Farflung

Robert99 asks: “Oddly enough, I have not been able to find a mention of the means LaPoint used to exit the Hughes DC-9. None of the articles that I can find online about that incident mention it.” I should have posted a source in the first place. Lazy and sloppy on my part, for a while there I thought I might have been bitten by a Zombie. You can imagine my relief to find my mental lapse entirely traceable to tertiary syphilis. It looks like LaPoint is the record holder for number of openings for jumping (2) with another two available. The secret hatch in the cargo compartment sounds like a great place for a Douglas engineer to use. 377 researches: “You sure it was a transceiver (like a PRC 90)? I thought it was a bail out beacon like a URT 21, transmit only, no receiver.” And “Also the pair of chase planes were F 106s not F 111s.” My Magic 8 Ball says: the URT-21 is a likely candidate for the device in LaPoint’s chute and therefore making it a beacon and not a transceiver. I have no idea what was actually used but good catch 377. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBd3u8hU8lk You can read the attached article and decide for yourself. You say they were F-106s then that sounds good also. I hope the point is not lost that aircraft with aft stairs were used with astonishing ease by people with little or no aft stair operating experience or design; but it will because it must. After believing a gravity powered aft stair can be used as an aerodynamic drag device, there really isn’t much left to violate: but someone will find a way so it matches a theory. The incredibly strange assumption that experience translates into flawless competence like Cooper's escape even though McNally, LaPoint and McCoy all escaped, just their time living freely was less than Cooper’s.... or was it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDxSnQqAYeY

Robert99, Richard LaPoint did a similar hijacking less than 2 months after Cooper. He demanded a couple chutes, helmet and $50,000 before he jumped out of a Hughes Airwest - DC-9. Yep, the DC-9 had aft stairs and was in service since the mid 60’s. How did he know a DC-9 was jumpable? No CIA or Black Ops just another plane with an aft exit. He was a former Paratrooper but that skill did not help him identify the SAR transceiver that activated when the chute deployed. A pair of F-111s tracked the signal and the police captured him within a couple hours. I’m sure he was a Cooper copy cat but he did not need years of working at Douglas to understand how to open or have the Stewardess open these stairs. I get the feeling that everyone thinks this is some sort of complex operation with alert horns and flashing lights with a control panel bristling with levers and knobs. It really is very simple and ordinary. There is one lever which has OPEN, CLOSE and Neutral (perhaps) along with a toggle (momentary) switch that may run a small motor to seat the cams to the fuselage posts. Then a handle to turn the cams (90 or 180 degrees) and lock the door with the lever placed in the neutral position. Is this really worthy of so much angst, study and loathing? I simply don’t see the complexity being assigned to operating a door. The only thing Cooper didn’t get was the door down for takeoff and that became an issue for him that the hijackers to follow simply didn’t suffer from. Why is Cooper the one with all this aft stair experience and flight experience yet he becomes frazzled over the door and needs an intermediate level off and butchers a chute for line and jumps with one sewn shut. I’m not a jumper but I know that force of habit (after years in the Air Force) would have me digging out the data card and checking repack dates even if I was hijacking a plane. I know how to use an Interphone system also, mainly because it impresses chicks and is wicked easy to operate. Cooper using the PA function is a sign of someone that has not used such a device before. The PA function is limited to the cargo/PAX compartment and oddly the lavatories but not the cockpit. Was Cooper all confused about this also? It gets hard for me to believe all these elements as indicative of anyone with more than the most casual association with aviation. Again, I don’t know jack about skydiving so I believe (perhaps foolishly) those who are experienced and seem to think Cooper was some sort of expert. It’s the same with this endless speculation about where the Co-pilot said they were. If he was asked an aviation based question he may give a response in kind. I can’t imagine that he didn’t glance at the HSI and note the bearing and DME to PDX VORTAC rather than this endless talk about being over the suburbs of Portland or wherever. Pilots staring out the cockpit then with bug eyed glee announcing while pointing “There it is!” belongs in Hollywood productions and not in instrument flying. Yet this stuff refuses to not only die, it won’t betray its origin. Strange.

