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I'm sorry to see Marla's Cooper balloon popped so soon, especially since it involved 2 way radios. I hope the next "Cooper of the week" is alleged to have used walkie talkies, maybe even a radio direction finder too. Don't forget that the SOG guys used direction finders to locate each other after landing. I'll have to consult with Snow about how to weave radios into the mandatory Cooper gear. It's a lot more plausible than some obscure French action hero adventure comic. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

The Dan Cooper comics component to the DBC story is amazing. Snowmman engineered a parasite that has become fully integrated into the legend and lore. If you didn't read Dan Cooper comics you can't be DB Cooper. Marla sure thought so. The fact that it was featured on the FBI website is a tribute to Snow. Jo is too clever to fall for the trap, but Marla wasn't and to some, it was a sure fire indicator that he story was concocted, highly enhanced in hindsight or imagined. Jo has associated Duane with smoke jumpers, Boeing people, aircraft mechanics, etc, but to her credit there are no Dan Cooper comics in the Duane=DBC story. Even KC for a while had an alleged exposure to Dan Cooper comics at the NWA base at Shemya. There are other unproven and parasitic parts of the Cooper legend such as his having an altimeter or examining the packing cards, but none have the legs of the comic story. On another subject I've spent time trying to figure out what organism made the holes in the Tena Bar money. I haven't found an answer but aquatic organisms seem to fit more than dry land ones. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I really like Smokin99's reply and second it. We have a neighborhood here. Others look at us and say some of you can do better. You don't have to live around crazies and homeless people. There is a nice gated community over at Google or Yahoo that is so much cleaner. This forum has one big advantage in that it's part of a skydiving website. Many jumpers who are not regular posters do read it and jump in once in a while to add valuable historical or technical info. Larry Carr says the case is basically a bank robbery. To others it's basically a skydive. Everybody has their own perspective. I like it here. It's home. It's family. People threaten to leave all the time, but they come back. It's family to them too, they just don't realize it. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Farflung wrote: Cooper might have expected a hostile cockpit crew, and he was right. But for some cool heads at NWA HQ Cooper might have exited over the Pacific Ocean. By demanding gear down and some flaps that assured he wouldn't be snookered into a .8 Mach exit. They might inch the flaps up without him noticing but a gear retraction in a 727 makes a fair amount of noise. The gear down demand, to me, is more likely smart than dumb. I liked your last poster Farflung, but no hot nun stew. You are either slipping or reforming. From your last post I am wondering if you reside in Livermore. That's where I made my first jump in 68. They used to have a decent airshow there. The highlight for me was when a long derelict B 29 bomber from Oakland flew in. The owner, according to rumor, was offered $5000 if the plane showed up. Amazingly it did. It was leaking more fluids than ANY plane I've ever seen, and as an old jumper I've seen some pretty porous prop jobs. They topped off everything before departing. I think if they ran into headwinds flying the 20 miles back to OAK they would have run out of hydraulic fluid. Kermit Weeks bought it, hired a crew to do a local test flight and wisely decided to dismantle it and truck it to his museum in Florida. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Warms my heart to know that in 2011 a 1940s propliner is still hauling jumpers. What a truly fine airplane. I'd love to jump her again. What a spectacular climber. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I used to drool over those ads in the 60s. I was a teenager jumping a very porous worn out hand me down C9. The dilemma was always more jumps or new canopy. I learned how to do really good PLFs. See that silk twill canopy in the ad? Were any skydivers in the 60s jumping silk? I never saw any. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Who is a public figure in the eyes of the law? An author of a legal book on defamation writes: The concept of the "public figure" is broader than celebrities and politicians. A person can become an "involuntary public figure" as the result of publicity, even though that person did not want or invite it. Tina never sought publicity. In fact she shunned it. Still, being associated with a famous crime has made her a public figure. It isn't fair, but that's the way it is IMO. Justice Farflung. This may come up on your bar exam. Would you agree or file a dissenting opinion? Damn. Marla Cooper never even got on Letterman and now shes just an ordinary person again. Fame can be so fleeting. Her planned cosmetic line will never happen, but there is still some commercial interest in her Uncle Norjack label for Bourbon. The speed at which the FBI attacked the DNA question is uncharacteristic. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

