Ckret

I remember it well, "Grit Harvest Days." They would block off Main Street and we would dance till dawn. smoked turkey legs, fried honey grits... Seemed like every year Kooter Brown would fall out of the grit tree and get slammin drunk on Friday night. I remember now, I confused you with somone else but why would Cooper do that, what was the point? Sorry if you already posted the why? it wouldn't be the first time somone repeated info here.

Speaking of where are we, Sluggo, are you still holding to the theory that Cooper didn't dictate a flight path because he was trying to conceal his identity? And your wrong but me not travelling for a dinner owed. I am sure I can find some type of training course near you that I should attend. I can't get good BBQ in the Pacific Northwest and there isn't a grit to be found.

PA's? I was responding to your post that I assumed was meant in jest and I responded in kind. My mistake, it won't happen again.

Did you take those two days off we talked about?

Passenger oxygen for drop down masks on the 727-100 is generated individually by exothermic chem reactor cans, not supplied from overhead tanks. Remember the Value Jet crash in the Everglades? Those cans get HOT. Perhaps Tosaw is referring to the portable oxygen tanks that are stowed in the overhead luggage compartments. Most flights carry a couple for medical emergencies. Don't know which compartment they were normally stowed in on NWA 727s. 377 Tina told Cooper that they may need oxygen flying at 10,000 feet and she started to tell him where the supplemental tanks could be found. Cooper stated, "I know where they are." No big mystery.

The vast majority of bank robbers are herion addicts who only get between $1,000 to $2,000. The average take is skewed because of takeover bandits when they get into the vault. Depending which branch they hit they get $50,000 to $100,000 (very rare). No way Cooper went into the bathroom and shot up, if he did he would come out, sit in his seat and nod off.

I want to make sure everyone understands that the instruction sheet offered to Cooper may or may not have come from Cossey. I think it was a bit odd to offer instructions to Cooper when he made no request for them. And from what we now know the NB6 was altered to the point that even an experienced skydiver may have had difficulty with it. From this, I think that maybe Cossey knew this and wanted to warn anyone who my try to use it. Total guess on my part, but the two backpacks came from Cossey, from Cossey's house. i don't think he had a manufactures instruction sheet laying around that he sent with them.

There in lies the problem, there really isn't anything in the box that is going to add to the story. All of it's contents have been explored. And just to clarify, i was joking with you about your name, you are more than welcome to be as negative or positive as you want. Also, there is a big difference in exploring what occurred on 11/24/1971 as opposed to me announcing to the world i have solved the case. then when asked what evidence I was able to find that can prove my solution I tell you, "none, i just know it." Since no one wanted to play, the movie quote came from "Platoon."

Albert, In true Cooper fashion, when Tina tried to give him the instruction sheet he said, "I don't need those." There was no other mention of the instruction sheet after that.

Jo, I have typed out several responses and deleted them all, I think I will just say farewell to you. Best of luck in your search, i hope you find peace somehow. Larry

Snowster, You got to read all the post. What would he have tied the bag to himself with? He used one of the cords he cut to tie the neck of the bag. The other to wrap it and make the loop. Your out of cord mister, now drop down and give me 20.

happythoughts, You may have to change your name, "think positive dude, like count backwards or something." (what movie?). Its one thing for me to read through the case file and develop an opinion about what happened the night Cooper jumped. I then can express my opinion, "Cooper bounced....." and we have several hundred posts about how stupid that opinion may or may not be. What it does is challenge me to rethink and develop something more than an opinion. Something that becomes a sound investigative foundation that can be backed, if not by evidence, solid fact. Your right, the small bits and pieces we have been able to eek out won't do much in solving the case, yet. But soon a piece may shake out that fits but only because we have vetted out these small pieces. Cooper jumped with a chute that had obviously been modified for one individual, it's owner. One more thing that just hit me, Cooper was given an instruction sheet on the chutes, wonder if it was Cossey trying to tell Cooper, "there's something you should know about one of these chutes...." Regardless, all the pieces matter and only by running them into the ground (as painful as it is) can we be sure we are getting it right.

Snowmman, The problem is the witnesses saw the bag attached around his waist. So I don't think your chest theory would work out.