377, Message received loud and clear. When will I learn to avoid that third rail? It’s like I have a pain/wedgie fetish (which I do by the way) by suggesting some ordinary abilities associated with Cooper when all the truth seekers know full well he was a secretly trained, convict smokejumper and former Boeing engineer with a Black Ops background in munitions construction. Just look at the evidence or at least make some up. I’m ready to accept the fact that the aircraft could have been anywhere and traveling any velocity and observed by anyone, since Super-Cooper-Man was at the aft stairs. Sure McNally jumped without any training and got a ride to a motel from the Sheriff after landing and called for a ride home. I wonder what he said……. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63K-wEaGxRc&feature=related

Robert99, I guess I could treat this like an algebra equation and strike out the elements that cancel each other out in order to identify the unknown. First – If the aft door (not stairs) were open so Cooper could jump the request for not being pressurized is redundant. As effective as the pressurization system is on a 727, that six by two foot hole in the back of the pressure vessel would render the system impotent. Asking for the aft stairs down and to be depressurized is like asking for the gear door to be deployed and the gear to be down. If Cooper knows this airframe that well he would have known that. Specific flap position and airspeed was requested and don’t forget about that gear down requirement which is yet another Hollywood cliché manifesting in the Cooper crime. Once again this appears to be redundant since the speed limitation is lower for all flap settings than it is for the landing gear. This all appears to be something that could be learned in twenty minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=644Ar2ZEp4A If I ‘know’ something, I doooooo it. If I knew how to open the aft stairs there would be no ‘Mother May I’ game being played. After brake release (since I got nothing to lose) I would have grabbed that red stair handle and moved it to the cryptically named OPEN detent with or without the Pilot’s permission.

First of all let me say, I don’t know, I have no pet candidate for the crime. Secondly, Cooper asked for 10,000 feet pronto (according to the transcripts) after takeoff. Based on that I don’t think visibility or getting his bearings would be a consideration since he could have asked for XXXX feet per minute climb initially. The attribute that did not match his ‘plan’ was having the stairs down for takeoff. That became priority ONE because all the other demands were satiated. Again, I am guessing here with as little weirdness as possible. Now he has ‘target fixation’ on those stairs. Tina may have explained or showed him how to use them but it didn’t work. That placard getting torn from four rivets has more male frustration than windblast from my assumption (I’m assuming here). Next assumptions (assumptions that is) are that the aircraft’s ascent will cause a pressure differential which will impede the stairs opening. This is true for the over wing hatches that use the pressure differential as a sealing device; not so a cargo door or aft stairs. The pressure differential (assuming the Co-pilot was trying to pressurize) would have aided in blowing OPEN the stairs since they are neither pressurized or a ‘plug’ type of aircraft closure. All that aside, what is the delta between 7,000 feet and 10,000 feet in force? At this point I want to know why an aircraft savvy Cooper would need to be shown how to open the stairs. Why isn’t this second nature for ‘Mr. Boeing/Northwest employee/CIA Special Ops flying expert’ guy? And why did he want an intermediate level off at 7,000 feet since that would not help lowering the stairs? All this occurred in the first eight minutes of flight. All my ASSUMPTIONS (I’m assuming here by the way) point to a person who did not know how to operate the stairs on a 727. He did not understand the dynamic of pressurization or how a higher altitude could have been a problem solver (again assuming the pressurization system was operating). Those stairs not being lowered before takeoff betrayed a great deal about DB Cooper and the depth of his knowledge from my viewpoint, yet made him more invincible in others. Oh well. Add to this Cooper answered the pilot on the PA feature versus the cockpit isolate or alert/call button is a second strike against the experienced hijacker school of assumption.

