377

Too bad. Kinda reminds me of that scene in Independence Day when the scientists are trying to communicate with the alien imprisoned at the govt lab to propose a truce. Peace? NO PEACE! says the alien through an automatic translator machine. So be it. I can live with it. So can Snowmman. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Takes all kinds I guess. This might have been one of Ckrets cases: Ranger alleges war crimes Bank-robbery suspect wants to put government on trial Thursday, December 7, 2006 By PAUL SHUKOVSKY P-I REPORTER An Army Ranger accused of holding up a Tacoma bank plans to use the notoriety of his case to reveal what he characterizes as systematic war crimes -- rapes, homicides and political assassinations -- committed by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Spc. Elliott Sommer is allegedly part of a four-member Ranger crew from Fort Lewis involved in the armed robbery Aug. 7 of a Bank of America branch, court documents show. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I've been posting a lot today. Ckret, have I caught up with Lisamarie? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

It's mutual Ckret, they think you are dumb too. I always got a big chuckle when I was told how dumb the FBI or police were, by a guy sitting behind a thick glass partition and talking to me though a prison visitor center phone. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Why would a 20 year guy (or approaching 20 years of service) risk that sweet military pension for a wild risky crime like this? Galen's suspect (Wolfgang) was eccentric enough to have done something like that. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Ckret, We are going to chip in and get you a Teflon tshirt to wear over your Kevlar vest. Just try to ignore any perceived hostility. We all benefit from the Ckret-Snowmman dialog, both from a substantive and an entertainment viewpoint. It would be a real shame to see it curtailed. Cool down, pull silver and reconsider. It takes a village to solve this crime. If Johnny Utah can work with Bodhi, you can work with Snowmman. Hey, did you see the bank robbery we had in Silicon Valley last week? The WF branch mgr orders a truly unreasonably large amt of cash for his branch, an amount so high that it catches the attention of other employees. Guess what? Robbers show up and demand that he open the vault. He complies. They get a few hundred K. Branch mgr is quickly arrested. All three are now in custody. They say they were inspired by the movie Oceans 11. Guess they will be watching a lot of movies in Sheridan, Pleasanton wherever they get sent. Local police are congratulating themselves on their "great detective work". DUHHHH. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Well, where I come from, I don't think my usage of that term would be described as "unusual"... Linguistic use would also have to take the period context into account. Some of you were around then. It was a time when words like "groovy" were in common use, people were "cats" etc (some old Bowie songs for example date themselves by their lyrics). I don't know if this is relevant to a term like "do the job". Hey, I know people who have smoked weed damn near continuously since the 60s. Their vocabulary has not really advanced since their last glimpse of unclouded consciousness. Things are still "groovy" to them. Do you have one or two of these at your DZ? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

You know, if I were Cooper and they brought me four chutes, one of which was a dummy chest pack reserve filled with foam, I'd be having some VERY SERIOUS doubts about the condition of the other gear. I would wonder if they were setting me up for a malfunction or worse yet, a chuteless jump. I wonder if he even noticed that the one rig was, in fact, a dummy and far too light for a real reserve. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I think that prior mentions of "gangsta movie english" have muddied our thinking. Does your thinking change if "do the job" is used this way: "If he can't do the job, get rid of him and get someone who can" The way Cooper used "do the job" was slightly unconventional. Maybe he watched too many Edward G Robinson mobster movies. I just thought it might give a clue to where he lived. Some phrases are very localized. Are we 100% certain that Cooper said "McChord is only 20 minutes away"? If so that sure points away from sport jumper. If I did the crime in 71 (I had been jumping for 3 years at that time) frankly it wouldn't have occured to me to look at an airbase as a chute source. I would have wanted sport gear and that means that I'd expect it to come from a rigger or DZ shop. As a sport jumper there is NO WAY I'd select an unsleeved bailout rig to jump from a jet at high speed. Sport gear is much more maneuverable too. I jumped a four line cut (military steering mod) 26 foot Navy conical reserve. It was not very maneuverable. I would have a far better shot at avoiding water landings and other hazards if I picked a sport rig. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I keep thinking Cooper couldn't have been a sport jumper. The Pioneer sport rig would certainly have a sleeve and that would make a BIG HUGE difference in slowing down deployment compared to an unsleeved C9 canopy. Why subject yourself to a painful and even dangerous slammer opening if you have a sport rig available? If you had stuff tied to you, opening shock is something you'd definitely want to minimize. Also, you could clip a reserve to the Pioneer rig, right? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Some of us learnt the Queen's English

