wolfriverjoe

It's a mechanical device, subject to failure. That's why we wear reserve chutes. Maybe you need to get a reserve server Yes, I'm joking. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Well, my teenage kids would never agree with that assessment, but I like to. Thanks Orange! I will never threaten to leave. One day it might just be down to just me, Jo and Quade. Jo and I could go back and forth forever, as you may have noticed. 377 No, I'll still be here and I'd bet Orange1 will stick for a while too. It gets a little weird every so often, but, like a train wreck, I just can't not look. Edit to add: I don't see Georger's Russian spy theory any more far-fetched than any other that has been proposed. And I'm not 100% sure that if Cooper died (no-pull or of exposure after landing) that his body wasn't found. How tempting would it have been to keep the money?? Stash the money in seperate places, maybe one of them leaked and had to be disposed of at Tena Bar. Spend a little bit at first (far from home) and when nobody notices, spend the rest carefully, slowly and in small amounts far apart. The hardest part would be keeping the secret. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I think that technically it would be called a "ditch". I think anything that is going to take that much money to recover and fix the airplane can't be called a "landing". Just my opinion, and agreed that it was a fabulous job by the pilots to put it down that well. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Don't forget to be "bitter" Seriously, I wonder what the White supremacist groups are thinking/planning. I had heard that they were going to vote for Obama so that the "revolution" would start sooner. (That may not be true, but I am not joking). "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Play in the stirrups? i have heard the rolling stools can be fun... well when you have company to play with.. Rolling stools? Yeah ... What the hell are rolling stools? Hopefully he doesn't mean rolled of balls of crap. Know the little stools we sit on when we come in the office to talk to you? That we use to sit on for gynnie exams? With wheels? Use your imagination. Those are the ones I was talking about... they can make things interesting ...... so I have heard.. Well, if you are interested in finding out... I am always interested in learning the proper usages and techniques of office equipment .... Somehow, I seriously doubt that there would be anything proper about it. Interesting? Yep. Fun? Definitely. Proper? No way, by any definition of the word! "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Yes, who would expect the "bad guy" to set out road flares. Easiest way in the world to get a passing car to stop. If he was freezing to death, would he have tried to: #1 Hide so that his body wouldn't be found? #2 Find a place to "hole up" where he would be out of the worst of the weather? If he found a sheltered area, under a fallen tree, say, and covered himself with vegatation, would he be found?? I know places where leaves pile up year after year. Anything buried under them isn't likely to be found. As you said, probabilities, or for this speculation-possibilites. We've discussed to death (and then some) who he was, what experience he had, what happened on the plane and during the jump. But there hasn't been much on what may have happened after he landed. How he got out of the woods and back to civilization. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I've been following this thread since the beginning. Here goes: If you have what it takes to gear up, get on the plane and jump, then I'll go out the door with you anytime, anywhere. If you jump, most people at the DZ will accept you for you. I surround myself with skydivers that think life itself is a joke. The favorite sport is finding "sacred cows" and going cow tipping. No one is safe. Everything is fair game for jokes. Ethnicity, professions, disabilities, you name it. One question- How do you think recovering alcoholics feel? There are some here on DZ.com, how do you think they feel about the strong alocohol/drug culture prevalent in skydiving? I know a couple at my DZ, and they know it's part of the deal. They think skydiving is important enough to put up with it. And although they occasionally have to turn down a beer, rarely is it from anyone who knows them, and very rarely are they given any grief about it. I don't know how much you are willing to put up with to keep jumping, that's your choice. I love jumping enough to put up with quite a lot. But as you asked in the original question, how much of this is baggage you are bringing with you? "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

No, I understood that the weather conditions were worse than Cooper would have dealt with. But Cooper probably would have been wet. From the canopy descent, or the landing. Wet and 40's is seriously dangerous. He could well have been shoeless too. If he was wearing loafers, they would probably be gone. Even ankle high slip ons could well have been blown off at the exit speeds he experienced. We can be fairly sure he didn't have dry clothes to change into. Even his overcoat, if he managed to keep it, wouldn't have been much help. Wearing just a wet suitcoat, if he didn't find a way to get warm, he would be in major trouble. He could well have built a fire. He was a smoker. (one thing I miss about quitting is not having a lighter on me all the time). He also had the fake bomb, which was probably flares. But, he was getting lights from Tina, so did that mean he was out of matches, or just saving them? And did he keep the "bomb" or just toss it away? "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