You are not out in the field working a mine you’re just sitting behind a keyboard and speculating about gold production. Why question this? There are millions and millions of small scale mines in Oregon all producing pounds of gold daily. The ore content is low, around 45% gold with the rest being processed out. You may think that $4500 after operating expenses is a fair amount, but they earn every penny through hard work and intelligence. This I know, just trust me because I have talked to gold miners around 9000 times, so yeah. Even your local newspaper is named for the material used to amalgamate gold which was mined in the area. It was a magical inert substance that the miners would burn off the gold in a frying pan set in a campfire. If they stayed out in the field too long they would develop ‘Gold Fever’ and start to act crazy; because it is gold that makes you insane you see. All documented in medical journals and books. Try to reflect on the prose of one Mark Twain (or John Hammond) who said: “A gold mine is a hole in the ground, owned by a liar.”

So I’m reading the reviews about Gray’s book and the continuing theme of crackpots seeing conspiracies at every bend and searching the backwoods for a body in the third chapter called ‘The Curse’. There does not appear to be much new stuff about Cooper and I’m afraid of what my reaction will be while reading this book. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lxEi2lI6tc I want Cooper to be all manly man and jump with Tina then land with her in a rural, southwest Washington, Jacuzzi. Then something gets blowed up, real good and Cooper and Tina escape in a BRS that is attached to the Jacuzzi because Cooper was in the CIA, Special Ops and developed the BRS before anyone, you don’t even know. But the Jacuzzi lands in Ariel where Cooper and Tina walk into the bar and buy it. You see they can afford it because they have all that money from the hijacking so it makes sense now. OK, OK here’s the secret DBC Thread formula: Say two things that are true like- Cooper jumped from a 727 and Tina verified he wore a black raincoat. These two true statements can be used to coattail ANY other single element you want to introduce, like landing in a Jacuzzi. Go ahead read recent posts or all the way back to the beginning, you’ll see the pattern. It was used quite effectively on Star Trek as well, when referencing some character they would say he was worse than Hitler, Caligula and Gronk of Remus-936. I guess it makes for good fiction and there is a market for such stuff so that makes it acceptable and honorable to some. The facts are far too boring.

First, what was the plan for Flight 305? Cleared V-23, climb 10,000 feet (as quick as possible per Cooper) to Sacramento as this allowed obstacle clearance. Squawk 3100 until he bails then flash lights and squawk 7700. Land as soon as you are reasonably sure he jumped, Medford is suitable airport. This all appears to be straight forward and simple (spoken like someone who was not there). Second, what actually occurred (sort of). After takeoff (approx 19:34) the crew needed to level at 7000 feet. Cooper could not get the door open and ‘somehow’ communicated an intermediate level off. At 19:40 Flight 305 is passing 6500 feet and trying to get the steps down back there. By 19:42 (8 minutes after takeoff) Some ‘fog of war’ appears. He can’t get the door down, Stew is with us, He is trying to get the door down, We have a door light. Then 19:44 they report the stairs are down but need to hold at 7000 feet and it looks like they aren’t going to be able to climb any more. By 19:50 the plane is climbing again through 9000 feet for assigned altitude of 10000 feet. Third, guessing what really happened and honing revisionists writing skills. The above happened in a span of 16 minutes. The stairs appear to have been opened 8 minutes into the event and 29 minutes before he jumped (20:11 approx). Cooper wanted an inexplicable level off at 7000. Cooper communicated trying to lower the stairs, level off and climb resume through some unidentified form (Tina or PA). Cooper had a wide time window to jump, yet delayed (assumed). The crew didn’t squawk 7700 or flash lights. They landed at Reno, the planned destination. (Extracted and savagely interpreted from the crew transcripts pages 15 and 69+/-, PDF from Sluggo Monster’s website)

