dudeman17

I'll repeat my standard disclaimer here. I am not a researcher, I don't read all the documents, I don't care much about diatoms, tie particles, or flight path variations. I have my own reasons for being interested in this case. Occasionally I'll throw in a few cents about parachutes or the logistics of parachuting because that's what I know. The things I say, I don't claim they actually happened, I'm just giving possibilities. If that helps someone define their theories, great, otherwise people are free to ignore me. As to your specific issues here... First, what's chaff? But, who knows who or how fast the FBI has access to. But it wouldn't really take a rigger long to do something with the chutes. He wouldn't have to completely unpack and repack the chutes. All he would have to do is open the container, add a pinger or cut some lines or whatever they wanted him to do, then re-close the container. I don't know how big the pingers would be, but if they're small enough you might be able to just shove one in through the corner of the container, where the flaps are separated. It would fall out on opening, but it would confirm the exit point and be reasonably close to where Cooper would land. I'll turn that challenge back on you. Find a civilian drop zone or skydiving community anywhere at any time in parachuting history that had only one rigger among them. Hard to say who all was among their community, but off the top of my head I can think of at least two other riggers that were active jumpers in that area at that time.

I'm just being objective here... Skydiving communities are pretty small and interconnected. If Reca was a local jumper, he was at least acquainted with Cossey, if not a friend, and it's possible if not likely they had made jumps together. Again, not necessarily. For instance, if they had gotten the chutes from McChord, they would have been packed by someone different. And if the FBI had wanted to sabotage the chutes, they could have had a military rigger do it and leave whoever's name (Cossey) on the card. The three letters on the lead seal might be different, but that would depend on if Cooper knew what those letters should be, indeed if Cooper knew enough to look at them.

Exactly. If Reca was a local jumper, it's quite possible that Cossey packed his reserve.

For the same reason - Cossey runs the rigging loft at the local drop zone, so he would be seen as the local go-to authority.

That doesn't necessarily mean anything significant. Someone earlier claimed that Cossey was the only rigger in the area. I find that a bit difficult to believe, because in any community of skydivers there is likely to be a number of people with rigger's tickets. HOWEVER, if Cossey was the main commercial rigger in the area, in that he ran the loft at the local drop zone, he and that loft would be the logical choice for aerobatic pilots (and their service personnel) when they needed their emergency rigs repacked. And the front reserve would have come from the student gear at that drop zone, also under Cossey's care. So for Cossey's name to be on all of those rigs would just be logical happenstance.

The last line of that page pictured says that FBI sketch artist Roy Rose "...will contribute a detail that has never been documented in any public file of the FBI:". (To be continued on the next page, not pictured.) What is that?

No shit? That's really cool, Flyjack. I read that article and spent the next hour(?) on youtube checking out old Guess Who videos (and a couple BTO ones).

Ah, yes, I remember Rick Sylvester's ski jumps. I think he did a practice run off El Cap, but the movie jump was somewhere else, like Banff or somewhere. But that had actually slipped my mind when I posted the question, because I had someone else in mind. I had heard that at least one of the early Taft/Arvin/Elsinore early SCR guys jumped El Cap sometime near when you guys did, probably after hearing about it. Do you remember anything like that?

I certainly remember of you and Brian, and have always been grateful for what you guys did. I have a question. Are you aware of anyone else who may have jumped El Cap back in your era, before Carl took his group in '78? I have heard of at least one, but have not confirmed it.

Yes, birds can fly, and I'm sure they're happy about that. But the reason they sing... is because they don't have to pack!

Yes I am, sort of. My intent is to be there on Saturdays, but I seem to be making it about half of them. Haven't resumed doing tandems yet, still just doing AFF. Hopefully soon.

I wasn't looking to do a deep dive on all things radio, and I don't think that this issue will solve the ultimate question of who Cooper was. I was just curious, so I asked him since he mentioned it. I believe R99 is a pilot, and seems to know about pilot stuff. Does he have a 'vested interest' in deceiving me? I hadn't noticed that.