If Cooper intended to jump right after take off why did he waste valuable time on refueling? The fueling delay was making him really uptight. Why didnt he just skip it? Was it important because it would mislead the cops into thinking he intended a long flight before jumping? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Snowmman, I think MK 1 and 2 refer to the Paracommander canopy and not the Pioneer harness and container. Beatnik, who posts on other dropzone forums is an EXPERT on old gear. He is a rigger, current military and a skydiving gear historian extraordinaire. He rebuilds and jumps ANCIENT gear regularly, even the scary as hell stuff that NOBODY jumped after better gear hit the scene. I suggest contacting him with gear questions. He is friendly and if he has the time he will probably help you out. Don't wait. With the antique suicide gear he jumps you just never know. Ask to see his recent canopy collision video. Two cutaways to round reserves. No fatalities but scary to watch. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Who would have "lots" of experience with emergency gear besides riggers and escape system techs? Most flight crew in large military planes never think about chutes after their initial training. There are almost never emergency bailouts from military transport aircraft. Military C 135s (similar to Boeing 707s) have even stopped carrying chutes to save weight. If Cooper had been say a crewman (loadmaster?) on a C 130 Herc he would know how to don a rig, tighten the straps, pull a ripcord and he would know basic parachute landing and survival techniques. If he had used the term "interphone" rather than "intercom" that would be a strong pointer to military flight crew experience. I seem to recall that his alleged use of "interphone" was an unsubstaiated rumor. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Yes, there is a secret Whuffo flowchart. I cannot reveal it though. On the bailout beacon angle. If Cooper was a USAF flightcrew guy, he'd have known about them. He'd look for it in a military bailout rig that had not been civilianized and either try to remove or disable it... or just pick the sport rig which was far less likely to contain one. Many USAF aircraft at the time had the ARA 25 UHF automatic direction finder which could shoot a bearing on a bailout beacon signal in a second. Just tune to 243.0 MHz and turn the mode switch to ADF. Bingo. Look at your RMI and it will be pointing to the beacon. You could even operate it from an aircraft on the ground. Paratroopers would be unfamiliar with bailout beacons. They are used in emergency aircraft egress systems, not Army Airborne gear. I wonder where Cooper thought the gear would come from? A military base or a sport loft? The fact that he gave so little specificity in the rig requests makes me think non jumper. You'd sure want a sleeved canopy if you were making a high speed jump. Sounds like he just wanted chutes, you know, front and back ones. If he was an experienced jumper the "front and back" nomenclature is certainly a ruse to sound more like a Whuffo. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

"Terrorist?"` Lisamarie, you are correct, of course, but it kinda messes up the "folk hero" atmosphere we have been enjoying here. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

An unusual but apparently correct use of the word "acquitted" above. Remember when Sara Palin assembled her own private ethics commission and "acquitted herself" on Troopergate? I got a huge laugh out of that one. Jo on the other hand has convicted Duane of the Cooper hijack. A number of posters here are representing Duane on appeal on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to support Jo's guilty verdict. Ckret is hinting at something a few posts back. I smell Hollywood. I don't see him being interviewed by Oprah or Letterman, so what does that leave us as a possibility? Dancing with the Stars? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

ok. Then I'm ready to say no-pull. So if we have no-pull and the money find, and the testimony and flight path, it's pretty easy to come up with a scenario that ties it all together. I've provided no-body-found drowning cases in the Columbia already. What are we missing? Does the money find not align with randomness? We are not missing a thing Snowmman. A no pull certainly is a likely outcome, but not a satisfying one. I am still hoping that Cooper survived. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=406&gTable=mtgpaper&gID=93063 Even in 71 the USAF had reasonably small solid state beacon transmitters for chutes, like the URT 21. http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0630190 "Cooper got rid of those with his Capt Video field strength meter .... or, they shreded as they went through the fans with Cooper." I actually have a URT 21. They have a transmitter activation lanyard that starts the transmitter only after the canopy deploys (or when you get seat separation in an ejection setup). A field strength meter wouldn't help. It is in stealth mode until that lanyard is pulled. It transmits a swept audio tone on 243.0 MHz AM. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Galen cordially responded to my inquiry and informed me that the book is expected to be published in Spring 2009. No clues as to content. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

re hard ripcord pulls... There is more to it than just pull force needed to dislodge the pins from the cones. When a lot of force is applied and nothing happens the jumper's adrenaline spikes and he starts to panic a bit. AM I PULLING ON THE WRONG THING? Add night, tumbling, cold, scared, wet and you have a situation that can spin out of control really fast. It can cause a jumper to discard the ripcord handle and start pulling on webbing or something else that is not going to open the container flaps no matter how hard you pull. Sure, the smart thing is to just pull harder. Even a so called hard pull isn't normally going to take an impossible amount of force... but that logic can escape the mind of a panicky jumper. I had two VERY hard pulls on surplus gear back in 68. I was jumping a sleeved C 9 packed in an unextended surplus rental rig. Even though I was prepared for the second one, it still was scary. I was taught to give it two tries then go for my reserve. I probably gave it five and might have stupidly gone to a dozen had it not opened on the fifth, who knows? That is not clear thinking. Fear clouds good judgment. A hard pull definitely starts the adrenaline going. It can spiral downhill fast from that point. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I have to agree that it would have been near impossible for Cooper to close an unextended NB6 container with a 28 ft C 9 canopy without tools of some kind. TIGHT TIGHT TIGHT. Tight enough to almost guarantee a very difficult pull. You could rig cord to serve as a closing aid, but there is no evidence that he even opened the NB6 container. His choices related to gear scream non jumper to me. He made several choices, all consistent with zero skydiving experience. That's what makes Galen's #1 suspect (Wolfgang) doubtful as Cooper. He had lots of parachuting experience, too much to have made the gear choices Cooper made, unless he was trying to conceal his knowledge by deliberately making whuffo-like choices. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

"Really, i know what you checked out of the library last month, and it's late two days. " OK, now I know why Duane just annotated that Cooper book in the library rather than checking it out. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=406&gTable=mtgpaper&gID=93063 Even in 71 the USAF had reasonably small solid state beacon transmitters for chutes, like the URT 21. http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0630190 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Lisamariewillbe wrote: Lisamarie, After reading your statement above, I think the terms line twists, streamer and spinning malfunction have completely new meanings when they refer to your activities. Don't pound too hard on Ckret. He is the only FBI SA who has shown an interest in conversing with skydivers on a subject of mutual interest rather than arresting them on a federal warrant. He also has a clever ironic sense of humor, something many of his bureau colleagues are completely lacking. I do, however, agree with you that he needs to jump. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.