Too Much Guess work in that statement - like the artist who did a drawing for a book that was published about Cooper. According to the witnesses, the cord was all used up to tie the bag. Once Cooper came to the last bit of rope he fashioned it into a loop. There was no cord left to tie the bag to his body. We have to come up with how he attached the bag to his body. The logical answer is that he clipped the loop he made into one of the harness clips. The only other way is if he took off his belt, ran an end of the belt through the loop and refastened the belt. Out side of those examples I am at a loss to explaine it.

Back to the NB6, Cossey modified the chute, we know that from the 28' canopy. And when we spoke he said he placed the handle under the right armpit. The motion he showed me was that Cooper would have had to hook his right thumb in the handle and push straight out, like a bench press motion. Once fully extended, he would have had to rotate his fully extended arm up over his head. Does this make sense? or did he just demonstrate right handed and he really meant left?

See what I mean, people with expertise just don't understand what it is like being normal.

to clarify, the number assigned to Mayfield isn't a ranking, it's just he was named that early in the investigation.

I am just trying to put myself in Coopers shoes. If I went through the trouble of making a loop it was done for a reason, the only logical reason is to clip it into the harness.

Question about the NB6, now that we have an NB6 expert here. When I talked with Cossey he explained how he configured the chute but did so as if I knew what he was talking about. (you ever talk to someone with so much expertise they don't have the time or desire to take it down a notch) He talked about a two phase pull because of where he placed the handle. (it would have been under the right armpit) He said Cooper would have had to pull fully out and then up to deploy the chute. If he only pulled the handle out the chute would not have delopyed. Can someone tell me if this is normal? Why would there have been a two directional pull?

From the witness statements and a bit of guess work, I think we can conclude Cooper did not tie the bag to his body. He tied the neck of the bag by wrapping the cord around it, then used what was left to wrap around the bag, leaving a loop. I believe he clipped this loop into the harness, leaving the bag dangling from the harness not his waist.

Mayfield is subject #3 out of 1057 and yes a full investigation was conducted to include far more than fingerprint analysis.

Sluggo, The NB6 and the Pioneer were Cossey's chutes, he had them at his house, they weren't at Seattle Skysports. I asked Cossey why he packed a 28 foot canopy in the NB6 and he just shrugged. Kind of like, "it was my chute, I did it because I can." I like that guy, I could have talked to him all day but he grew tired of me in about an hour.

okay, if we just run with that, then you're asking us to find a jump point that has the money bag coming off and landing in the Columbia, or some bit of land that might get flooded or a stream...I'm thinking stream is unlikely because of small size...probability/likelihood of any particular money landing site is probably correlated to it's area..stream area is small..columbia is big...banks of columbia are big. And this landing site for the money has to be within 1/2 mile of the flight path, probably less, depending on how you vector the money relative to the plane's path. And this jump point has to be before the Columbia. So given this difficult set of conditions, you think it's somehow obsessive to focus on the data requirement that's forcing us to have a jump point before the Columbia. Now I'm scratching my head because I feel this vibe of how "hey we don't need to be so analytical" when all the requirements for the equation seem to demand a lot of precision on everything we talk about. In fact, the lack of precision, the willingness or desire to grab at an answer that might be "close enough", I think is what has always doomed this investigation. Just because you see a possible grab handle doesn't mean it's the right one. Snowmman, What I need you to do right now, ok!!! is to slowly show me your hands, right now, ok? I need you step away from the keyboard with your hands up, Ok? right now. Breath brother, too analytical about the word "felt" not the case. Everyone needs a day off, I shall grant you two. Now go outside and run around a bit, the blue stuff when you look up is called sky and the green stuff at your feet we call grass

you guys are being way to analytical, replace "felt" with "it was their belief" that Cooper jumped.

Good point Ckret. You are definitely in that movie. Can we assume that the life of an FBI Special Agent is over glamorized in Point Break just as skydiving was? If it was that cool, they could pay even less and still hire and retain good people. I mean how much would they have to pay an agent if he got to live like Johnny Utah and sleep with Tyler? Minimum wage? I think you are also in Blade Runner. Was it Snowman who threw in the Moby Dick hint? 377 I bounce between Johnny Utah and Johnny Castle. "Nobody puts baby in a corner!!!!"