Yes another authoritative interview which appears to fly in the face of that dry, historical data. First ‘known fact’ is that one scorching hot stewardess named Tina, was witness to the opening of the stairs for the eloquent reason that she was the one that opened them. The crew did not have to guess when this happened since they were all aware and protective (like junkyard dogs) of Tina while she was at risk back there. That psycho could have pushed her out or taken her hostage for all anyone knew until she (Tina) returned to the cockpit. Is this all crystal clear??? Now the stairs are open, sound the ‘two minute (at most)’ warning. So Tina returns to the cockpit and some time goes by. According to Sluggo Monster’s timeline (extracted from the transcripts by certified, verified and authenticated sources) the pilot tried to make contact with Cooper at 20:05 PST and Cooper answered that everything is OK. 2005 hours local, not for reinforcement, I just get a rush out of typing all secret agenty with ‘2005 hours local’ and feel funny in my pants. THEN at 2011 hours local (hang on a sec) is when Cooper is suspected to have jumped because of the pressure bump. But 2011 is a full 6 (six) minutes after the Captain last called Cooper which would have been after Tina opened the stairs AND returned to the cockpit. Yeah, that no more than two minutes has an aroma. Kinda reminds me of a first attempt to tase like vanilla ice cream again. Time to for another misspoke/re-edit/Skipp said/dead silence moment.

Perhaps a little warm up is in order before diving directly into the ’Cooperlympics Summer Games’ where the finest of research, investigation and reasoning skills are on display. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WhuikFY1Pg&feature=related Did you pick the right one? I thought it was number three because it could have contained unleavened flour and been baked in a CIA oven. This one is admittedly tougher. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUFc0A7vGwc This is rougher than a college course but not nearly as fun as a bar exam, which I’ll be doing shortly. So the attachment is of a similar nature for all the self proclaimed experts and those few who manage to run silent and run deep thoughts (code for smokin99). Are the images of the same aircraft?

I know what boners any mention of the Air America 727s cause, so I post this with that knowledge and I’m braced for endless weirdness and freakyness to follow. But…. This video shows the inner workings of a ‘super secret, double naught, I have inside information no one else does; yet I’m sworn to secrecy except for saying how I know this so don’t ask 727’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrqdmXxBZjI So in this video the 727 is shown with the stairs down, on the ground, with people walking inside just like it was Cleveland or Albuquerque or any other American city inexplicably missing a letter in its name. So far so good. Then they get all technical and start talking about cargo and air deliveries. This begins almost one and a half minutes into the presentation so many may have already been distracted by something shiny or a dog barking. Yet one can see the roller system used and he mentions pressurization which means the aft pressure vessel door would remain installed. Hey, they didn’t have any stairs when it’s configured for air drops. So the data about the 727 being ‘jumpable’ (from this video) is done after the removal of the aft stairs presumably due to some operational issues (like smacking them). Otherwise why not tumble your cargo down the stairs like a slinky? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZL6RGkPjws I’m having more doubts about how the aft stairs were used by the CIA other than to simply remove them since the 727 makes a horribly inefficient drop platform (little skinny pallets). I don’t see this as any sort of technical advantage over some goober seeing the stairs deployed on the ground at any airport and putting a plan together. But being able to talk about special ops and the CIA is like cyber-heroin here and there are no methadone treatments leaving nothing but continued tweeking.

Wind chill, pressure bumps aside. How long and/or at what angle would the aft stairs have to be configured to cause that sort of damage to the skirting? Has this already been established? Tested? Crosschecked? Did McCoy’s and McNally’s aircraft display similar damage? Similar pressure bumps? Why did the McCoy crew ‘know’ he jumped and land at the nearest airport? Why did the Cooper crew ‘know’ he jumped but continue to Reno? This is stuff Occam would want to know.

