It's cinema verite, no?

I'm not sure what you are complaining about, Georger, but do you have any disputes with the parachute/Cossey facts that I presented in the video? Let's start there, and then we can discuss my performance career, past, present and future.

What has always impressed me, as a small town boy, is the SCALE of the Cooper hijacking. The very scale over which the hijacking played out was vast - this alone caused a lot of people to predict Cooper would never be found ... almost as if Cooper had bailed out over the vastness of the Amazon region, never to be seen again, dead or alive. And it would take generations to ever find out what happened to him. It would take years until someone visited the Ariel Tribe and perhaps the Arielonians would have some word about a white guy that had appeared in their midst one foggy night with a large bag of money, who perhaps had lived with the Arielonians as their god for a number of years, then vanished one day while fishing, perhaps taken by the snake God, K'Nuk'itonis?

Now consider the vastness of the money find site - in the photos stitched together below. Because the Columbia River is almost a flowing inland sea, like the Amazon. It covers an equally vast territory. Including the Washougal basin only further adds to that vastness. Again, what is important here is the SCALE of it all. That is what impressed this small town boy the first time I saw these photos, below. Out of this vastness appears three mere bundles of money presumably lost clear up near Ariel Washington! How in blazes does it work its way through the cosmos to wind up at this specific spot on the Columbia Inland Flowing Sea! ? The mere probability of it has to be something like winning the lottery. Then to be found by two children, an eight year old boy and his four year old playmate.

How strange can it get! ?  From the scale of it all the 727 from which Cooper bailed would be appear as a grain of sand on a beach! And the three bundles of money found as a mere molecule on that beach! I think I will turn on a football games and contemplate it all.

Bruce's video:

A couple of points that need clarifying (see below), but I enjoyed it a lot.

NB 6 and NB 8 are two kinds of Navy parachute harness-container assemblies. There is no such thing as an NB anything canopy, the NB means Navy back and refers to only an integrated back type harness and container. The NB 8 had a larger pack volume than the NB 6.

Neither the NB 6 or NB 8, as manufactured, had D rings on the front that could be used to connect a chest reserve chute

NORMALLY (in USN service) an NB 6 had a 26 foot conical canopy inside. Many, but not all, USN 26 ft Conicals were made by Steinthal.

NORMALLY (in USN service) an NB 8 had a 28 ft round C-9 canopy inside. Many mfrs made C-9 canopies including Pioneer, Irvin, etc.

Both C-9s and USN 26 foot Conicals were incredibly strong and could easily withstand high speed deployments that would shred civilian sport and emergency canopies that were rated for 150 mph maximum speed. Anything I said about a C-9's strength and durability wold apply equally to a Navy Conical. I have jumped both.

The Boeing 727 air drop tests were not made public, but I can't say that they were actually classified SECRET.

377

In terms of definitive knowledge, we know that Cossey packed Hayden's "Not-Used" Pioneer with a 26-foot Steinthaul.

Since Hayden says both chutes were identical, it is a fair assumption to say that Cossey packed the one that Cooper used as well.

Further, since Cossey was the rigger at Issaquah Sky Sports, it is a fair assumption that he packed the reserves, too.

If the rig was an NB 8 I'd bet that the canopy was a 28 ft C 9. But that's a guess. Between Cossey's tricks and lies and Norman's refusal to give full info to Bruce it's hard to know for sure. Both canopies are super strong. Waaaay stronger than comparably sized civilian canopies.

I owe my life to a surplus USN 26 ft Conical that I had as my reserve canopy in 1972. My USAF C 9 main malfunctioned and I had to go to plan B. A friend who had served in the Navy said: "typical... the Air Force screws up and the Navy saves the day."

377

It seems to me a lot is being placed on Hayden's statement: the chutes were identical. How did he know? Bruce never asked. Had Hayden talked to Cossey (who made/packed the chutes) and that's how he knew his chutes were identical? Had Hayden opened the chutes and examined them, looked at the packing cards, something else? Did Cossey ever say Hayden's chutes were identical? Then Hayden turns around and wont open and show Bruce the canopy in his remaining chute! Maybe what all of this boils down to is Hayden himself doesn't really know what kind of canopy he has inside his container, packed by Cossey? How much does Hayden even know about chutes, or his chutes in particular? Would he know a C9 26ft from a 28ft if he saw one? Would it be listed on the packing card - assuming there is a packing card inside his remaining chute ?

What's the big deal with finding out? Why would Hayden pull back and not want to pursue this? (in front of Bruce). Did Hayden look at the chute later after Bruce was gone?

What makes this all the more problematic is Jayden did pull a piece of the canopy out to show Bruce who then took a photograph of the canopy - its white!

Would Gray have gotten a different response from Hayden?

Did Bruce push Hayden too hard and that made Hayden back off?

If it's all white it is very likely a 26' USN conical. Most were all white. As far as I know there were no all white C 9s. The all white 28 ft round military canopies were called C 8s and were very rare. I have only seen one. I've seen hundreds of C 9s.

Due to high demand as skydiving reserves and the fact that far fewer Conicals showed up in surplus compared to C 9s, the Navy Conicals were much more expensive than C 9s. Often 5x. Makes it more likely that Norman would have bought C 9 canopies. They were far more common, much less expensive and 100% suitable for his needs.

Can't tell from the small amount of extracted canopy fabric in Norman's rig whether the entire canopy is white. Many C 9s had some white panels and also other colors such as green, tan and orange.

377

So, if Hayden is right and his other chute was identical to this one, then that is the type of chute Cooper chose and used. 

No further need for parachute psychoanalysis, or is there?