DB Cooper

[sailshaw 0]

Jo: I am new to the DropZone by way of Bruce who took me to the Lake Washington High that Sheridan taught at for three years before the skyjacking. He lived at my house in Seattle for a month and was kicked out for not paying his $35 rent. That was ten years before the skyjacking and, I think he was planning the caper at that time. When he found that I was an Engineer at Boeing, he wanted to know all that I knew about the 727 with the airstair that was mentioned in an article in Avation Week. The 727 was to do its first flight in two more years and I was planing for testing of the 737 airstair and knew not much about the 727. Sheridan was then not interested in my Boeing work. He had been a US Forest Service Smoke Jumber and we had something in common as I had worked on the USFS Fire Fighting Crew. As I have stated he had all the knowledge necessary for the jump. Also, he would have jumped when he saw the lights of Portland and close to the Portland Int. Airport. He probably left his car there before boarding the plane he skyjacked. His DropZone was on the flat area by the airport or possibly on Government Island (1,500 feet from the airport) .
Bob

[georger 244]

Quote

Jo: I am new to the DropZone by way of Bruce who took me to the Lake Washington High that Sheridan taught at for three years before the skyjacking. He lived at my house in Seattle for a month and was kicked out for not paying his $35 rent. That was ten years before the skyjacking and, I think he was planning the caper at that time. When he found that I was an Engineer at Boeing, he wanted to know all that I knew about the 727 with the airstair that was mentioned in an article in Avation Week. The 727 was to do its first flight in two more years and I was planing for testing of the 737 airstair and knew not much about the 727. Sheridan was then not interested in my Boeing work. He had been a US Forest Service Smoke Jumber and we had something in common as I had worked on the USFS Fire Fighting Crew. As I have stated he had all the knowledge necessary for the jump. Also, he would have jumped when he saw the lights of Portland and close to the Portland Int. Airport. He probably left his car there before boarding the plane he skyjacked. His DropZone was on the flat area by the airport or possibly on Government Island (1,500 feet from the airport) .
Bob

And so why didn;t Sheridan specify a route?
And avoid being taken out over the ocean, which
they almost did!

Why did he avoid the better steerable chute and
select the old NB6, and the dud reserve?

Why did he drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes?

Why did he waste time screwing around with the
money and make idle comments to Tina and how
come he doesn't fit the physical profile including
traits never given to the public?

You do realise this guy can be ruled in or out very
quickly based on 2 or 3 loci!

[Robert99 50]

Quote

Jo: I am new to the DropZone by way of Bruce who took me to the Lake Washington High that Sheridan taught at for three years before the skyjacking. He lived at my house in Seattle for a month and was kicked out for not paying his $35 rent. That was ten years before the skyjacking and, I think he was planning the caper at that time. When he found that I was an Engineer at Boeing, he wanted to know all that I knew about the 727 with the airstair that was mentioned in an article in Avation Week. The 727 was to do its first flight in two more years and I was planing for testing of the 737 airstair and knew not much about the 727. Sheridan was then not interested in my Boeing work. He had been a US Forest Service Smoke Jumber and we had something in common as I had worked on the USFS Fire Fighting Crew. As I have stated he had all the knowledge necessary for the jump. Also, he would have jumped when he saw the lights of Portland and close to the Portland Int. Airport. He probably left his car there before boarding the plane he skyjacked. His DropZone was on the flat area by the airport or possibly on Government Island (1,500 feet from the airport) .
Bob

Sailshaw, There are some problems with the above post.

When the hijacked airliner was headed to Reno, there is absolutely nothing to support the idea that it passed closer than about 10 miles from Portland International Airport.

In addition, there was a complete undercast below the 727 and it was impossible to visually estimate the aircraft's position with respect to Portland.

About three different sources state that the crew couldn't even see ground lights in the Portland area.

Further, a parachute landing adjacent to the Portland Airport is the last thing that Cooper would want to do.

Today's posts about some of the radio transcripts having been "redacted" applies specifically to the Seattle Center's transcript which has plainly been sanitized.

You might take a look at both the Seattle Center's transcript and the Oakland Center's transcript and you will probably agree that practically all the vital air traffic control information has been removed from the Seattle Center's transcript.

