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Line tension is life... when you lose it you go from pilot to passenger! Brian G.'s book has a great couple of pages on maintaining line tension so you can stay in control of your parachute. Avoid quick turn reversals, and build toggle turns progressively instead of quickly pulling them down. This allows the suspended weight, you, to keep up with the rate of turn. Brians book is great, taught me a LOT I didnt know about canopy flying. For a guy who knows so much about canopy aerodynamics, he sure has busted a lot of his own bones. I did a self induced line twist fooling around with my brand new Triathlon years ago. Luckily I was high and had enough altitude to undo it safely. The Tri is a forgiving canopy and lets you kick out twists that would result in a cutaway on sportier canopies. Now I fly like a 747 below 2000 feet. No funny stuff. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3424711;#3424711 hope we get some answers. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

The Night Clerk would be well advised to thwart you Snowmman. ESL is just a codeword for Early 727 S/L jump. We are closing in on him. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrqdmXxBZjI Who were these guys doing S/L jumps from the Air America 727???? Surely someone on dropzone.com knows about these early 727 airdrop operations. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

VERY unlikely that the first 727 cargo drop would include S/L jumpers IMHO. It is hard to believe that a 727 airdrop system that worked so well and was so expensive to design and test would see zero operational use. Sure C 130s can fly pressurized and drop stuff, but Hercs are FAR slower than a 727 and are also a suspect tactical acft where a 727 can easily masquerade as an airliner. Air America had Hercs. The 727 system was obviously designed for a special mission that existing acft could not do as well. The Leary papers are amazing. What a wealth of info. Just give the Snowmman a lead and he digs all the way to China. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo, Where did you get the info that 727s had been jumped before the Norjack jump? I am pretty sure you insisted that they had. Is my memory correct? As we approach 6000 posts on this forum, it is hard to keep things straight about who said what. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I think the chase plane seen flying above the 727 is an Air America Beech/Volpar Turbo Beech 18. I didn't think a radial engined Twin Beech could rendezvous with and pace a 727, but a turboprop one could. I bet someone on another dropzone forum knows something about these airdrop tests. I am going to try and find out who. The jumper in the white shirt with no helmet is puzzling. Strange attire for a test jump. His rig is S/L so he wasnt a loadmaster or kicker. They are shown with ripcord rigs. Who were these earliest 727 jumpers? US? Thai? Laotion? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

This is what I looked for - for yrs. I had been told about it, but had no proof it was actually done - now, you found it. I was only able to watch it in second segments. Does anyone know how I can get it on a disk or whatever in order to view it like it is supposed to be viewed. I have only dial-up. Air America planes had a connection to JMWave (reported to be a covert cover) out of Florida. JMWave bought some of the planes. Two companies who had Weber on their payroll at that time and prior to that as Collins were part of JMWave.? Go research JMWave and you will find they bought Air American planes in the 60's and early 70's. JMWave was reportedly related to various covert actions in Cuba and other countries. There was also a reported drug connection. I know you guys think I am crazy but this clip took me right back to where I was yrs ago and all it got me was 12 yrs of being ridiculed and made fun of and called delusional....BUT, I didn't have the clip - just the information that it had been done and Duane's involvement with these companies. These Insurance companies have alway been a puzzled me because Ex-cons cannot be licensed insurance agents. I met many individual who worked for these companies when Duane did - and I have since 1996 found that four of whom Duane had a close association with are also ex-cons. Most agents with these companies were and are very legitimate - but for some reason it seemed to be a easy place for ex-cons to find employment. I do seem to recall Jo insisting that there had been early 727 jumps. I remember questioning her proof. Jo, how did you obtain that info? I had my strong doubts, but you were right. I expected Dr. Lesser to confirm that the Air America 727 jump stories were urban myth, but SURPRISE: he links me to FILM OF THE JUMPS!!!! JM Wave appears to be entwined in all sorts of spook stuff. Doesn't mean Duane was Cooper but it does add some possibilities that Duane may have been exposed to some covert ops guys. Jo, you make a big deal about felons being banned from insurance jobs. Duane was a con man. Isn't it far more likely that he evaded detection of his convictions rather than being granted a free felon pass by higher ups? I have seen it done by flipping a number pair on a social security number and misspelling one letter in a last name. If caught you claim "mistake or typo". If not caught, you got the job. Back in the pre Internet days it was easy to hide criminal records in routine employment situations. Maybe word spread among cons about places that were lax in checking backgrounds. I just cannot see an insurance company intentionally recruiting cons. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

