dudeman17

Exactly, which is part of what identifies it as a main, and not a bailout rig, thus no packing card that would go with it. Thanks for posting that, interesting stuff in there. One is how close he landed to his home, and stashed the rig and the money. So did he get his rig home, is that one the one he used in his hijacking? Also interesting is that he specified what type of gear he wanted them to get for him, even indicating to get it from Perry Stevens. Perry was an early innovator of parachuting, instruction, and gear. He invented one particular simple back-up safety device that is now present on nearly every rig, and has saved many many lives over the years. I think 377 has said that Perry was one of his early instructors. And even with that, McCoy brought his own rig. I had wondered how he got his rig on board undetected. Interesting that he put it in checked luggage, then had all the luggage put out so he could find his. Makes me wonder - is there a way to get from the passenger compartment down into the luggage hold in flight? How was luggage stored in those days? Could Cooper have possibly had an accomplice check a case that he could have gone down and gotten? ----------------- I don't know enough about Galen Cook to fully understand this reference. But the round and round part... I'm having a hard time not going down a rabbit hole of what the FBI might be up to. At this point (not just Cooper, but everything in general) I don't put nuthin' past nobody. Rabbit holes... It's where the feddin' wabbits live.

Strange development indeed. Didn't the FBI eliminate him long ago? Didn't the stews (eyewitnesses) reject him? Haven't you guys (the legit researchers) eliminated him? The parachute is all wrong?* At this point in time, I believe that the FBI has proven themselves to be agenda-driven, dishonest, and not to be believed. If they now decide to proclaim McCoy as Cooper... Well, I said this before somewhat in jest, but why is Larry Carr among you and why do they not want this case to be legitimately solved? *[The parachute - from what was left on the plane - I think Fly said that the cut-up front reserve had it's own packing card. The other (missing) front reserve, if it was indeed a training dummy, it would not have a packing card. There were two packing cards with the rig left on the plane, with different serial numbers, and neither of them completely full. So it wasn't like that rig was on it's second card because the first one was full. So the second card was presumably from the other rig, the one Cooper used. The McCoy rig is a main container, not a bailout rig. Main containers do not have packing cards. Now, that container would not on its own eliminate McCoy. If McCoy was jumper, it wouldn't be unusual for him to have an old rig in his closet. It just wouldn't be the one he used for a skyjacking. I can't imagine Cooper taking the rig with him as he hiked out of wherever he landed. Especially unpacked, it is bulky and cumbersome to carry. And it would stick out like a sore thumb to anyone who might happen to see him. I can't imagine that he wouldn't ditch it wherever it was he landed.]

I don't think it's what you meant, but to be clear, I would not want him to be banned. It just seemed like maybe he was. While he can at times be a bit defensive and humorless, I don't think there is a more detailed, thorough, and objective researcher.

I don't know. Just... sometimes you guys get into it a bit, that comment Chaucer made the other day, he hasn't been here for a while... just made me wonder.

Um... Did you guys get Flyjack banned?

Proper passenger harness adjustment is not a question that can be answered on the internet. Your profile says that you're a TI. You should know the answer. If you're a new TI, if you don't know the answer, you should ask the TIE's that are supposed to train you how to properly adjust the harness. Ask experienced TI's whom you respect, whose students 'hang' properly. Get that question properly answered before you do your next tandem. Students hanging too low is because stuff is too loose. Stuff being too loose is how people fell out. The Y strap addresses that, and I'm not saying that they're bad, but they should never have been necessary. (Or maybe they should have been there all along.)

But why are they biased? Is it because they know how rigs are supposed to function and they know which designs function better? That would be a good bias. Is it because they are dealers and are promoting a certain rig? That might be a bad bias. Is it because they want their clients to have the rigs that are easier to pack? That, too, might be a bad bias. Choose your rigger wisely.

Hasn't that canopy and lines been handled by a number of people?

I like to think he was a skydiver pulling an elaborate version of 'Hey, hold my beer a sec. In fact, I might be gone a couple days, can you feed my dog?' He was special forces in Vietnam, an experience that left him a bit... eccentric. He jumped El Cap in the 60's and nobody knew about it. He used the money to rent a house by the beach, chase girls, party like a rock star, and skydive his butt off. His main goal in life was to have more fun than anyone else on the planet, but be low-key about it. He liked the fact that very few people had the slightest idea who he was. That's what I like to think. But I might be biased.

