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That was definitely a sentinel MK 2000. Actually the calibration using the manual thumbscrew was reasonably accurate. It used two LEDs to signal the proper stop point. This procedure just set the zero altitude to the DZ level. The Sentinels had their faults but they saved a lot of student lives when no other decent AADs were available. I'd still jump a MK 2000 (in a strict belly fly jump and normal straight ahead landing) if they were still legal. I don't think they could handle the abrupt and large pressure changes in extreme skydiving. That's why Cypres had to resort to a software and microcontroller solution. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

The old Sentinels just fired when you decended below about 1000 ft without turning the device off after opening your main. SSE later incorporated an add on barometric rate switch in series with the altitude switch so that it wouldnt fire if you were under a fully open canopy decending at a normal rate. That eliminated the need to turn the device off after opening your main. The last Sentinel, the MK 2000 put it all in one package: an altitude switch in series with a rate switch. No microprocessor, no software, just a couple of AA batteries, two switches and a cutter or pin puller cartridge. I liked the MK 2000 for plain old belly flying, but many though it was too prone to misfires. Anyone else besides me admire that simple MK 2000 design? I think it was about as simple and reliable AAD as you could make in the day. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I think any of the new AADs will save your life when you are going in as a no pull, but I choose to fly with a Cypres. I like tried and true not cutting edge when it comes to mission critical electronic systems. As an electrical engineer I am almost embarassed by Airtec's ancient 7 segment LCD and crude user interface, but as a skydiver it is comforting knowing that my AAD design is a mature time proven one. I will bet that among skydivers who are electrical engineers, Cypres is the most popular. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Is this it? looks like it has some sort of external spring launcher for the reserve pilot chute: http://www.irvinaerospace.com/pdfs/T-10R_T-10R_MIRPS.pdf 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Wouldnt you want a spring loaded pilot chute in a belly reserve? I have one of these curiosities and it seems to have a kill line (or some kind of line) going to the apex on the inside. The top outside center had a piece of webbing sewn on flat and flush against the green ZP fabric. There is no loop or hole to attach anything to. These are dirt cheap on eBay. Wonder if they have any application in skydiving? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Reserve-Pilot-Chute-Parachute-Green-White-Mdl-Rocket_W0QQitemZ270281847292QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3eee0db1fc&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Obviously lots of people knew Cooper. Since it is VERY hard for a large group of people to keep a secret as big as this one, I must conclude that they were unaware that the person they knew committed NORJACK. Look at that med student who killed the prostitutes recently. He was known as the Craigs List Killer. NOBODY had him figured for the murderer. He was caught by cell records and hotel hall surveillance video tapes. None of his aquaintances would have ever figured it out. DBC must have been someone who would never be thought of as a criminal by his friends and colleagues. As crazy as it seems, NORJACK may have been his first crime. It may also have been his first jump which would explain why nobody in the parachuting community figured out who he was. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

My first cutaway had me landing under a Navy 26 Conical and it was a sweet ride indeed. Never did understand why my 28 ft C9 always gave me bone cruncher landings and the smaller Coni was so gentle. After that reserve ride I was considering getting a 26 Coni as a main but was dissuaded by the local sky gods. They said there was a reason few Navy Conis were jumped as mains, but didnt really explain what the reason was. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Orange, Did you know that little kids are flying in the tunnels now? 3 year olds are making me look very clumsy by comparison. In a few short years your newborn can be showing you up. I wonder if all these highly skilled tunnel flyer kids are going to push the US jump age down from 18 to 12 or even lower? I think 12 year olds can certainly have the skills but I sure wonder about the judgment. My judgment at age 12 was... well... let me call it "in need of further development." At 18, when I started skydiving, it was still in need of further development but the fates were kind to me and I lived long enough to get a little less stupid. I jumped in my late teens with no altimeter because I was broke and could buy about ten jumps for the price of a used altimeter. Made perfect sense to me at the time. I often wonder about Cooper's judgment. A simple bank robbery would have been a lot safer but few get more than $10K doing a stickup of tellers. A guy was just arrested locally for pulling off about half a dozen bank robberies. I am sure Ckret knows all about the case. The robber was a former CEO, author and highly regarded guy. I guess he got in over his head and needed money fast. I keep wondering what in Cooper's life caused such an intense need for big money that it justified taking such a huge risk. Gambling? Pending foreclosure? Divorce? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Safe, Just when I though we were locked into permanent Jerry Springer mode you show up and what a welcome arrival you are. I took some logic courses in college but man I am rusty. I'll preuse your PDF and see if I can follow the equations. So at the end of all the arguments and logic, what is your best guess as to what happened after Cooper exited? Looking forward to more of your posts. We are leaving the light on for Snow just in case he decides to return for a cameo appearance. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jerry, Have you reconsidered your retirement from jumping? Hope Orange and I can convince you to stay in the game. If you are ever down in the SF Bay Area I'll treat you to some wind tunnel time. Have you ever flown in a tunnel? If you close your eyes you'll swear you are in freefall from a plane. I think the military has a huge one at one of the Airborne training bases. Benning? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo, I dont doubt that Duane had some association with Washington and had an aircraft mechanic as a friend, but none of that links Duane with parachutes. Parachuting is a TINY subset of aviation. What makes you sure that Horan can link Duane to parachuting? Put Duane in a chute or even an active jumpship/dropship prior to NORJACK and I will pay rapt attention. So far it is 100% speculation based on the evidence you have put forward. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Don't quit jumping Jerry. You've got another 15 years minimum with a big square and light winds. At 58 you are young in the old jumper circles. I did some RW jumps with a 76 year old who more than held his own. Reconsider. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

