Copper could have checked the chutes, right?  We know that he opened them at least partially, and then he had time alone after that.

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Copper could have checked the chutes, right?  We know that he opened them at least partially, and then he had time alone after that.

He opened one of the reserves in order to scavenge lines. If he had opened one of Hayden's bailout rigs, unless he was a rigger and had rigging tools with him, it would be highly unlikely that he would have been able to re-close it suitably for use.

interesting point.
Then again
Assume whuffo. You need lines.
You have 4 rigs.
You are going to jump with one of them.
You apparently know that all 4 rigs have lines.
Which of the remaining 3 rigs do you open? You're not going to use any of them, so why would you pick one over another?

You could say "random"
Or you could say it was easier to open the reserve.
or you could say he was half-thinking maybe the reserve could hold the money and somehow attach to himself?

Or you could say he was a cheap jumper at his core, and couldn't bear to destroy a perfectly good back rig
i.e. destroy the older no-good reserves...almost an instinctual bias if not whuffo.

I mean, would a whuffo think the line length varied in reserve vs back rig? Me I'd guess the reserve had shorter lines.
Did it?

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I tend to think some people are over thinking this - Cooper's reasoning is not your reasoning. 

You could say either of these sentences, and they both make no sense.
1) Cooper's reasoning is not my reasoning.
2) Cooper's reasoning is my reasoning.

Basically, it's a silly thing to say anything about Cooper's "reasoning" ..or even the length of his fingernails.

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Copper could have checked the chutes, right?  We know that he opened them at least partially, and then he had time alone after that.

He opened one of the reserves in order to scavenge lines. If he had opened one of Hayden's bailout rigs, unless he was a rigger and had rigging tools with him, it would be highly unlikely that he would have been able to re-close it suitably for use.

interesting point.
Then again
Assume whuffo. You need lines.
You have 4 rigs.
You are going to jump with one of them.
You apparently know that all 4 rigs have lines.
Which of the remaining 3 rigs do you open? You're not going to use any of them, so why would you pick one over another?

You could say "random"
Or you could say it was easier to open the reserve.
or you could say he was half-thinking maybe the reserve could hold the money and somehow attach to himself?

Or you could say he was a cheap jumper at his core, and couldn't bear to destroy a perfectly good back rig
i.e. destroy the older no-good reserves...almost an instinctual bias if not whuffo.

I mean, would a whuffo think the line length varied in reserve vs back rig? Me I'd guess the reserve had shorter lines.
Did it?

It might somewhat depend on what he knows about parachutes. Tina said he declined the instructions and looked like he knew what he was doing putting it on. Also, he asked for 'two backs and two fronts'. Sounds to me like he's asking for two complete rigs, mains and reserves. Best evidence suggests that what he gets are two front reserves (one a dummy?) and the two Hayden bailout rigs. As a matter of point, all four of those ARE reserves. Any packed rig would be equally easy to open, you just pull the ripcord. If he sees that the two back rigs are bailout rigs, and thus do not have the D-rings to attach the front reserves, then that makes the front reserves unusable. So those would be the obvious choice for scavenging lines. Not sure about comparative line lengths, but I wouldn't think that they'd differ by much, and any of them should be long enough for his use. Except perhaps the dummy reserve. Since that one is gone, we don't know what he did with it. By any normal protocols, that should be clearly marked. If he had opened that one first, he might have found the lines daisy-chained. That normally shouldn't be hard to undo, but they may have been tacked together to prevent them from coming undone during normal use. And they may have been shortened for repacking convenience.

What I dont understand is why anyone who might be challenged, would put a chute on with nowhere to go in cramped quarters no less! Anything that encumbers him physically makes him less agile, more vulnerable, and unable to defend himself. He was so worried about sky marshals so he puts a chute on .... why not just tie his shoes together too! Something doesnt add up. Maybe he thought the threat of the bomb gained him freedom from attack ? Consider that several people just walked on the plane free to travel - Hancock for her purse for one - a marksman could have dispatched him quickly and ended the drama while he's playing with lines and money and encumbered by a backpack on his body ...   

hey dudeman, "he might have found the lines daisy-chained"
you're the first one I can remember saying that maybe after training with a dummy reserve at Issaquah, it's possible the reserve was stored with the lines daisy chained (no reason to leave them loose..it's not being repacked normally)

I find that interesting because the only other person that has said something like that was Sheridan Peterson. He says he knew that based on personal experience at Issaquah. Always wondered if that was true.

I remember you saying that about SP, I think that's where it stuck in my mind as a possibility. Anything that would make that dummy easier to repack between uses they might be likely to do.

just a random thought.
if panels were really cut out from the dummy reserve, there probably would have been fewer lines on the canopy.
if the 1 or more panels were really just sewn shut to prevent the inflation, the number of lines might not have been reduced.

So it's possible there's a number of ways that the dummy reserve differed from the one Cooper cut open.