No. Is it available online? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Suspects? 53,000? Nahhh Give me a local who was a skydiver, paratrooper or smoke jumper and who knew that a 727 was jumpable. That narrows it down to a few hundred. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

When I did S/L on 68 we used surplus rounds mostly C 9s but a few T 10s for heavy students. They were sleeved just like freefall rigs. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Ground control to Major Tom: How is the money analysis going? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Thanks Snow, great job. Amazing footage! What type of aircraft is shadowing the 727 during the drop sequence photos? Almost looks like a Twin Beech (Beech 18 or USAF C 45) in which case the airpseed was SLOW, probably just under 120. Could it be a small jet? T 39? Any opinions? The horizontal displacement of the jumpers is no huge deal. Looks to me like a reasonably non violent jump. CRW dogs, what do you think? Man what a SLICK airdrop system, fly en route to the DZ pressurized, high and fast (727s are among the fastest jet airliners ever made) , descend and depressurize, open the door and drop a load of pallets and/or jumpers, button up and go back high and fast. The system appears to have worked really well. Fedex ought to consider it. Why land at Memphis and then send some stuff back to places you flew over when you could drop stuff off enroute? GPS steered ram air chutes can deliver cargo to precise landing points. So Cooper could have easily known about these jumps and therefore been confident that he could escape from a 727 by chute. Georger had heard of the 727 drops from Nam vets. I think it was known to a number of people outside of Boeing's engineering and flight test departments. Certainly many within Air Amerca knew. Do we believe that such an effective systeme was never used operationally? Maybe... Once Snowmman gets a lead he digs deep and relentlessly, Sluggo and Georger too. Let's see where this goes. Gentlemen, start your search engines. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Indeed! Nothing abominable about our Snowmman... when he is in a good mood. Pre Cooper 727 jump evidence has definitely put our Snowmman in a good mood. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Good one Georger! Pretty soon we can start a book of the month club, all Cooper all the time for a year. How many will there be total if Galen and Geoffery publish? No, no books or movie deals here. This is just entertainment for me, not a vocation or get rich quick endeavor. Jo publish??? I thought she was as non commercial as I am. Surely you jest. I think Jo is after truth not money, even if her perceived truth (Duane was Cooper) differs substantially from ours. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! Anyone besides me see a Cooper-Saint Nick allegory? Oops, there I go again, thinking of Cooper as a basically benevolent guy. Ho Ho Ho? No No No! 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

If it was raining and winter you can COUNT on Southerly winds. SE S SW and even ESE but not NW. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

This info HAD to be circulating in Viet Nam. Anytime jumpers jump something new, word gets out. There is even a guy on dropzone.com who jumped a Russian TU 95 Bear! Wonder who the 727 jumpers were? The Air America pilot I spoke with who knew zero about 727 jumps had himself hauled indigenous paratroopers over Cambodia for low level S/L jumps. Were these Thai paratroopers perhaps? US military? The Air America system looks like it worked really well. The NWA 727 jump would have been a lot less scary if you had the information in the film. It would tell you to ask for about 20 degrees of flaps and to deploy immediately. You could also freefall but why risk it if you knew you could safely deploy right out the door? I wonder what the airspeed of the Air America 727 was when dropping S/L jumpers? Sluggo. What does an immediate deployment do for your track? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