I read Dr. Edwards' post and he didn't really define those distances. So to be curious and clarify, in your opinion would 305 have been near or beyond that distance limit for Redmond at that point, or should they have been within it?

Oh no. I knew Robert years ago when I jumped at Cal City. One of the kindest, coolest, funniest, most generous people ever. So sad to hear. So sorry for the loss.

I thought about that after I posted it, but I'm not that good at computer and I'm not sure how that works. I know you've got a manual out about something computer-related, so if you couldn't make that work, I'd still be scratching my head, haha.

I'm guessing Joe was referring to the original posts where the author was seeking information to make it believable. So, to Scarface007, the author and OP, maybe you could post a pdf here of the relevant helicopter/parachute/bridge/(Angel Falls?) scene so we could see how believable that did turn out?

Since that fiberglass piece was not from NORJACK, has it been confirmed that it even was from a (later) 727, or what else it might be? Because, as has been mentioned previously, how many 727's would be flying around with the airstairs open? As in, anything more than none?

I'll re-state my opinion here. In my 30-plus years of dealing with first-time jumpers, my educated guess is that Cooper pulls the ripcord. With pretty much any parachute, but especially with a rigger-packed emergency chute, if he pulls he all but assuredly gets under an open canopy, regardless of his body position. This is consistent with Andrade's research on WWII bailouts. However, with a basic round parachute over possibly inhospitable terrain, there is the possibility of his getting injured on landing and being unable to hike out. The likelihood of that would depend on exactly where he jumped and what was the terrain. What is the ratio of rocky hillsides/trees/water below him vs flatter open fields. If he's in an open field, he's probably ok. If he's in worse terrain, he might still be ok, but maybe not.

Your profile doesn't say what your experience is, but if you have even the slightest need to ask about it in a forum like this, then you're not ready to do it. Best advice - don't.

Oh, I think they know. But I think a lot of them just don't seem to care about the risk that their behavior may pose to other people.

The book is too thick to look it up right now, but I think it's a Skratch Garrison quote form Pat Works' United We Fall... "Ground rush is a gas, but it sure ain't practical."

Well, that was just one example, and in the scene I had in mind, they weren't choosing between different valuables, they were getting ready to rob a bank of it's cash and were greedily rubbing their hands together in anticipation of what they were about to get those hands on. The point was, the same as I think I've said about the 'collecting enough Raleigh coupons for a Para-Commander' comment, that not all comments are serious, literal and descriptive. Sometimes people just make a quip, a joke, or use a figure of speech, and I think one has to consider that possibility. 'Cold hard cash' doesn't necessarily denote a preference for chilled coins over room-temperature bills.

I can see following all leads to see where they go. And it may be valid. Or maybe not. I think terms like 'US American currency' are sometimes used simply as figures of speech, to emphasize a concept like 'I want money!', and might have nothing to do with foreign influence. I've seen outlaws in old western movies use such terms in such manner. ------- Gesundheit

I guess those other pesky issues are securely under the rug. Press on!

No I am not wrong. And he can correct me on this part if need be, but I don't think Flyjack was saying that I was wrong. I sometimes make somewhat generalized comments based on my knowledge of parachutes, and Flyjack responds with more specific details as they apply to the Cooper case. He does this with many peoples' posts because he is good at it. Nope. You likely made your jumps on either a 35' T-10 or a 28' whatever-it-was. Those would likely have either 7-TU or Double-L modifications, which are drive slots in the back that give the parachute forward speed and steerability. Compared to what we use today, they are very low performance, but in those days the higher performance round canopies included Piglets, Papillons, and the popular Para-Commanders. Those were somewhat, but not a whole lot, speedier than the T-10's and 28 footers. And first-jump static-line students were not put out at 10k', because God only knows where they would land. ------- BTW, Wendy's comments were correct.