If you go with a Vigil 2 you can change the mode between Student, Expert or Tandem, so if you have a rig down for repairs, you can take the AAD and put into any of your Student, Tandem, or rental equipment. So what is the difference between student mode and expert mode? Is it like the difference between the 2 types of Cypress? OP said he didn't care about brand, wouldn't this answer the question better? (and I'm curious) "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Does power corrupt the good? Or are the bad attracted to positions of power? Just like with skydiving, you hear a lot about the few bad ones, and very little about the lots and lots of good ones. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

True. There are also small minded people who like to make accusations/cast dispersions from the sanctuary of anonymity. Their only intent is the grinding of a personal axe, not to promote safety or education. When these people post, many times survivors(and their lawyers) are mislead into believing rubbish, and becoming a tool for the anonymous person with the axe to grind. I would like to think that most of us are smart enough to consider the source when evaluating comments. There are usernames that I consider "expert" as far as airplanes go (or gear or instruction or ect). For example, Diverdriver knows planes. Billbooth knows parachutes. Others have varying degrees of credibility. Some clearly have an agenda, and have little or no credibility IMO. Those are often proven wrong in subsequent posts. Some are clearly trolls who just want to stir up trouble. Those who choose to post anonymously had better back up anything they say with supporting information if they want me to put any faith in what they say (now or in the future). "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

So that means life is more important than jumping. And that means you're smart. Best of luck, and I hope whatever it is heals/is fixed/goes away so that you can jump again someday (soon). "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Yep, and if you follow a couple links in that forum, he was an accomplished stunt pilot. That would explain how he had a rig. Emergency bailout rig probably, but it would still work for this. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

What do you think he had to do to survive the night? (I guess identify your predicted DZ) I'm guessing that if you stuck 100 random people at the predicted DZ, with no gear or skills, that none would die, no matter what they did. Unless they were sick already, or injured severely on the landing. It was in the forties that night. There were rain showers. The C-9 canopy would have neccesitated a PLF (tumbling landing). The probabilty of ending up wet, either from being rained on, landing in/through wet vegetation or tumbling across wet ground is pretty high. Wet, with temps in the forties, all night long is pretty risky. Without fire, shelter or dry clothes (and warm ones at that) hypothermia is a very real risk. This thread talks about a base jumper who died of hypothermia when out all night. It was a little colder, but he wasn't wet. Edit to add: wow, it looks like Happythoughts and I are thinking similar thoughts. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I'm not dissapointed by that. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

So what does Maxim do? Pics would be nice. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Tell me please.. How hard do you have to rub that crap... to put a really good gloss on it????? Mythbusters did a very nice job polishing a turd, they must have taken notice. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Play with their prey or PRAY with their play...as in saying Grace?! Dear Lord: Thank you for this luscious little tadpole which I am about to devour. Love - Lucky I do believe round 2 goes to Lucky also. Sorry Donny, but you are way out of your league. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

How do you get her to cancel the restraining order? "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Why would that be? If not illegal to take photos from a piloted aircraft for commercial purposes? (Immediate example farm/home photos peddled) Hmm, it seems I remember some other commercial photo purpose using an RC. Real estate photos maybe I know some real estate people on the left coast that use RC helicopters for that purpose...as well as a home inspection business. Yes, I fly on photo hops sometimes. One of the other pilots at my DZ does aerial photos, and he prefers having me fly and him taking photos over him flying and his wife taking the pics. In the June 07 issue of RC Heli magazine (issue #13) they had an article on aerial photography. "Recently, however, the FAA released a new notice of policy that effectively grounds all commercial model aircraft activity, including aerial photagraphy operations." It seems to have to do with airworthiness certification for the model aircraft, but that's not real clear. That's over a year old, and may have changed, but RC Heli hasn't published anything that I've seen. I think it's stupid, and I'm fairly sure there are people doing it, but hey, it's the government and they're here to help. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Congrats Lucky!!

Yep. Anything in the air comes under FAA control. Did you know it is illegal to take photos for commercial purposes from an R/C aircraft? There's some pretty wild photo/video setups for R/C helicopters, including links to the ground. There's a cop in Ohio who has a R/C helicopter set up for video searches/surveillance. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Back in WWII they had a remote controlled bomber. It was used as an unmanned "kamakaze". They didn't have the technology to do takeoffs, so they had pilots for the takeoff who then parachuted out. Joe Kennedy Jr (JFK's older brother) was killed during one of these flights- plane detonated in midair before he jumped. I don't know if this is what you mean, but it is a jump from an unmanned, remote control. note: I'm doing this from memory of a show on History or Discovery Channel, so no guarantee on facts. Correct those I screwed up. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

No, I didn't make any of it up

DOGMA!!! The "Buddy Jesus" was the best. Mel Brooks does it for me too. Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo