Orange1

that staticically would not work unless you make specifc assumptions about "all things being exactly the same" only on a smaller canopy. Just because someone srains an ankle on a big boat does not mean in anyway that the injury would have been worse on a smaller canopy. The canopies fly very differently, and the sprained ankle could well have been avoided on a smaller canopy Squeak, happy to make that assumption (in my line of work we call it ceteris paribus ) and I think it's probably a pretty reasonable one... and while i agree in principle that there is a chance a broken ankle under a big canopy could have been avoided under a smaller canopy, in practice i think everyone agrees that if someone lands badly, they are likely to hurt themselves more under a smaller, heavier-loaded canopy. I'm not necessarily trying to argue for anything, though I intuitively think it is safer to be more conservative on WL. But it would be interesting to see what the stats show, and whether or not they support the argument. Again, this is something I do in my day job: "hmm, that sounds like an interesting theory, let's see how it checks out in practice". I just don't really feel like being the one to sit and input all the data ... Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Kallend, I still stand by that post that got lost somewhere in the tussle between you and magicguy. There are no statistics for example that show the number of sprained ankles for lowtimers under lightly loaded canopies, that could easily have been broken bones under more highly loaded ones. We could look at the statistics a different way: we could for example see how many of the canopy-related incidents happened to people loaded less than 1:1? On your other point -- it would be interesting to see an age & gender distribution of fatalities. I agree it happens across the skydiver spectrum but let's see if more young males do kill themselves or others than the rest. In my recollection, the last few threads that have included the "this is what the guy posted when he was alive" stuff were all young males. I'm happy to do these analyses if someone has all the data in excel to send me! (and yes i do know how to work with statistics.) Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Jo, you really cannot know how secure the opening was made - but anyway - your argument is also an effective argument for not making the bag secure enough to survive either exit or opening shock. With respect, you've never jumped - i don't think you can possibly appreciate the forces involved with these things - and I am only talking from normal jumps. Guys who have jumped jets & rounds have posted repeatedly about exit speeds and opening shock. The currents in the river are nowhere near as fast as those. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

There are EXCELLENT data on fatalities extending back decades. If there is a real problem it will be apparent there. Is it not possible.. that the reason there are not hundreds of incidents involving low timers on highly loaded canopies is simply because (as was pointed out in another thread) 9 out of 10 low timers do actually listen to advice to stay conservative? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

now that was a very interesting contribution... Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Have you asked them? It doesn't sound like it. From Carr's responses in the previous thread it seemed he was very open to any real evidence (as opposed to theories and conjecture). This could be the one thing so far to prove your case, so why are you so reluctant to even ask them? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Jo, See any woven fabric or colored strand in the cord material? 377 Yeah, i'd say more than a tenuous link - if it is a match it's probably the most convincing (only real) piece of actual evidence so far. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Question from somewhere where snow is an extremely rare occurrence... what are the issues to consider jumping in snow? Is depth perception affected? What about getting your canopy wet? Anything else? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Skymama has said it all i think - you will probably find after a while you get a bit edgy when you see other people racking up jumps so fast but your kids must take priority!! Some people do the "DZ kids" things where they take their kids to the DZ every weekend so they can jump... my daughter loves the DZ, but I also feel she's a kid and needs to do real kid things too on the weekends. I'm lucky that my husband is very supportive too. You may find it a bit difficult at first but you will find a balance where you can both enjoy the sport (and yes it probably will make you a happier person to be around!) and your family. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

How many people had credit cards in those days? If you rent and you give notice because you expect to be somewhere far away with money, your landlord will expect you to be gone. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Jumping in exotic locations sounds wonderful, but what happens when things go wrong? Thinking of 2 recent incidents in the incidents forum - a survivor of the Tanzanian plane crash who had to be moved to Kenya after initial surgery in Tanzania, and the jumper who crash landed in Vietnam and got medevac'd to Thailand. For those guys who travel around the world on these boogies which often sound fantastic - do you ever research what the healthcare system in these countries is like? Do you have insurance that pays for medevac? Or does none of this cross your mind? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