It's possible. I did get to meet some Knights back when dinosaurs roamed the DZs. I was just a kid then and in total awe. The piggyback rig reportedly was developed by Dan Abbot at Security Parachutes in San Leandro CA. He had been working with the Golden Knights in Arizona so maybe the idea or part of it came from there. Did your Dad mention Security or Dan? You sure have some deep family roots in this sport. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I think Cooper's exit might very well have been "picked up" by radar but not preserved or even noticed. What is shown on screens is filtered and processed to remove noise and "spurious" echoes. I'll bet if we had a tape of the raw echo signals you'd see Cooper's exit. Ask Guru about how good ATC radar is at picking up and even counting exiting sklydivers at ranges exceeding 40 miles. I have personally spoken at length with an FAA controller who is also a skydiver about this and he confirms what Guru says and even extended the jumper detection range. Too bad nobody thought to preserve this raw signal data, or maybe it was not even recorded. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo, If I were Tina or close to her I'd be personally offended by Bruce, but I wouldnt go to a lawyer or call the cops. He hasn't done anything that I would call criminal stalking. Taking and publishing photos of a public figure is not a crime. He made a single brief visit to her home, was rebuffed and left. Without tough persistent journalists we would just get nice easy to find news. Important stories like Watergate, COINTELPRO, Pentagon papers, etc would never have been made public were it not for journalists who wear out their shoes and dig dig dig. Tina is a public figure of sorts and different legal rules apply to public figures. Rather than argue the finer points of law, just look at what actually happened. A visit, a rebuff and a prompt departure. That's all. I am truly sorry if Tina was distressed, but it isn't the end of the world for her or for anyone else. Give her credit for being a little more functional and less fragile than you prefer to picture her as. You seem overly invested in this eggshell Tina model. I am a huge believer in freedom of the press. That freedom causes some sacrifices of privacy, but it's well worth it. If reporters live in fear of arrest for knocking on a door and requesting an interview then you might as well have the government write all the news. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Yawn. Here we go with lawsuit threats again. And what damages could Tina collect? The burden of proving damages is on the plaintiff. She asked Bruce to leave and he did. Get a grip folks, it was one very short visit to her doorstep. Some are invested in portraying Tina as an exceedingly fragile amd dysfunctional person whose life can be irretrievably ruined by a single visit and one minute encounter with a pushy reporter. Let Tina handle this herself. She doesn't need us as uninvited guardians. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

First, an NB8 is a container not a canopy. I think what he meant was a C9 28 ft canopy in an NB6 container designed for a 26 ft Navy Conical canopy. It could definitely make for a hard (but not impossible) pull. The solution would be to stand on the stairs, and dont leave until you have pulled. Unless a ripcord pin is severely bent, its doable, just takes some strength and determination. Hard pulls in freefall have panicked experienced jumpers and led to fatalities, especially in the old days when automatic reserve opening devices were uncommon. The jumper gets obsessed with pulling. loses track of altitude and keeps trying until impact. Sometimes they would think they were pulling on the wrong thing and grab some webbing and pull on that until impact. I am talking about jumpers with hundreds and even thousands of jumps doing this. At night, tumbling wildly, its not hard to imagine Cooper making the webbing mistake. It's happened with experienced jumpers on nice sunny days. I had two VERY hard pulls in my student days and I can tell you they were terrifying, more than they really should have been. The solution is easy for a sport jumper, just stop fussing with the main and pull the reserve, but a person with one canopy doesnt have that option. I've had a couple of malfunctions that necessitated cutaways and they werent as panic inducing as the very hard pulls were. My hard pulls were the result of packing some rental rigs using sleeved C9s in stock unextended military containers. It was too tight a fit, in my opinion. When I complained to the rigger doing this he said "maybe you just need to work out more kid" and put it right back on the rental rack. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