*** Only about 100 times even when they are testifying under oath. How many defendants really had the gun and/or the dope in plain sight as the cops nearly always testify regarding warrantless searches? I can see how they rationalize it. They catch a bad guy and they are not going to have the firearm or drug evidence suppressed on some damned technicality about needing a search warrant. If I were a cop I might adopt that attitude myself. So Bruce. What lie did a cop tell you and why did it affect your outlook so profoundly and permanently? I love conspiracy theories. They fascinate me. Area 51, alien autopsies and kidnappings, Aurora, Chemtrails, Roswell, crop circles... bring em on. I like them as entertainment and for the insight they give on human behavior when confronted by mysteries. I don't believe they are accurate accounts of fact. Maybe my skepticism blinds me to real conspiracies. I think there was only one JFK assassin and that the Roswell crash was really a Project Mogul balloon. Call me ignorant or gullible, but I get a pretty good shave using Occam's Razor. I see no reason to use anything else. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I was pondering that 30K HALO course/jump at WFFC but a physician with a lot of USAF experience talked me out of it. He said a lot can go wrong with the gear and the consequences at 30K are a lot more serious than 24K. He wouldn't trust anyone outside of the military to do it right every single time. I saved a lot of money and made several of the FAR FAR cheaper 24K jumps. Turned out that one of the 30K HALO students somehow got hypoxic and passed out on the ride up. His condition went unnoticed due to the mask, helmet, etc. Don't know if it is true but it was rumored that the unconscious jumper somehow got completely disconnected from the O2 due to a valve error and nobody noticed until he didn't respond on jump run. The guys who made a Connie HALO jump at Taft many years ago recounted getting punchy and some even passed out. I think they exited slightly above 20K with no O2 on the way up. A guy who passed out in the aisle was tossed out of the door by hypoxic jumpers whose judgment was impaired. Fortunately the tossed guy revived in freefall and landed safely. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Really? What evidence supports this claim? Did he ever try to pay back anybody he stole from? Regret is easy, restitution is hard. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I have always been amazed that both the door placard and some of the loot were eventually found on the ground. Both are small compared to a 28 foot main canopy and the harness/conatiner. The rig has a number of metal pieces on it that would be relatively immune to time and UV so there is something to find even if the nylon stuff has disintegrated. To my way of thinking, there has to be remains of a DBC's rig and canopy out there. It made no sense for him to take it with him. Why hasn't it been found? Is it buried? Underwater? Are people looking in the wrong area? Maybe it was found with the loot and a body and everything was hidden beyond the reach of casual hunters and hikers. The guys who found the placard werent looking for DBC stuff, so the concept of looking in the "wrong area" doesnt mean a whole lot. Hunters and hikers can find stuff anywhere. I just dont know enough about river hydrodynamics to know where the rig would have ended up if Cooper landed in the Columbia. Any guesses out there? Sluggo? Snow? Safe? Georger? Jerry? Orange? Tom? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo, I think you are giving too much credit to the FBI. I bet that the meeting attendance records are long gone and not even the feds could find them. I used to have criminal defendants who were convinced that the FBI/police/CIA could track where anybody was on a certain date at a certain time given enough time and manpower. The FBI can do a lot but they dont have a time machine. Time travel is only for the CIA. I do think you went to WA with Duane. It is not an outlandish claim and it certainly didnt prove he was Cooper. It is the purpose of the trip (Duane reliving the DBC memories) that gets purely speculative. Have you ever considered that Duane was just fascinated with DBC, researched a lot about him and was never actually associated with any aspect of NORJACK? What evidence is inconsistent with this theory? I do not consider his death bed statement to be proof that he was actually Dan Cooper. It could have been a lie, a wish, a drug induced hallucination, etc. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

What if the cat was dieing and its last words were: "I am a dog." 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

