R99:
Appreciate you weighing in with your skills and abilities. Between you, Georger (the college physics professor) and Louie (the college math professor) something ought to get figured out. But I will challenge you on a couple things. You say Bohan's reporting is not relevant. And that the previously discussed weather reports over PDX contradicts extraneous factors. Have you interviewed anyone who knew Bohan or flew with Bohan as a Continental 727 pilot? And, which weather reports do you have direct knowledge of? If you are relying strictly on what has been discussed already, you may not have "all" the info. Georger might tend to agree with this. Georger's earlier discussion about 305 flying over Haydon Island is pretty much right on. But you can debate with Georger all you want.
Coopsnoop and Bruce Smith:
The story about Captain Bohan's claiming an 80 knot head wind from the south at 14,000 feet and about a 25-30 knot direct crosswind on landing is only reported in Himmelsbach's book to the best of my knowledge.
Regardless of what the winds were for Bohan at 14,000 feet, they were much, much less than that at 10,000 feet where NWA 305 was flying. If NWA 305 had a headwind anywhere near 80 knots, it would not have been able to get to Reno that night.
I have not interviewed anyone who knew Bohan and that is not necessary. The FBI obtained copies of all available weather information for Portland for that evening and it included such things as the hourly sequence reports (actual measured weather information) for all stations in the Northwest part of the country, forecasts of clouds and winds for the entire region, etc.. That information was posted on the DZ Cooper thread that is now closed plus it was repeated on the current DZ Cooper thread. Hominid and Georger also have that information.
Since the Portland International Airport was the location of the local National Weather Service Station, the very same information that was recorded there for aviation was used by such outlets as the Weather Underground on their web page. You can check their web page for the information for November 24, 1971. You can also check the Portland newspapers weather reports for that date since they also used the same information.
There are statements in the Seattle ground transcripts from the tower just before NWA 305 took off that they were going to let other aircraft start taking off just as soon as NWA 305 got clear of the Seattle airport traffic. Bohan's statement about being four minutes behind the airliner means to me that he took off four minutes after the airliner.
In all probability, Bohan would head to Portland down Victor Airway 23E which is direct from the Seattle VORTAC to what is now the Battleground VORTAC. Consequently, Bohan would not be following NWA 305 down the same airway. And Bohan probably was travelling twice as fast as NWA 305 during their flights. That means that Bohan was probably already at the gate in Portland by the time NWA 305 was passing the area.
The actual measured weather in the Portland area trumps all other claimed sources. Bohan's story is just not supported by actual facts.
Robert99
