377

The "white hat" defense rarely works in real life. Many times when a celeb is busted for kiddie porn or soliciting prostitution they claim they were doing research for a book, movie, etc. Remember when Pete Townsend of the Who was busted for child porn? "From the very beginning," Townshend said in a statement, "I acknowledged that I did access this site and that I had given the police full access to my computers. As I made clear at the outset, I accessed the site because of my concerns at the shocking material available on the Internet to children as well as adults, and as part of my research toward the campaign I had been putting together since 1995 to counter damage done by all kinds of pornography on the Internet, but especially any involving child abuse." Pete was cleared because the forensic experts couldn't prove that he downloaded anything. As a parent, aren't you grateful Pete was on the front lines of the war on child porn? I mean a celebrity like him taking the time and caring enough about kids to do his "research"... I think he should be considered for Knighthood. Can you see the Asst. US Attorney in Seattle giving Cooper a free pass for showing holes in airline security? I don't know who would be laughing harder, the prosecutor, the FBI agents, or his defense attorney. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Sorry Snowman, I must have missed Tina's battery description. Anyway, I am very familiar with the sealed lead acid 2 V cells often branded Cyclon. They are made by Gates (and others) and find common use as backup batteries in AC powered lighted emergency exit signs and also in burglar alarms. I have never seen them in any aircraft systems. They usually come in 6 V or 12 V packs comprised of 3 or 6 cells with heat shrink white tubing holding the cells together. I wonder what became of Cooper's "bomb"? My guess is that he tossed it and its remains are somewhere below the flight path. Maybe it will be found someday and give us some clues. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Snowman, 28 VDC acft batts are big and heavy as they normally have to be capable of delivering high current to start and engine or an APU. There are small standby emergency power 28 VDC batteries, but even those are relatively large and heavy, about the volume of a quart of water. Lead acid and Nicad are the types you'll find approved for acft use. No need for Cooper to have 28 VDC batt to mimic a bomb. One or two 6 VDC carbon zinc dry cell lantern batts would do the job. The reason airplanes us 28 VDC instead of 12 VDC (like cars do) for their primary DC voltage is that for a given power (watts =volts x amps), the higher the voltage, the lower the amps and therefore smaller wire can be used saving LOTS of weight. The reason planes use 400 cycle AC instead of 60 cycle (like house current) is that the iron cores of AC transformers can be much lighter with higher frequencies. In aircraft electrical power design, it is all about saving weight. Oddly, there were a few WW2 C 47s (DC 3s) that had 12 volt electrical systems (listed as 14 VDC, the charging voltage for a 12 volt battery and what you'd see on the DC buss with the generators running). The vast majority had 28 VDC systems. Some Canadian built WW 2 fighters had 14 VDC systems which made their 16 mm film gun cameras highly sought after by skydivers in the days before videotape gear was affordable. Mike Swain figured this out early and bought up lots of them. He could fly with a 12 volt battery while his cohorts had to use bigger and heavier 24 volt batts to power their helmet mounted gun cameras. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I just got licensed in April 08, Extra lite, no code. Well... actually I know Morse Code, but at sub Novice speeds, so 14K hop and pop wouldnt give me much time for CW QSOs. 73, AF6 eye em (abbrev. to foil spambots) 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Forget the tandems. Solo freefall stability will come right back to you with a couple of AFF jumps. It may be less costly than you think. The new gear is waaaay more fun and a lot safer than the old rounds we jumped back in the day. If you buy used gear you can get back into the sport really cheaply. Tandems are so costly. Think of how many solo jumps one tandem would pay for when you get licensed. Go AFF on your next jump. either way you go, WELCOME BACK! 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I'd do a hop and pop from 14K and use insulated very small diameter antanna wire. I'd either jettison or wind up the wire at about 2K. See any other problems? I bet there are snags I haven't thought of. I think I could use an Icom 703 QRP xvcr which is small and has a built in antenna autotuner. It could run off of 8 AA cells for the short time I'll be using it at about 5-10 watts SSB output. Getting the timing right for good HF propagation and possible DX contacts would be tough, but not impossible. All suggestions welcome and appreciated. Mark 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Snowman, You really think outside the box, which is a compliment. In this scenario Cooper could literally attend his own funeral. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Could that "date with Sasquatch" be Snow-code? Could it mean he is headed for the NW woods to dig something up? Maybe he really does have a date. Abominable Snowman and Sasquatch. Now there is a pairing that you wouldn't find on match.com. Use protection Snowman. Your brains and Sasquatch's brawn... yikes! 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Does anyone remember the movie FBI Story? I saw it when I was a kid and was in awe. I even gave some thought to being an FBI agent when I grew up. That fantasy was put to rest years later when my girlfriend got a summer job typing up FBI wiretap transcripts from tapes. She told me that most of the agents she worked with were not happy campers. Waaay too much paperwork and jerky arbitrary bosses. Ckret of course cannot say AMEN, so we will never know if he echos this discontent. One of the real-life crimes solved in the movie was an airliner bombing, a DC 6 as I recall. They looked for a motive (life insurance), IDed a suspect, found a piece of a branded dry cell battery in the wreckage and linked it to the bomb, researched the suspect's recent purchases (not easy in the pre credit card days) and proved he bought that exact kind of battery. He was convicted. I wish we knew more about Cooper's "bomb". Might be some good clues there. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