Can you think of a good reason why information would be deleted from the Seattle Center's transcript?

Robert Nicholson

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

Tell me the history of the 'transcript'?

Who gave it to the Seattle PI to publish and why?

Why are jets scrambled to intersect with 305 at a
time and in a place (directed by R2 etal) all while
305 is supposedly on a heading that is going to
take it across the Columbia at Troutdale?

The original concept about Cooper was very clear,
at the time this happened and in the days following
the hijack, in 1971. The original concept was scripted
by a lot of technically trained experienced people
directly involved in the case... and delivering their
evaluation(s) to the news media and the public
at large. That formed the public perception of
Cooper which was "some guy who has performed
a stunt, who bailed out of an airplane over the
State of Washington with a bag full of money"!

That was the allure of Cooper. He was just "some
guy" who had pulled off a stunt and now had elluded
being found or identified, and the search for "some
guy" failed . . .

His act was a stunt almost anyone could try! And
he apparently had gotten away with it, or died,
because he could not be identified or found by
some of the best resources on Earth looking for
him!

This was the view supported by all of the experts
at the time, ina nd out of law enforecement and the
government.

This was the basis for Cooper's allure. He fit the
general curve of the general population, was a
stunt man, and middle aged, with a grudge.

This was the original 'theory of the case'. All other
considerations came later ... much later.

This is a skydiving forum with that bias. That does
not mean Cooper had anything in common with
the people here. And if you take a few lines from
a redacted transcript without any of the context of
thousands of words and actions behind it, then
very likely you may be steered in the wrong direction
and never break out of the mold of the assumotions
you made, in the first place.

For all I know Cooper could have been some
grocery store clerk from Cleveland who had
pracxticed putting on a wwII surplus parachute
but who had never jumped out of a plane before,
but who had an idea of how this could be done
(based on his actual talents), and that may be
more in line with the original theory of the case
than anything else ?

I'm not saying anything new here. Just reminding
you of it, as if this was Dec 1st 1971...

Folks I am going to admit something tonight I have not admitted before. I have never read all of the transcripts because I am not smart enough to download them - ALL I have read is what others have repeated in this forum or placed in a medium I was able to access and read. I am unaware of the Seattle PI publishing these articles.

If they were posted on this forum and I was able to download them - I read them, but right now I am having a Dumb Blonde moment.

I read something that had the stewardesses notes in it and I remember some communications between the crew and the ground, but most of it got lost.

Perhaps someone might be kind enough to put what Georger is stating in a format I can download and read. Maybe I mentally didn't want to read all of them - and I cannot give you an honest answer of why at this moment. I just know that most of what Georger stated seems foreign to me. I have only a few pages of the notes and didn't understand most of what I was reading...would someone please post a link I can understand.

Perhaps I am having some residual effects of the drugs used during my surgery - or maybe I really have Dumb Blonde Syndrome.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[georger 244]

Perhaps someone might be kind enough to put what Georger is stating in a format I can download and read. .

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

Perhaps someone might be kind enough to put what Georger is stating in a format I can download and read. .

Here. Its on Sluggo's website.

http://n467us.com/Data%20Files/dbcooper_transcripts.pdf

[sailshaw 0]

