witness dudeman's story about a round reserve being packed for the 16-year old that jumped with him off the Die Hard building. Not even a rig with a forward glide ratio? and the kid jumps without saying nuthin'!
Actually the chute he used did have some forward drive and steerability. On round mains, the 'drive slots' are a series of squarish holes cut out of the bottom back of the canopy, and a couple of them are longer, reaching higher up the canopy. This allows air to escape out the back, giving the drive and steerability. But they invite the 'partial inversion' malfunction, where part of the canopy skirt blows through them and tries to inflate inside out. Reserves would have a couple of the holes but not the longer slots, reducing but not eliminating that possibility. The four line release pretty much eliminated that malfunction. Then at some point, in a true face-palm 'duh!' moment, someone had the brilliant idea of covering those holes with mesh, allowing air through but not material. That's what the kid was jumping.
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Cooper choosing a better chute - If he had the option of a steerable chute, that would help him get into a better landing area and avoid obstacles such as trees or a rocky hillside.
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The 'Pursuit' movie stunt - Obviously Carl Boenish is gone. Kevin Donnelly passed away some years ago from cancer. Same with Dean Westgaard many years ago. Ray Cottingham is still around. NickyB contacted him a while back on Facebook, but he didn't have a lot to say. Not familiar with the other two. I don't know this to be fact, but knowing a bit about how such things are done, if they had three cameramen and three other jumpers, they likely had three Cooper's. (At least two.) Two loads times three pairs would give them six jumps to choose edits from. The landing shot is likely a separate thing.