did I miss some posts? How did we get to Cooper=thug? I agree we know he was a hijacker, and he took money that wasn't his, so yeah on robber. Is the thuggery the threatened use of a fake bomb? I would call that more terrorism nowadays. Thuggery is a word I would use if he smacked someone with a ballpeen hammer. Why thug? Yeah, the bomb. Although Copper said otherwise, the crew had a very justifiable fear that Cooper would blow them up after he bailed out. It is a scenario that is technically easy and makes sense. It would have killed those who knew what he looked like. It wasn't just a word threat, he had a "bomb" and the crew had no way of knowing whether it was real or fake. That kind of terrorizing is thug stuff in my book. Just because Cooper didn't physically assault anyone doesn't get him out of my thug bucket. He gets this "gentleman bandit" aura which is complete BS if you look at the facts. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I can find no hard evidence that USAF/ANG 727s were ever used for airdrops. If they were it was very unusual and covert. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

WAL = Western Airlines 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Well, uhh, actually no. Maybe we could do a poll. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Indeed. An interesting way to look at it Ckret. I'll bet the one thing that really bugged Cooper is that he was a nationally known folk hero, but couldn't reap any personal benefits from it. That kind of notoriety can be used to attract women etc, but he had to stay in the shadows. Lots of Cooper wannabes/pretenders popped up precisely because of the hero status. A nobody who held himself out as Cooper could feel like a somebody and be held in awe by those who would otherwise have ignored him. No risk either since you didn't actually do the crime. I noticed that skydivers who were thought to possibly be Cooper in the early 70s never vehemently denied it. They just made a joke out of it and basked in the tiny bit of glory that remained as long as they were not ruled at as being Cooper. It is puzzling how a thug-robber-hijacker like Cooper gets to be a folk hero. Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver is another example. He was a rapist and a skyjacker but to many in the 60s he was a revolutionary hero. Maybe some sociologists or psychologists on this forum can shed some light on this phenomena. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Any ham skydivers ever operate on HF while under canopy? Most have done VHF comms with an HT, but the newer low power HF rigs are small enough to take on a jump. You could use a trailing wire antenna just like the WW 2 airplanes did. Has anyone tried this? Wouldn't it be a kick to work some station thousands of miles away while parachute mobile? 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Good thoughts, 377. So you're thinking it's likely the hijack was the most interesting thing that happened in Cooper's life, if he lived..i.e. biggest rush? Or are you thinking guilt/nervousness? Snowman, I doubt if Cooper ever did anything that beat this for excitement. Unlike most criminals, he became a folk hero. That "hero" thing probably did a lot to assuage guilt if he ever had any. Also, by keeping up on the case status through the Internet, he could see if he was in danger of being identified and take defensive action (move, disguise, ID change etc). It is mostly about vanity and self preservation. If you were Cooper and alive today wouldn't you be reading this forum? I would. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Ckret, Nice of you to still do work on the Weber angle. A lesser person would have bailed out long ago. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Do you have statistics? My dad is in that age group and his computer use capabilities match mine. I have other examples. Why would we care about this particular statistic anyhow? We only need one Cooper. Not 10,000. No statistics at all. People had mentioned that he may be reading this site, or other sites, and following discussions of his exploits. It is just as valid to assume that he may be sitting at home watching Wheel of Fortune and eating cheese-curls. (I printed up size 14-font instructions on how to use the DVD player for the people on my dads floor. They love me.) I think people who knew things like airspeed limits, flap settings, etc would be more likely to be Internet competent in old age. I know a lot of old pilots and they ALL are web surfers. I have represented defendants whose crime stories made the news. They were often more interested in the stories than they were in assisting in their own defense. It's just human nature. If Cooper is alive, he reads a lot about himself and most of the info is on the Internet. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I think the FDR just records flight data. The CVR records voices. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I knew a former KC 135 boomer. He knew ZERO about jumping and very little about airplanes for having been a crew member. He said there was a social line between the guys up front and the guy in back which even extended to B 52D bombers. In the area around his base (Castle AFB) there were "gunner" bars and "boomer" bars where pilots never set foot... and the women who did were tougher and weren't exactly looking for "an officer and a gentleman." I think loadmaster is more likely. Read the C7 airdrop manual section which is posted online. It has TONS of info about altitudes, unpressurized flight, speeds, aircraft configuration etc. Much more Cooper caper related stuff than you'd find in a boom operator manual section. And for Sluggo, yes, it would take a court order to compel discosure, but a court order is just a piece of paper with a judge's command. Journalists go to jail all the time for refusing to obey them if they require identifying a confidential source. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Haiku, dedicated to Sluggo who has worked so hard here: aluminum steps bump rebounding freedom tentatively launches 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I have always wondered why Cooper did not disguise himself with a wig, mustache, hair dye, makeup etc. It has an "I don't care if I am identified because I am immune to capture" aspect that has always puzzled me. Could he have actually done a masterful disguise that was undetected? 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

how do you know that? Just human nature Snowman. People are vain. If you had pulled that caper off wouldn't you be Googling to see what was written about you? FBI Norjak number 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

You know if Cooper were still alive he'd be reading this and other forums that feature him. The temptation would be too great. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Sluggo, We await you reinvigorated return. Have fun with your grandson. Your cerebral processor has been overclocked for months, let it cool and then reboot. Your contributions to the forum are awesome, truly. With the Sluggo-Snowman Ying Yang balance now disrupted, what will become of us? I feel a disruption in THE FORCE. Hurry back. We'll leave the light on for ya. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.