As far as I know Perez has not yet given the police the Zodiac victim's glasses she claims to have. So far it's just a tease. If she wanted credibility rather than just publicity, I'd have expected her to have already turned over the glasses prior to holding a press conference. Instead, Perez holds a sidewalk press conference with a disbarred crooked lawyer (not redundant, there are crooked lawyers who srtill have their bar cards), promises to deliver blockbuster physical evidence and the world awaits. Meanwhile I bet she is booking TV appearances and looking for book deals. Did anyone besides me find it highly improbable that the Zodiac killer took his young daughter as a ridealong on his murder trips? I don't think Jo grossly fabricates stuff. I just think she has a strong unconscious bias in evaluating ambiguous or even irrelevant evidence. I do think Duane told her he was Dan Cooper although I have no proof. Duane lied about all sorts of stuff in his criminal career so why assume he was telling the truth about being Dan Cooper? I don't subscribe to the belief that death bed statements are true. We are getting a bit too "Jerry Springer" here, you are right Sluggo. I wish we could get Snow back and hear more from Safe. I'd much rather read about likely flight paths and jump points than who thinks who is lieing. This forum goes in cycles. At times it is rich with good ideas and new data (Air America 727 jumps, CIA-smoke jumper covert ops connections, etc) and then it dives down to name calling. I hope we are on the upswing now. Good to have you on the forum Sluggo. I always appreciate you input and ideas. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

UV LED lights are dirt cheap now and work pretty well. Jo can buy one for $6 shipping included. http://cgi.ebay.com/9-UV-ULTRA-VIOLET-LED-FLASHLIGHT-BLACKLIGHT_W0QQitemZ400045585108QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item400045585108&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Interesting ideas Georger. maybe Duane was on a DBC treasure hunt. I had thought Duane might have been learning all about DBC to do a con or sting, posing as someone who had access to the loot. If Jo or anyone can put Duane in a chute or jumpship/dropship pre NORJACK and I'll reconsider all my conclusions. Really liked your conspiracy theory psych posts Orange. I was working in rural Louisiana after the moon landing. It seemed like everyone residing in Bayou Country besides me thought it was faked. They REALLY did think it was a hoax, no doubts at all. Nothing I could do would convince them of anything besides my own gullibility. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

No. Not in a million years. Why? Because the government has a LOT of ways to train people for covert operations that don't involve the general public and give away methods. It's simply a ludicrous idea. I agree with Quade and Orange. When you have to resort to grand conspiracies to solve a puzzle, you are almost always wrong. Occam's Razor really works. Sure, the CIA has done some weird and evil things (MK Ultra) but you can see what they were trying to accomplish. Staging a NO-JACK (a fake DBC hijack with no jump) makes no sense, as Orange has pointed out repeatedly. It is very tempting to explain the absence of solid DBC evidence by means of govt. conspiracy theories. If you can't find solid evidence to support your claims, blame the CIA, NSA, FBI, USAF etc. UFO, mind control and alien kidnapping buffs do that all the time. Look up "chemtrails" on Google if you want to see another example. DBC seems like he jumped into thew 4th dimension. That 4th dimension could be the Columbia River. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

If Archie thinks Snowmman or Sluggo are part of an "Intelligence Community" cover up of NO-JACK (NORJACK with no jumper) I believe he is mistaken. I have good reason to believe that both are just working folks like us with an interest in the case, nothing more exotic than that. Occam's razor doesn't like NO-JACK, but it is a fun theory and is good stuff for conspiracy buffs. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

If you give Jo the ability to withhold anything it will probably be a pointless exercise. Jo has a penchant for the "tease". Time and time again she states or implies that there is one thing she is holding back, some blockbuster evidence, that will prove Duane was Cooper or was a close DBC associate. It never pans out. If she turns over everything then the ammunition for the tease is gone so she will withhold items and info. If we review the subset that she turns over and conclude that nothing shows a Duane-Cooper connection, our conclusions will be disregarded as having been made without the key evidence she has withheld. I still think Jo is sincere in her beliefs but painfully unaware of her biases in evaluating evidence. I have challenged Jo to show anything that puts Duane under a chute or even in a plane where people are jumping (e.g. smoke jumpers) and so far zero. Duane was a shady character with some odd stuff in his background, maybe some missing time too, but none of it screams Cooper to me. It just screams crook, con man and perhaps even big shot pretender. I have wondered about Duane's alleged library research on Cooper. It seems more likely to me that this was prep work for a con than some vanity research by the real DBC. It is a common con to convince a "mark" that you have access to big bucks and then swindle the "mark" who thinks he is going to get a big slice of the (Cooper) loot. Without a positive link to the NWA 727, the Duane evidence is consistent with him posing as Cooper. Still, I have an open mind. Put Duane under a chute before Norjack or connect him with the NWA plane and I will pay attention. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.