That’s right, I’m not afraid to admit it. The more time I spend on this activity the more mystery it produces. Snowmman suggested comparing his video screen clip with Sluggo Monster’s and the one from Geoff Gray’s web page to compare damage. The Gray photo does not match the two images from the news videos. The right or far side of the skirting in Gray’s picture has damage so this does not appear to be a replacement panel. But it is not damaged to the extent the two other images suggest. Then I looked at Sluggo Monster’s pictures of the sled drop. The skirting appears (I’m not sure) to have been replaced as there is a shadow when the stairs are down. But there are no time hacks or indication of how long a period those three photos represent. Here are some more silly questions: What sort of force and for what duration would cause that angular damage to the Cooper skirting (see attached)? What sort of damage did the ‘sled drop’ plane experience to the skirting? Is this an indication that Cooper may (just may) have ‘perched’ at the end of those stairs for some amount of time greater than required to step out and jump?

Vicki interjects: “Maybe I came on a little too strong and frightened the Hunkyness of DZ???” I don’t know why a thoughtful response would be thrown into the ‘frightened off’ pile, since nothing could be farther from the truth. And I’m all about being truthful and humble and grounded, 100% of the time. Since I have an affinity for Tiki establishments because I’m also sophisticated, it took a while to locate a few options. http://critiki.com/destinations/?region_id=6&country_id=1 Minnesota is rather limited in selection, but they make up for it in quality. Perhaps someone (code for Vicki) has a better suggestion than ‘Psycho Suzie’s Motor Lounge’? http://www.psychosuzis.com/ Being extremely sensitive, I also researched a way to remove the initial awkwardness of meeting Vicki in a Tiki Bar filled to capacity. I found three extremely tasteful and flattering fashions Vicki could wear. A conservative black and white outfit, something more business related with white gloves or a stunning blue velvet gown. That’s being considerate and nice by the way. Then I would order a PABST BLUE RIBBON for the lady and one bourbon, one scotch, one beer for myself. Oh, and a pair of Zombies to take advantage of ‘Psycho Suzie’s Paradise Lost and Found Specials’. I still have an eye for value after all. Ok, that was a lie I would have ordered the Zombies anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy-nhCKA6Xs&feature=related I would ask about any Cooper news before the karaoke performances begin. Vicki and I could just ‘hang out’ for a while then I would loosen my tie and finally tell her about me, as a way to make her feel comfortable so she would talk about me. Sure it’s a burden with my wineries, clandestine employment for the government where I wear several hats, but someone has to sacrifice for our freedoms. Then I would probably get dragged into talking about my chain of restaurants when Vicki asks ‘What time is it?’ or ‘Where’s the exit?’ At that time 377, I think Vicki can decide for herself if she is in the company of hunkyness or some old man with a keyboard and an irritable bowel. No matter the outcome, I would offer her transport home, where Vicki’s quiet reflection on the evening’s events will no doubt leave a lifetime of ‘special’ memories.

So I look at that photograph of ‘Cooper’s’ 727 in Reno and I thought, ‘Hey… that don’t look like Reno’, all manly man like. Now I realize this is just from a keyboard (code for low quality) but a few other things started to smell a bit off putting and put me off a bit. After the ‘Hey… that don’t look like Reno’ moment, I noticed the fabric damage on the upper left of the stairs, as viewed from the back of the plane. I think it is oddly coiled towards the nose of the aircraft which means it was fighting the slipstream and winning. I realize it could be some of that Roswell UFO saucer ‘memory foil’ that always returns back to its original shape. In the spirit of this thread, I base this on absolutely nothing and for references submit even less. Additionally, the reinforcement webbing is wrapped in front of the dampening tube which is a little strange. So right now I’m thinking this may be a maintenance exemplar of some wind damage on the ground. Some gusting winds (what else?) or jet blast from passing aircraft (forgot about that) around the 5:30 position to the airframe tore the windbreak free and wrapped the trailing edge of the skirting forward like the lid on a sardine can. See how I tied something smelly into the end of this? But instead of aft stairs, I used a sardine lid as a metaphor. The sardines weren’t a metaphor for anything since they are more comfortable than passengers in an airliner.