yeah, the Air America 727 jumps were S/L. Anyone who had seen them or knew of them would figure you could just pull right off the stairs and it would be roughly the same, not much freefall. Halo/freefall experience would help but a paratrooper or smoke jumper wirth only S/L jumps could do OK. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Yes, there were "piggyback" rigs in 71 that had the reserve mounted on the back above the main. I owned one, a locally manufacured Top Secret model made by the Altitude shop iin Vallejo. There were no front mounted reserve D rings on these rigs. Mine had a Paracommander MK 1 shortlined main and a Navy surplus 26 ft conical as a back mounted reserve. I gave my Top Secret rig and PC to Beatnik, a rigger and RCAF Captain who has a passion for vintage gear. Unlike most collectors, he restores them and JUMPS them. Better to have old gear flying than gathering dust in an attic. Today all normal sport rigs have the piggyback setup and no front mounted D rings. There are a few test jumpers who wear three chutes and they do have front mounted D rings for a belly reserve, but they are rare and custom made. I am pretty sure Cooper's sport rig was a non piggyback rig with the main on the back and reserve D rings on the front. The NB 6 (or NB 8?) does not have any reserve rings. When you bail out of a military plane you only get one chance. The C9 canopies used by the military (and which we believe Cooper jumped) are reliable and VERY VERY strong, much more so than sport canopies. If I were making a high speed exit and quick deployment I'd go for a C 9 over a PC. Sport chutes of the 1971 era were placarded "DO NOT EXCEED 150 MPH" or words to that effect. C9s can survive much higher opening speeds. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

You well executed Cooperdy screen is going up on my refrigerator Farflung. I hate to take down your hot nuns, but I know there will be more of those coming. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

VERY cool ExBlue. I am a big supporter of public education and I think community colleges are an incredibly important component. My wife left a lucrative career in finance to pursue her passion, teaching. She teaches math at a community college and has never looked back. She loves her job and is very inspired by the second chance success stories that happen all the time at community colleges. I'll bet you've seen a few of those yourself. The Dan Cooper comic issue interests me not only for the possible (but highly speculative) DBC link but also as a study in information flow and idea adoption. Snowmman introduced it as I recall and has researched it extensively. The FBI picked up on it from this forum and featured it on their website. We now have Marla Cooper allegedly recalling her uncle LD cooper posting Dan Cooper comic covers on his wall. It has become part of the legend although there is zero evidence of a DBC connection. The Ted Braden story seems to have faded from this forum but I cant remember why. Perhaps Orange recalls. He was a hell of a suspect from the skills and motive standpoint. He was a Special Forces experienced HALO jumper who had deserted and was a federal fugitive. He needed money and had the skills to make the jump and survive. Was he too short, strong alibi, wrong eye color or? Why did he get off our radar? I am so amazed and equally pleased to see how strong the public interest still is in DB Cooper. This story has legs that go on for miles. It must strike a resonant chord in our psyche. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

So what does a smart former street cop do next? The pressure bump indicates something was going on with the stairs and it was most likely Coopers exit. It's a real stretch but if he were a scheming aero engineer or experienced jumper he could have bounced on the stairs to create the bump, climbed back up, waited ten or twenty minutes then gone over the side of the stairs or dived straight off nearer the top. The moment arm is less up there than on the bottom and his departure would create far less rebound. A spoofed early exit would have everyone looking in the wrong area. Occam says the pressure bump was coincident with his exit. Who am I to argue with Occam? I don't think he stayed on the plane, the FBI probably searched every possible hiding place. In looking at my 727 manuals I don't see any "behind the panel" spaces with enough volume to hide Cooper. There are such places underneath the plane but unless he was Spiderman he couldn't have accessed them from the cabin. I do think he jumped. I do thonk if he managed to pull the ripcord he landed alive. I don't think there was a crew conspiracy. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