You and others did not search far enough and there are individuals posting here that feel they have to discredit me to prove their own theory. (I am not out there trying to discredit them.) Jo, no-one is "trying to discredit" you to prove their own theory (or at least I'm not as I don't have my own theory anymore). A few of us had come to the same conclusion from previous posts of yours (that Duane was in a nothing to lose situation because of an illness) and were trying to figure out why we had thought that especially given your answer to Nigel99's other post which seemed to dismiss it entirely. So we figured it out. Simple as that, and nothing to do with the progression of kidney disease. But as for ... well, by now you should have figured out that people will post along any line of discussion that happens to interest them. And actually I don't see why you have such a problem with the fact that people are interested that Duane might have know McCoy, especially as you were originally trying to place Duane in the company of known skydivers. The conclusion some people might draw from your response here - in fact that a number have already posted - is that you are only interested in evidence that proves your theory about who DB Cooper was. Other people as you correctly point out, are interested in proving their theories, of which they seem as convinced as you are about Duane. Still others, like me, are being open-minded, having had theories along the way but discarded them due to certain bits of evidence. So we would prefer not to narrow the discussion. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

This wasn't quite what I had recalled so I went to do a (cursory, also) search anyway - and i think it was this sentence that had led me to the conclusion we all seem to have arrived at: original post: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3065614;search_string=duane%20disease;#3065614 Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

I seem to recall that too, but I'm not searching through that thread! Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

In addition to the links posted above, you'll see many on the site recommend The Parachute and Its Pilot by Brian Germain, which is excellent for understanding canopy flight. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

No, he can't. He can see what the progression is among that section of the skydiving population that is on dz.com and that bothered to post in that thread, which is not the same thing at all. Why don't you count the # of people who answered vs. the number of registered skydivers across all countries' parachuting associations? I'm sure it's a very low %. And don't forget that dead people can't post. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

I certainly don't think it's any more far fetched than a number of other things that have been postulated here. And it wouldn't be the first time someone has been selective about choosing to see connections! Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Before you flame me, I tried the dropzone locator but -- not being from the US I am not entirely clear on where all the different DZ's are in this area -- it seems like at least one of the CT ones is close to Boston for example which i think is the other side of CT (which may or may not be the closest to Stamford)... so after all that rambling, any recommendations as to DZs would be welcome. Ideally looking for somewhere with a good RW vibe that is friendly to newer jumpers! (Am used to landing on small DZ with very few outs so that isn't an issue!) Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

wow... now THAT was interesting!! Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

It's a public forum on the internet. I'm not aware of any copyright notices here. I'm sure if there were tey would be used to stop journalists using stuff from the incidents forum. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

The post is almost right, Bill. Just that not all the safety nazis are still around because, as another poster pointed out, everyone makes mistakes. Also, the post with the chances of dirty jumpsuit/injury/death is not quite right. There is at least one fatality in the incident forum of a student dying under a very lightly loaded student canopy (IIRC, 0.6) because she turned too low on her first jump. (That was one of my "I never knew that could happen" moments in this sport.) Re bounce bingo, I don't offer an opinion. But I do know there have been a few threads in the incidents forum where people have found these "justifying" threads from the incident subject's past. They make for very sad reading. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Jo seems convinced Duane managed to have his fingerprint records altered so she wouldn't accept that anyway. She has various reasons why she doesn't accept the DNA evidence either. etc I have seen no evidence anywhere that Duane ever had the amount of money to hand that was involved in the hijacking. There was something about a few thousand dollars somewhere but that could well have been from some far more 'minor' crime. The only suspect I have seen mentioned who appears to have come into a substantial amount of money (buying property etc) was Christiansen, and the FBI has dismissed him as the physical description doesn't fit the profile. There was speculation about Mayfield but he didn't appear to have actually bought the property as originally thought. No body, no money... i'm beginning to think the theories about Cooper going in and someone else finding him, burying the body/leaving it to the vultures and taking the money are the most likely. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Without knowing in very fine detail the winds aloft, the final resting place of the placard is meaningless. It could have drifted, blown by the winds, for miles from where it departed the aircraft. all of which arguments are true to some extent in trying to figure out where cooper landed or how the money landed? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

ok... so has anyone used that location to try track the flight path, rather than working backwards from where the money was found and how it may or may not have got there? (sorry.. not sure how to search for that ) Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Yeah, this was the quote that got me speculating that Duane may have been the accomplice and not the hijacker in the previous thread... Can someone remind me where the placard was found - i don't actually recall seeing this anywhere? Surely that would help with an indication of exactly which route the aircraft was flying? Is it reasonable to assume Cooper may have chucked it out just before or quite soon before he jumped? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.