nitrochute

sorry about that. i have been having mre and more alzhiemers moments lately.i DO remember woodbine , and fairton. i dont recall the one in bucks county tho. you must have known Don Shirley and Al Kanetsky?

if he just cut the container open, it would have been of no use to him to carry the money.

when cooper opened up the chest pack he would have left fingerprints on the ripcord handle. did the fbi recover the ripcord from the aircraft or did cooper take it with him?

i forgot about skydive East in pittstown NJ. mea culpa. i have known doug angel for over 30years

in New Jersey we had : Tri State Skydivers at Adams Airpark,Flemington (property is now owned,as i understand it , by Johnny Higgins,of the Chute Shop/North American Aerodynamics); Manville, Horizon Parachute Club Applegarth, Asbury Park Skydivers, Frenchtown, RipcordParaCenter in Lumberton(1962-1986) , Lakewood P.I., Bridgeton(P.A.I.,circa 1980)

lets not forget Bird-In-Hand in PA,,,, I.I.R. there is also Timbuctu in burlington county,NJ

Jacques Istel at Goodhill Farm CT.

actually that is NOT the same commercial where he says "FINE corinthian leather". he also says "you'll like what they've done to my car." adios Mr. Montalban

any you old timers remember tri state skydivers near fleminton nj? i believe they were operating out of adams airpark (where north American aerodynamics

or drunken jumpmasters!

unfortunately,the only way to make gear mistake proof is to remove those jumpers who make mistakes from the sport, but since everyone is human and makes mistakes you would have to eliminate 100 % of the jumping population.

Thats a Viking, pioneers knockoff of the very popular paraflite strato cloud.

Doug Angel owned SkyDive East in NJ .It opened in 1980 and closed ?(i am not sure when) during approximately 20 years of operations they NEVER had a bounce.

do we know if there were pilotchutes installed on those chest pack chutes? there is no placard warning that the pilotchute had been removed (as required by faa regs) in the pix of the chest chutes, but as we have seen , the letter of the law certainly has not been followed regarding the packing and maintainance of the chutes. if there were pilotchutes, there would be a bridle line (made of anything from 550 cord to 1/2 '' tubular to 3/4'' tubular nylon) up to 2 or 3 feet in length. it wouldcertainly have given ol coop some more stuff to attatch the money to hisself.

any one remember Doug Angel? one of the early instructors/jumpmaster at Parachutes incorporated?later opened his own drop zone (Skydive East) in NJ. Anyone know what he is doing these days? Anyone remember his "mid summer night's eve " parties(held on the longest day of the year)? remenber his drink , The Cutaway?anyone know the recipe?

also... did these chest parachutes have a pilotchute?if they did there could be bridle missing from each one up to 24'' each or so in length.

actually nick i have seen several pink canopies..in fact i have a fuschia 24' reserve that was in use in the 70's(the original owner had a busimess that actually did commercial dying .he also had his main dyed fuschia as well. the ugliest dye jobs came when someone tried to dye an orang and white canopy(never saw a four color dyed , but my guess is that would have been even uglier)..but we are getting off track here.

and you guys have probably now pissed off the farmer by trampling his soy bean crop

the pink canopy was originally white when in military inventory. this one was apparently dyed in in its civilian life(it was a common thing as it would give a jumper a chance to customize his cheapo gear and make it somewhat distinquishable from everyone else's) .i would say that while dye does "bleed" , i feel that the lines were dyed along with the canopy. those white lines on the chest pack are very interesting.they didnt come from the pink chute,obviously. so the question is, were they there when cossey delivered the chutes??it appears that someone attempted to make a belly band using 550 cord(suspension line). a belly band would pass thru the handle on each end of the pack where that 550 cord is tied . missing from those pictures IS the ripcord handle.the pocket for which is located at the left side of the container in the picture (barely visible,follow the left edge of the top flap down to just where it overlaps the bottom flap,look just to the left at that point and you will see the partially obscured ripcord pocket ,there is no ripcord in it. also there is NO belly band. it appears that the 2 pack opening bands (ie P.O.B.s or bungees)for the top and bottom flaps , are there. cannot see the one for the end flaps,but it may be obscured.

i tried to post a link here ,but it exceeds the limit. go to www.parachutehistory.com and look up super pro harness container.there is a pic of the alligator clip in the last pic near the center of the frame.

if you have never had experience with belly bands ,i can understand you saying that there isntenough room for the snaps under those webbing pieces, but i have done it and it can be done. BUT mostly people "back in the day" just ran the belly band thru the handles on each end of the container(yes there used to be a webbing loop or handle at each end of the container,on a t7a or t10 reserve or a.f chest pack)i have seen some w/ just one handle, but mostly at the time of coopers caper,they had 2. of course, if it was a sport manufactured reserve container, the belly band was sewn into the container.

my old braincells just realized something. ol' coop may have had 2 previously undisclosed pieces of gear with him. Guru ,you can probably back me up on this,BUT there has been NO mention of whether those 2 chest chutes were supplied to the FBI with belly bands!i would assume they were, as the chest packs would have been flopping around WILDLY w/o them. for those who arent familiar with old skydiving gear, a belly band is a piece of webbing around 3 feet long with some variety of snap on each end(b12,b4, quick ejector).it is threaded thru the back of the chest container reinforcing and then hooked to another ring on either the back container "sidewings" or on the harness near the saddle.however if long enough could be routed to anypart of the harness. Why is this information important,you may ask? well it gives cooper 2 pieces of webbing,at least 6 to 8 feet total length, with parachute harness snaps that could have been used to fasten the money to himself ,and his backpack parachute. the webbing most likely was type8(4000# tensile strength) or type 13(7500 lb ).

i would much rather just smell avgas andhear the sound of RADIAL engines.but thats just me

then you probably remember that some people also jumped with 2 altimeters as well.

dont buy any gear with out having a rigger look it over first.