If the book really was annotated by him I've always wondered if Duane was planning a con involving the Cooper cash. DBC wouldn't have needed to read a library book about his own caper. Which is more likely: Duane actually being Cooper? Duane lieing and conning about being Cooper? Jo, I know you believe Duane was Cooper. You have equivocated a few times but when you referred to yourself as "Cooper's widow" just the other day it's clear that's what you believe. Duane's health, serial dishonesty/thievery and lack of parachuting experience make it extraordinarily unlikely that he would be chosen by others to do the skyjack. Who in their right mind would trust a con man thief with $200,000 in cash? Could he have done it as a loner? Sure, but his history shows ordinary crime dumbly executed. His arrest and conviction record spells bumbler to me and I am sure to anyone else with experience in the criminal justice system. How likely is it that Duane could have thought up such an innovative caper, executed it and evaded arrest? It would sure have been out of character. Your pursuit of proof has been frustrating and you have referred to the quest as wasted years, blaming the FBI etc. You might look at it another way. You have a deep passion and you've spent the last few years pursuing it with a vigor that is intense and unwavering. Even if proof eludes you, your life has been one of passion. It has kept you active and in communication with others daily. That beats the dreary isolated life many people your age live. The thought of you trekking to the NW last year could be looked at as tragic, pitiful or inspiring. I like inspiring. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo, I don't doubt that those things were told to you, but that doesn't make them true. Small time loser criminals used to drop all sorts of hints about Mafia connections but it was total BS. The few times I had any connection with true organized crime defendants the M word and any substitutes for it were never mentioned. I've never accused you of lieing. I just think you were conned. 377 Small time crooks dream of grandeur. They boast, lie and con their way into making others believe they are big shots. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Dont forget Ted Braden. Look him up on back posts. He was SOG, had the motive (money), the skills and was a deserter-fugitive. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I didnt count some as having left because they keep showing up once in a great while. I gues TK is countaable as gone, but others reappear from time to time. Who did I miss Georger? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Orange wrote: Ditto. Miss him a lot actually, especially now. We had a real FBI Coopernut right here on our twisted forum and he was chased off. Larry actually doesnt blame any one person for his departure, but I think diplomacy and good manners continued to influence his position. We all have our suspicions as to what actually led to his departure and who instigated it. We have lost two really great assets here, Snow and Ckret. We muddle along without them but who knows where we'd be were they still here? I'll bet we'd have more substantive discussions and less Lord of the Flies stuff. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Really great post ExBlue. I can't recall ever running into a street cop who was as articulate in their written expression as you are. There were plenty of smart ones. but clear writing wasn't their forte'. Of course police reports don't enourage literary flourish. We sure agree on no conspiracy or LEO cover up. That stuff is the refuge of people who can't find evidence that supports their particular theory. They ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY KNOW it exists and if they cant find it then it must have been buried by the FBI. Yawnnnn... I really hope you will keep posting here. Fresh air is sorely needed. Our canaries died months ago. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I feel a presence, I am now channeling Snow; 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Now it gets a bit more plausible that LDC could have arranged a rendevous by radio. A surveyor knows plenty about land navigation and position finding. It's a core part of the basic professional training. If he jumped with a topo map and a compass he'd stand a pretty good chance of figuring things out, especially if he could see some identifiable peaks. If LDC or anyone else without prior jump experience did that Norjack jump they have balls of steel. A night jet jump in bad weather over an unknown location is just gutsy as hell. I wouldn't do it in those clothes and in that weather even for an inflation adjusted 200K, and I have made one jet airliner jump. Snowmman would do it and I think Amazon would too. Jerry probably would decline because he thinks it is a fatal undertaking. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.