No one bit on this, but I'll flesh it out a bit since it's kind of a funny movie and sort of relevant to some of what has been discussed here lately. It's an old western and Bronson plays an outlaw bank robber and blah blah blah... One day he comes to an outside-of-town manor occupied by a lone woman. He needs to hide out for a while, so at first he's holding her hostage, but she's hot so he seduces her. She, being a lonely widow, likes the attention and goes along with it, and they spend an idyllic afternoon. After he leaves, he is soon arrested, convicted, and sentenced to a couple years in jail for some other crime under a different, mistaken identity. On her part, the townsfolk know what she did and brand her a harlot. But she writes a novel about the affair, and portrays it as an epic, romantic love story. The book becomes a runaway best seller, and the tale and the 'outlaw' persona become famous and larger than life. In jail, Bronson is aware of this and reads the book. When he is finally released, he decides to go back and reunite with the woman. But by then, the story has become so overblown, even in her mind, that she does not recognize him. His efforts to convince her and anyone else that he actually is the guy are met with disbelief, scorn, and derision.

It would certainly be problematic if he lands in the water. On those bailout rigs there are no capewells or any way to release the chute from the harness. There are a lot of variables. If the chute lands on top of him and he gets tangled in the canopy or the lines, that would suck. If it lands to the side of him... How strong is the current in the river, would he be getting pulled along? How cold is the water, would he be quickly succumbing to hypothermia? His best bet would be to get out of the harness if he could. If he's had jump training, he might know that if he's going to land in water he should undo the chest strap before he lands. Then he just has to get out of the leg straps. If the leg straps have clips on them, that would be easier. (I looked at the pictures of Hayden's other rig on Bruce's site and couldn't really see that part.) If there are no clips and he has to pull his legs out of them, that would be more difficult. But the money bag, how is that tied on, and is that going to impede his access to the harness. If luck is with him and he knows what he's doing, he could conceivably survive a water landing, but it would be difficult.

I'm reminded of the old Charles Bronson movie 'From Noon Till Three'.

Is that so they can continue citing "ongoing investigation" as a reason for refusing to cooperate? Why would they do that? The plot remains thick...

I was out there Saturday. It's been kind of sporadic for me. I haven't started doing tandems again yet (I will this spring, I swear, I swear!). I'm still doing AFF, but that's usually kind of slow in the winter, so I go out once in a while on Saturdays, depending on the weather and how busy the AFF is going to be. ------- That's what I was doing, giving it some thought. If they just closed the case because it's old and unsolved and they have more current stuff to worry about, and they just don't want to be bothered, maybe Larry could help? But if they really don't want to be bothered, maybe Larry is just keeping an eye on you guys. Ha! Sounds like he would require 50 grand or better.

There are some interesting questions in there. Retired agent Larry Carr is in the vortex, right? Would he be able to help gain access to evidence? Or if, as some have suggested, there is is an 'inside job', CIA aspect to the case, and an agency coverup, he would be aware of that? If so, why is he in the vortex? Hmmm...

To qualify my answer, I have not seen the movie, so I don't know what they used for the 'acting' sequences. I'm going by the youtube video showing the preparation and the actual jumps (posted above). In the actual jumps, he was using a rig with main and reserve containers.

It's actually been done a number of times. In early base days, some guy did it off a rock quarry somewhere with only a few hundred feet. Some extreme motocrosser has done it on a sand dune jump, again fairly low. Some European (Italian?) guy has done it. And some time in the 90's (?) an early base jumper named Dave Barlia had an hour long special on NBC where he did a number of stunt jumps, one of them riding a motocross bike off a cliff in Mexico, I think. So yeah, nothing new, but it still looks cool. Actually, if they'd left that ramp up and sold tickets, they'd have had a fairly long line!

I wasn't privy to their training, so I can't say for certain, but I'll hazard an educated guess. He does have a skydiving rig on, but he is certainly using a base type main canopy. Even a guy like Tom Cruise has to answer to people, and on a huge budget feature such as that there are producers, investors, studio heads and insurance underwriters. Someone may have insisted that he carry a reserve, or Tom and his crew may have had that idea themselves. And depending on how tall that cliff was and how high he was opening, with a MARD system and an appropriately packed reserve, he may well have been able to use it if necessary.