RobertMBlevins opines: “Well, first…I don’t think his original plan called for a night jump.” Cooper didn’t plan to jump in the dark??? According to the ‘Old Farmer’s Almanac’- sunset on 24 November 1971 was 4:33 PM local time (Portland, OR). According to Sluggo Monster’s web site: ‘NORJACK Time-Table’ a note is handed to Ms Schaffner which reports that he has a bomb and wants $200,000 American dollars by 5 PM. That is a full 27 minutes after sunset as planned. I don’t think Cooper was expecting any sunlight during his theft.

That’s right it has been published for everyone to read here: http://huntfordbcooper.com/what-you-should-know-a-primer None other than the voice of reason for every season, the cyber trooper for DB Cooper, the King of the disinformation wring and the Mayor Soothsayer….. Sluggo Monster. I have used his website to peer deep into the dry, unadulterated facts and take a deep breath of sanity on many occasions. Then I go back to the Bigfoot and Roswell UFO sites because they are more exciting and suspenseful than reading unedited transcripts or maps (alleged to be altered however). Besides, I was able to purchase some wicked superb research materials on the other sites which Sluggo refuses to offer. Poser.

Another Hollywood cliché that people actually believe happened at bomb release. The cross check of ‘bombs away’ was to make sure that there were no hangers in the bomb bay that could get hit by or strike the bomb bay doors when they were closed. So another crewmember would visually confirm that the bombs were away and then the doors would be closed. I know, yawwwwwnnnn. Another Hollywood favorite was to show the crosshairs of the bombsight passing over the target area and the Bombardier spotting the fix at the final moment then pickle the load with the before mentioned battle cry. I’m sure that did happen on a few occasions but there is a lot of hamming up of the story going on. Just like people refueling aircraft with a can and funnel or pilots talking to hijackers, the true story is simply too dry for some. Since there are so many Hams on this thread (ARRL and theatric) how about using the airport with the same identifier? OK then, it’s off to Hamburg, Germany (cue goosestep march audio). http://www.worldweatheronline.com/weather.aspx?q=HAM This is a WX forecast for Hamtown which extends into the frigid month of July. You can see that out of 15 days, two are forecast to have little cloud cover. Seven days are forecast to have over 50% cloud cover in the deepest and darkest of summer. Hey, I’m starting to think that those crosshairs may have been filled with fluffy, white clouds most of the time during WWII. So what up Homeskillet? These bomber formations would navigate using a variety of techniques to include radio, celestial and time. Radio was range limited and celestial was labor intensive and could only provide three fixes per hour, leaving time. Yep, after making a ‘cell’ fix the crew would make a time hack and use ‘time over target’ to establish bomb release. I told a WWII veteran that the technique appeared to be highly inaccurate and asked how effective he thought it was. His response was “Sprechen zie Deutsch?” Crow does not taste at all like chicken by the way. So why did Cooper ‘Hang out’ in the aircraft for such an extended period of time (my definition) after getting the aft stairs open?

Don’t get me wrong 377, I don’t avoid self service fuel dispensers. But I do deny them my essence. It may be worth your while to consider a few things about ‘self service’ and just what this entails in some individual’s minds. Just think about it, by the time you reach for that pump handle and discover something amiss the following will course through your brain at the speed of light. Ewwwwwww, what’s that? I sure hope it isn’t Zombie juice from some undead person who refueled before me. Oh well, probably not; more than likely they were enjoying a cinnamon roll while engaging in a little fuel transfer, gosh I know I would. That is when it is going to hit the fan. Some sort of ecto-gooey stuff will have you encased in a matter of seconds and drag you back to its lair for a slow feeding. Of course by lair, we all know that means gas station bathroom. Seen one lately? I thought so. Better get armed with some anti pump handle monster grenades or have someone in a hazmat suit enter first. Some people are self serving more than gas at these places and there are a bunch of deviated ‘preverts’ in these places. I was probably in the military too long because every time I see one of those big gas station signs that say ‘Clean Restrooms’, I do. But the truth be told, if you can handle the truth 377; is that I prefer the good old days when I could enjoy the benefits of full service. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHspRfzZc6M

