit of rigging work. Why would Cossey do the mod on a pilots rig? Various theories have been put forward, not sure if they make sense. If Cooper were familiar with military bailout rigs and became disoriented after exit, he might never find an outboard ripcord. You'd be looking/feeling/grasping in all the wrong places. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  6. 377
    I'd like to think they did investigate Billy, but you'd be astounded at things that are missed by the FBI Snow, really. Hindsight is 20-20 of course, but I have seen some amazing things missed in important cases. To be fair, the clues might not have been so obvious when masked by the noise of thousands of irrelevant bits of info. It wouldn't be impossible for the FBI to have missed Billy. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  7. 377
    I've been jumping since 68, but I was not very gear savvy back then. Had I been savvy, I would never have jumped the gutter gear I did. Outboard pull goes against all the safety stuff I was taught: minimize potential snag points, protect ripcord handles, etc. Nitro and Guru can better answer old gear Qs. Probably Airtwardo too. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  8. 377
    Darn right. And when it gets really hot other items of clothing become optional. Ask anyone who was skydiving with those young ladies from Holland at WFFC 2000. Truly shocking. Georger would have turned his head away. I couldn't, safety you know. Always maintain eye contact with other jumpers. I am REALLY looking forward to the National Geo. special. I don't have broadcast TV. Raised my kids without it, just tapes and DVDs. I will have to find a friend with cable who wants to watch it with me. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  9. 377
    I liked the preview even though they are boarding a Douglas DC 9/MD 80 and the spelling on Cooper's RAYOVAC bomb battery is wrong, perhaps intentionally. Bruce will LOVE this (all on the same preview page): Image: CIA Secret Experiement (sic) History Events CIA EXPERIMENTS Mastering the art of mind control. Visit Site Image: Soldiers silhouettes Inside the Green Berets The True Cost of War Inside the Green Berets 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  10. 377
    . Perhaps they shouldn't mention ANY suspect Georger since there is no hard evidence linking any person to the crime, but this is TV and ENTERTAINMENT is a primary goal. You gotta point some fingers of suspicion to hold the audience. Here is what I said. You can't parse it and get the full meaning. Duane is part of the conditional logic statement: You wrote: Guilty as charged. Your plea? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  11. 377
    Been ages since Carr has made any substantive statements about Cooper. When Larry is on the National Geo show will "his" Cooper still be a dead bumbler, ADD engineer/loadmaster? So Barb Dayton wasn't a credible enough Cooper for the show? Wonder if they will even mention the Thailand Air America 727 jumps? Billy W? If they feature Duane and omit Billy (and Billy's DBC suspect) entirely it will tell me a lot about how much research they did. Maybe the show can use the Who's TOMMY as theme music during discussion of the Tena Bar research: "He's a paintball wizard..." 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  12. 377
    Orwell must have had a Border Collie. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  13. 377
    Oops, forgot bout Madman Ed Daly's 727 stunt Snow. I actually met him once. He had a totally decked out deluxe interior Convair Twin (240?) exec plane based in Oakland CA. He drank a LOT. Wonder if he was toasted when he did that 727 show out of Da Nang? Cooper had some Bourbon in him too. Did Billy W favor Bourbon? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  14. 377
    Not sure about that. Jets have to rotate (pitch up) to take off from normal airport length runways where propliners can just sort of lift off without much pitch change if they want to. Not sure of the reason, but it might be that the prop blast gives enough airspeed over the wing to generate takeoff lift where a jet has to depend on speed and angle of attack to get lift. I think taking off with a 727's stairs deployed could cause stair damage or worse. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  15. 377
    Those Bovines are curious indeed about unusual things in their environment. Two occupants of a Navion aircraft congratulated themselves on putting it down safely in a cow pasture after an engine failure. When they returned a few days later the plane had been ruined by cows. This all metal airplane had been chewed so badly that it was scrapped. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  16. 377
    What are you looking for Georger? Manure trace annual strata? You know cows, I do not. Hope Jerry gets the data and it proves useful. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  17. 377
    Agree 101%. Specially bout Bush. Pretty cool that he jumps, but D anything? Sheesh. Might as well give him an ATP and 747 type rating too. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  18. 377
    I made my living in earlier years skippering commercial fishing boats Jo. It was my father's trade and he taught it to me. Among the active permits I still have is a commercial troll permit for salmon. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  19. 377
    Jo, Had you promptly POSTED the elusive photo of the three prison jumpers then it wouldn't have disappeared, right? Same logic applies to your alleged proof that Duane was Cooper. If crucial evidence you hold back disappears then POST IT NOW. Sorry Jo, you don't control people ask here. You post incredible claims then tell us not to ask about them. I will simply ignore your hypocritical directives. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  20. 377
    Better call GHOSTBUSTERS Jo. Good thing I am a moderate person. Your post is like a slow pitch just slightly to the side of the plate. But... I am not gonna swing. Nope. Not gonna. Orange is next at bat. I am walking (not leaving). I am on first base Orange, Jo is pitching. Batter up! 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  21. 377
    On my first jump with a Triathlon 190 I yanked down hard and deep on one toggle right after my canopy check. It spun up into a line twist. Fortunately I was at 2000 ft and Tri's are forgiving. I kicked it out and got a bit smarter. I fly like a 747 now, slow steady control movements and nothing radical at low altitudes. I think lots of people have done this early in their ram air canopy experience but few admit it. I had made many round jumps and just got carried away with how cool it was to be able to turn FAST with my new ram air canopy. Fortunately I did it high up. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  22. 377
    Jo, Why do you care about all this Robbie Borroughs stuff if you have proof that Duane was Cooper? Isn't it a rather moot issue now? It is really ironic that you can demand: "She needs at the very least to update the information she gives on Weber when inquiries are made." Good grief. Turn it around on yourself Jo. Relentlessly but courteously, 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  23. 377
    17% 2% It has all the thrill and intrigue of a James Bond fiction novel, yet it really happened. The identity of the hero/villain Cooper remains a complete mystery as does his post jump fate. The unsolved nature of the caper beckons to a wide cross section of people eager to solve the enduring puzzle. Nope. All Cooper all the time. No time for lesser criminal matters. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  24. 377
    OK Jo, you specifically asked Quade to keep the forum open for the ending. When might we expect it? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
  25. 377
    Is it just me or does this paintball combat stuff look kinda dull? Maybe it is more exciting in real life than on video. Skydiving, snowboarding, rock climbing and even tunnel flying all look pretty cool on video, but this paintball stuff... meh... I have a bad reaction to civilians all decked out in cammo. Local police SWAT teams wear it which is just absurd. I have read some of Tom "Kaye's" paintball mechanism patent publications. He is a clever mechanical designer in my opinion. He may not have the degrees, but he seems to be one of those guys who can do lots of different things. He seems to have respect in the paintball world. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.