FINALLY! I trust Leekers research. He is an expert on SE Asia air ops history. Here is his reply to my inquiry: Thank you very much for your e-mail. I don't know about the hijacker you mentioned, but Air America's/SAT's 727s were used for tests only, as it seems. This is a sentence quoted from my file about Missions to Tibet: "Later, the 727s were even tested at Takhli for air drops with conveyer belt and rollers, because the aircraft could be pressurized until the drop, but although the system worked well, it was never used in operation.[1]" In the documentary Flying Men, Flying machines you can see drops made from one of the 727s. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Been trying to find ANY evidence that 727s were used for airdrops in SE Asia, so far zero. I even talked to a former Air America pilot who was active in clandestine stuff during the Nam war, zero. Joe Leeker, an aviation historian at the university of Texas, similarly makes no mention of such missions and his research included FOIA requests to the CIA. http://www.utdallas.edu/library/collections/speccoll/Leeker/jets.pdf Does anyone have solid evidence that 727s did airdrops anywhere besides the FBI sled drop test and at the WFFC skydiving event in Quincy Illinois? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I agree that the Robin Hood profile for Cooper is dumb. It was terrorism, greed and worse... yet somehow Cooper has this enduring mythic aura of altruism and heroism. WHY? I mean sure, you can characterize a night jet jump over unknown terrain as heroic, but where does the altruism come from? Was it his offer to give some of the loot to the flight attendant? A bailout for an underpaid stew followed by a real bailout? I even find myself thinking of Cooper as basically a decent guy somehow reluctantly pushed to extremes by circumstances beyond his control, but that is BS!!!! How did a domestic terrorist get the mantle of folk hero? What a great PR job. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Darn, just a Xerox? Lazy crooks. Guess I will have to get really good on Photoshop and make my own Cooper bills. I am kinda surprised someone hasnt done that and posted it somewhere on the Internet as a tease. A posting of a crisp Cooper twenty... think of it as art. I think there are art exceptions to the counterfeiting laws. Remember that guy who hand drew currency and got it accepted by merchants who were fully aware it wasn't real? He escaped prosecution. Ckret has gone silent on us. Unless there have been a rash of bank robberies in his district, I suspect he is running in more fashionable circles at the moment. This here is the GHETTO! 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo, Dont edit, delay or try to control the flow of information. Give Sluggo permission to post the scans and just trust his judgment and discretion. The fact that he seeks your permission speaks volumes about his ethics. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Remember that swindle where some con artists convinced a Newsweek editor that he could interview Cooper? The bait was a couple of counterfeit twenties with real Cooper serial numbers. Those are the bills I want, not those worm eaten raggedy river bottom eBay notes. "Kill the front page!" Newsweek almost went to press in late 1971 with a cover story on D.B. Cooper which contained what they believed to be an authentic interview with the skyjacker himself. An editor for the magazine had paid a pair of con artists, one of them posing as Cooper, $30,000 for what the editor thought was an exclusive interview. Not to question the intelligence of the editor, but why would Cooper, who had nearly $650,000 (adjusted for inflation) in ransom money risk coming forward to collect his share of $30,000? A federal jury quickly found the two guilty of several counts of fraud. The editor was not formally charged with stupidity. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Night Clerk at the Hotel of Both Worlds - Angela Ball - Paperback - english - 9780822959755 Publisher: UNIV OF PITTSBURGH PRESS part of the Pitt Poetry Series. Other titles in the series? Leaping Poetry Flying At Night After the Fall and two curious titles by Billy COLLINS Picnic, Lightning.... (referring to the Tina Bar money find no doubt) and Art of Drowning...(referring to staging evidence to create a picture implying Coopers demise) So we have NIGHT CLERK, COLLINS and all these obvious clues in the Pitt Series, yet The FBI refuses to investigate further. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jimi Hendrix did it. Perhaps with Duane's help. Paratrooper, Seattle based, sung about Jo's watchtower, jokers, thieves and howling wind. Dark complexion too. Scuse me, while I kiss the sky. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.