I know gas is a boring subject and everyone is already an expert because of multiple purchases of the stuff at branded stations or ‘Quickie Marts’. But there is so much rich history associated with Americas favorite liquid that goes unappreciated thanks to hubris. So jet aircraft burn fuel called ‘Jet A’ which is a sort of keroseney and diesely fluid that truckers will point out requires less refining than gasoline but costs more as part of a government conspiracy. Of course that conspiracy is called supply and demand. Although the refining of Jet A is rather simple compared to gas, converting gas to Jet A would require alchemy and magic gnomes. Here are the specifications on jet fuel: http://www.shell.com/home/content/aviation/products/fuels/types/civil_jet_fuel_grades/ You can see that Jet A has a freeze point of -40 C (that’s minus). Well all this Celsius stuff is great except I’m a heterosexual and need to translate this to a scale I can understand. So minus 40 Celsius converts to the Fahrenheit system as minus 40 degrees also. So what exactly is the point of this centigrade system that the rest of the world has such a boner over? I mean is this like calling Dutch and Flemish two different languages to impress chicks? I’ve had it with this metric system and all the mindless fanbois drooling over how much more efficient it is. I write on good old American paper called 8 ½ by 11, because it is 8 ½ inches by 11 inches. No need for a secret decoder ring or advanced degree to seek and find the stuff. What does everyone else use? Oh that’s right, the far more sensible measure of 210 X 297 mm, which no one can remember so they call it A4. Way to go ‘Rest of Earth’ by selecting a measurement system which is so beloved that it is buried behind some alpha numeric nomenclature. What do we fuel jets with? That’s right, pounds of Jet A; pounds. Makes the calculations so much easier knowing that a pound of fuel equates to a pound of weight on the aircraft. What do Europeans fill their planes with? Liters of ‘M78’ perhaps? Which is either airplane gas or some sort of lentil based broth that has to be converted into some sort of units associated with weight, which will more than likely be pounds. No doubt the ‘M78’ (fuel or lentil soup) will have a freeze point of -40 C which is in fact the same as -40 F. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyVnwNSYkn8&feature=related We had such high hopes with speaker helmets and a big bright star. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UGJjQVBlEk&feature=related What happened to me? Now I pay $4.12 and 9/10ths cents per gallon (yeah, gallon) at the pump and pray for a handle that isn’t sticky or for a paper towel in the dispenser when it is. What exactly are people doing before refueling their cars?

Fueling an aircraft by hand with cans? Then hucking the empty can across the wing?? Because the fuel hose was frozen??? Those old planes liked to drink AvGas which had to meet FAA standards for several attributes like detonation, water absorption and freeze point. Here are all the gory, boring details which are so richly despised. http://www.experimentalaircraft.info/homebuilt-aircraft/aviation-fuel.php (Note 808, Conoco Phillips: if no crystals at -58 degrees F (that’s minus) then the fuel can be rated as freezing below -58 degrees) My goodness that is very cold indeed. But why this requirement? Airplanes fly waaaaaay up high where temperatures can be beastly and cruel. Take a place like Las Vegas where the temps on the surface were reported as 82 degrees ‘F’ at noon today. Yet at 30,000 feet (FL 300) the temp was -31 degrees ‘F’ (that’s minus). http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/Winds/Aloft.cgi?icao=LAS&hr=06 You can see that the natural habitat for DC-7s and Connies to fly and breed is typically much colder than any surface conditions. So fuel lines freezing on the ground is most likely fiction. I know one fuel that never freezes…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o4fdX8gUMY That’s OK Joan, no need to swerve or hit the brakes (0:37-0:42).