Georger You ask five questions that make you think Sheridan is not a good suspect. I will try to answer each one as best I can even though I am not DB and just a plain Engineer.
1) DB took a gamble on the route but remember the crew did not know if they would be required to use the chutes. They would not want to jump over the ocean, so a route to Mexico, which I take on Alaska twice a year, flight path is mostly like that of the DB 727. Also, the crew would want to be close to a forced landing at Portland if it came to that.
2) Why the NB6 and not the steerable chute. He had lots of experience with the round chutes and possibly used that same chute when teaching at Issaqua Skydiving School (he was an instructor there). The sports chute would have been colorful and slow in decent. He wanted the stelth of the round chute with plain color that would get him down quickly. He probably threw the dummy out of the plane and that was the one they found but claimed to not be one of the four because Cossey probably could not remember what was packed in the dummy.
3) Alcohol and smoking. Sheridan is a calm cool and collected guy, but one glass of alcohol and five smokes would help keep his cool.
4) Talking with Tina would not only pass the time and but help to get her to tell the FBI the story he would want. Being close with her kept the other crew on edge not wanting her to be injured or hurt. Physical profile`- Sheridan fits best of the other suspects. His unusually olive skin (one flight attendant thought he might have had make-up it was so olive), Height at 6 feet, weight at 180 lbs, calm cool and collected, well mannered and good talker, smoker, and expert skydiver/instructor. He fits quite well. He was also consumed with "designing the system to beat the system" which he mentioned many times in the month he stayed at my house. The third letter to the editor (the one to the Portland Oregonian) was signed "the system to beat the system" DB Cooper. Those words matched what I heard over and over.
5) Rule him out! I don't think so.
Note: There is also a ground observer that Lawyer Galen Cook found that he calls "Janet" and she thinks she saw DB on the platform below the jet airplane that flew over her house in Vancouver with fire (possibly flares) coming out the back and in an arc into the Columbia river.. Galen talked with me by phone and he believes her story to be true. This information was reported to the Portland FBI office and not passed on to the Seattle office. Himmelsbach suppressed the information and possibly sent a friend to tell Janet to "shut the fuxx up". She was so scarred that she never mentioned it until Galen discovered it. The finding of the DB money on Tina's Bar was also with held by Himmelsbach and Seattle FBI agent Carr first heard of it from the news media. Why did Himmelsbach withhold info. My guess is he wanted a jump on the Seattle FBI office so he could end his career with catching DB while the Seattle office looked for him in the Washington woods.
Bob

[sailshaw 0]

Robert99 I will try to answer your four questions the best that I can as I am not DB Cooper.
1) Ten miles from the airport. No and the Air Chart posted by Sluggo or Snowman was in color with two flight paths and times. One flight path was right over PDX the Portland airport. The other was to the west of the airport three clicks or three miles but not ten miles. The time is also noted at 20:16 hrs at the Columbia and fits with the description and time from Janet.
2) Undercast? No if Janet could see the plane in such detail then Sheridan could have seen the Columbia and the airport (possibly between puffs of clouds).
3) The three crew that say they could not see the ground were possibly confused by the patchy clouds and maybe looking at a different time.
4) Landing close to the airport. Not a bad idea if your car is parked there and you free fall and then pop your stelth no color chute. Using the sports chute would more likely been seen from the ground. It would have been slow and colorful. Doing the unexpected was Sheridan's way of confusing the FBI which he has been very good at and why they have yet to catch him.
Bob

[1969912 0]

Quote

Quote

Perhaps someone might be kind enough to put what Georger is stating in a format I can download and read. .

Here. Its on Sluggo's website.

http://n467us.com/Data%20Files/dbcooper_transcripts.pdf

Georger - this is the whole point!
I have NEVER been able to down load ANYTHING from Sluggo's site. I have never been able to even view the photos he has up. He has lots of things but I CANNOT open them. I cannot even open the photos. He has articles there - I cannot download or open any of them.

I only have dial up and I am a Simple Simon when it comes to a computer.

The pdf page is blank when I try to do it - just like anything else on his site I try to view. I do NOT even know what he has on there about Duane Weber.

[Orange1 0]

Georger, wherever you got your copy of the transcripts from, I downloaded mine directly from the FBI website. If the link is no longer there, or if there was different stuff on sluggo's site, that has nothing to do with what I downloaded.

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[georger 244]

The finding of the DB money on Tina's Bar was also with held by Himmelsbach and Seattle FBI agent Carr first heard of it from the news media.

[Orange1 0]

And Jo, honestly....if you say you want the truth, how is it you have managed to get people to uncover all sorts of things, and yet have not asked any of them to download the transcripts for you...which is just about the only piece of real evidence available to the public???