Ok, I remember you better now. And why I stopped responding to you. For the particular circumstance, Yes, that's exactly what that means. Your profile says you have very few jumps, you say you failed to complete a coach course, don't currently jump, and are not a member of USPA. Yet you have an opinion on how USPA should train it's coaches and instructors. An opinion that supersedes that of someone with decades of experience as a USPA instructor. Okay. There is one potential miscommunication here. You again mentioned your experience in the coach course, and how you did indeed have experienced jumpers playing student. That is a different scenario. When someone takes a coach or instructor course, when it comes time for the evaluation jumps, the actual skydives, no they don't jump with actual students. Neither do they jump with random experienced jumpers. They jump with designated evaluators, who are experienced I's and IE's chosen by the course director. Those evaluators present the candidates with in-air situations and, well, evaluate their responses. That is not what the OP was writing about, nor what I was responding to. His situation was for the prerequisite that he assist in the ground training of an FJC before the course. No, he would not be jumping with the students, he's assisting with the ground training. I reiterated my opinion on that. I explained why I have that opinion. I presented some of my experience on which I would base such an opinion. Yet, from all of that, your takeaway was... Okay. Have it your way. Piss off.

I mean no disrespect whatsoever by the following... And how long have you had an AFF rating? I've had one since '90. I'm not an IE, but that's because I have no interest whatsoever in that job. I have, however, mentored and advised many freshly minted instructors over the years, as they come out of the courses and into the real world. I've read a lot of your posts over time. It is clear that you are truly interested and concerned, and that you mean well. But you often try to speak authoritatively on issues where you have no experience. I've seen you say, "It ought to be done THIS way!", on issues where, actually it IS done that way. I've seen you say, "It ought to be done THIS way!", on issues where it should NOT be done that way. I've thought about explaining the why's on a few of those, but what would be the point? More than once I've almost suggested to you that you should go to your dropzone, find some of the instructors that you respect, and shadow them as they do their job. I think you would find it interesting and informative. I stand by what I said in the previous post, and I would regardless of what the latest USPA official might have scribbled in the latest version of the IRM or the SIM. Sure, assisting with an FJC helps you learn the format. But they'll be doing that as they go through the course, and as they get back to their dz's and work their way into real-world coaching and instructing. But there is more to it than that. There is a lot to be said for sport psychology in an environment such as this. Students - some are totally clueless and ill-prepared, while others have spent way too much time on youtube and think they are know-it-alls. There are differing levels of fear (and there should be), especially as jump time nears. Coach/Instructor candidates should learn how to deal with those issues. And an experienced jumper 'playing student' would be hard-pressed to accurately portray that, and for that to be accurately addressed. Ain't nuthin' like the real world. That's why I suggest that they should assist in a real FJC with real students, and the more the better. I hope that helps.

I'm not sure what the problem here is. An FJC is simply the first class that an entry-level AFF student takes. Any dropzone, including the one you jump at, probably does them every weekend if not most days. If you're at a dz that closes for the winter, I guess that might be the issue, but whichever is the closest one that is open should work. If nothing else, if you got to wherever you're taking the coach course a day or two early, they might be able to help you with that. I'm not really a fan of hiring an experienced jumper to 'play student'. I don't think the idea is just to get familiar with the FJC format, you'll have plenty of time to do that. I think it's also more a matter of getting used to working with actual students, and their questions, concerns, and hesitations.

Yes I'm old enough to remember that place. That picture is BS! Actually, two BS's - the Bomb Shelter and a Brick Shithouse! What's "Frisby launch"? Putting a spin on the formation so it stays flat in the high airspeed? Or trying to do the whole thing successfully so that Al wouldn't have to get involved in the aftermath? Ha!! - tacos and hobbits!

Aww geez, c'mon man!! Two would be 'a couple'. 'A few' would be three. Four or more would be 'some'. What are ya, a.... ah, never mind! (I'm sorry, I'm sorry, hehehe)

That does seem odd. In normal operations, it would fall on somebody else to open and close it for boarding, and even in an emergency landing situation where they'd need emergency egress, the stews would likely get to it first. But as R99 said, they'd surely be briefed on it, and most of them would likely do a walk-through and get familiar with everything like that. Maybe over time and routine they'd sort of forget about it, but a lot of pilots pride themselves on authority and control, and would keep up on all potential emergency procedures.

Any pilot worth their salt would know how to operate anything on any aircraft they're rated to fly. The doors would be a given.