Vicki, I feel a little bit better (being all vulnerable and in need of comforting during these times of merciless abandonment and stuff ). Perhaps you might consider meeting me for some libations of some sort, what kind of beer do you like? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbxGgCY9PKw&feature=related I’m all about independent thought and free choice ya know. I know how I would feel after a few of those… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6WD7B_I_9c What’s say you and me go and get…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gb0mxcpPOU&feature=related …some time? I know what I want to do with all my Cooper research materials right now… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KryX_QRz2io awww heck, that cyber hug made me feel all better and I was not compelled to burn anything. Thanks Vicki, I needed that.

I asked so NICELY…. RobertMBlevins obliquely ignored Cooper’s hairy arms like he had no idea what was being talked about (again and again): 18 June 2011, “Shows a fat old guy with hairy arms.” RobertMBlevins precedes this with: 16 May 2011, “We all agreed it was unlikely the fat old guy with the hairy arms was DB Cooper” Guess I missed how we ALL agreed that the guy with the hairy arms was Cooper, but thanks for the passive aggressive inclusion. RobertMBlevins begins New Year with: 3 January 2011, “Shows a fat, old guy with hairy arms who looks NOTHING like the sketch.” Sketch with a rendering of Cooper’s arms? Source please. RobertMBlevins continued with: 12 September 2010, “…overweight Gossett with hairy arms who bears absolutely NO resemblance to the hijacker.” Where was the hijacker’s arms described? Source please. So many hairy arm references by a person who is unsure as to the source of this. Much like the comic book on Shemya in 1951, Captain Scott talking to Cooper and the vapor lock of Jet A fuel on the ground at SeaTac. All of these things are simple mistakes. Too bad the Co-pilot was used as a reference about Captain Scott talking to Cooper; well that is according to Bruce Smith’s interview with Blevins anyway (31 May 2010). Why are these polite questions which are nice, being unanswered? This makes me, a little bit sad and want to cry. Bwahh, bwahh ha ha ha (if anyone cares) bwahh ha ha ha. Do you see what happens Blevins? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ht9VZ9RB_w&feature=related Are these your hairy arms Blevins? Do you see what happens Blevins? This is what happens when you claim Cooper has hairy arms Blevins! Do you see what happens Blevins? Do you see what happens when you……

RobertMBlevins obliquely references Cooper’s hairy arms like he had no idea what was being talked about (again): 18 June 2011, “Shows a fat old guy with hairy arms.” RobertMBlevins precedes this with: 16 May 2011, “We all agreed it was unlikely the fat old guy with the hairy arms was DB Cooper” Guess I missed how we ALL agreed that the guy with the hairy arms was Cooper, but thanks for the passive aggressive inclusion. RobertMBlevins begins New Year with: 3 January 2011, “Shows a fat, old guy with hairy arms who looks NOTHING like the sketch.” Sketch with a rendering of Cooper’s arms? Source please. RobertMBlevins continued with: 12 September 2010, “…overweight Gossett with hairy arms who bears absolutely NO resemblance to the hijacker.” Where was the hijacker’s arms described? Source please. So many hairy arm references by a person who is unsure as to the source of this. Much like the comic book on Shemya in 1951, Captain Scott talking to Cooper and the vapor lock of Jet A fuel on the ground at SeaTac. All of these things are simple mistakes. Too bad the Co-pilot was used as a reference about Captain Scott talking to Cooper; well that is according to Bruce Smith’s interview with Blevins anyway (31 May 2010).

You’re right Vicki that was indelicate of me to leave you off the ‘hunkette’ roster. But in my own defense, I felt that you and smokin99 represented such peerless ’hunketteness’ that it was universally understood as…. Self evident. Kinda like a gathering with a Minnesotan Governor (0:53-0:55), a little Meatloaf (1:06- 1:09) and some unbridled hunkyness (1:51-1:54). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue_mMXeDjg4 Know whatta mean?