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[sailshaw 0]

Bob Blevins Cool down and take off your blinders so you can see other suspects than your own favored DB. I will try to address your three comments. Remember that I am not DB Cooper but might just know who he is.
1) The gamble on the route to Mexico from SEA Seattle is a 99% that you will cross the Columbia river and be able to see the lights of Portland. I do each time I fly to Mexico on Alaska Airline for the last 18 years (twice a year).
2) Why the NB6 chute? I have explained it in my other posts (you should reread them and you would not ask this question). It was his best choice.
3) Throwing out the dummy chute? He wanted the carrier to put the money in and the found chute was thought by the FBI to be one of the four he received. That is until Cossey could not correctly identify it as the dummy. It was not know whether it was modified or not and could have been just a old round chute hanging around the Sky Sports at Issaqua where Sheridan taught skydiving. Hope this answers your thoughts.
Bob

[sailshaw 0]

Georger Re Tina's Barr info withheld from Seattle FBI, was information from Bruce who posts here. This is possibly second hand info and should be put aside. Maybe Bruce can answer where the info came from. The info about Janet came from Galen Cook who did an interview with her and believes her story. That info was withheld from Seattle FBI per Galen by Himmelsbach possibly because of the non-identified guy that visited Janet and said "shut the fuxx up" that gave her quite a scare.
Bob

[Farflung 0]

On 20 Jan 1972 (some 57 days after Cooper) a 23 year old, hijacked a Hughes Airwest, DC-9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XMuyFjIsyY&feature=related

leaving Las Vegas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzf_pMpcnQ0

That is a very short amount of time to review design drawings, learn to operate a different aft stair system and establish if the DC-9 was ‘jumpable’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9g7sBVUFMs

sans the covert jungle ops that seems to give people goose bumps for some reason. He displayed an explosive device, requested a ransom and some parachutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vn8uX4_hI8

As the aircraft was over Colorado (the hijacker’s home turf) he jumped from the plane. This experiment had another variable in that the FBI delivered parachutes with homing transmitters and tracked the guy down on the ground still clutching his money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JbBVKQDTWQ

Yawwwwnnnnnnn, where’s the intrigue in that story? No secret ops, grudges against the government or even a disgruntled Hughes Airwest employee who was captured in an Airstream with his ‘special friend’. More importantly why no photos of the Stewardesses from that flight?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e_bXaf1TV8&feature=related

Did any of them go on to live at the ‘Mourning Wood Convent’ in southern Nevada?

Why hasn’t the LaPoint story developed a third nipple in the form of FBI incompetence, scandal or a homoerotic love interest?

By May of the same year he was sentenced to forty in a ………

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPcql4FuCK0

[sailshaw 0]

Jo In your post you say Himmelsbach pointed you to talk with Sheridan at Issaqua Sky Sports and the Boeing Skydiving club. That all ties together with my knowledge of Sheridan (Petey), but why did H. point you in that direction? Was it to help you confirm or not confirm your husband's involvement? Are you really searching to find that your husband was not DB and he was just puffing you up on his death bed to make him look important in his life? His jail time certainly was no measure of his success.

Bob

[georger 244]

He fits quite well. He was also consumed with "designing the system to beat the system" which he mentioned many times in the month he stayed at my house. The third letter to the editor (the one to the Portland Oregonian) was signed "the system to beat the system" DB Cooper. Those words matched what I heard over and over.

[Robert99 50]

Quote

Robert99 I will try to answer your four questions the best that I can as I am not DB Cooper.
1) Ten miles from the airport. No and the Air Chart posted by Sluggo or Snowman was in color with two flight paths and times. One flight path was right over PDX the Portland airport. The other was to the west of the airport three clicks or three miles but not ten miles. The time is also noted at 20:16 hrs at the Columbia and fits with the description and time from Janet.
2) Undercast? No if Janet could see the plane in such detail then Sheridan could have seen the Columbia and the airport (possibly between puffs of clouds).
3) The three crew that say they could not see the ground were possibly confused by the patchy clouds and maybe looking at a different time.
4) Landing close to the airport. Not a bad idea if your car is parked there and you free fall and then pop your stelth no color chute. Using the sports chute would more likely been seen from the ground. It would have been slow and colorful. Doing the unexpected was Sheridan's way of confusing the FBI which he has been very good at and why they have yet to catch him.
Bob

Sailshaw, It is obvious that you haven't considered the hijacking events in any detail and maybe not even seriously. I would suggest that you do some reading on the matter and make some effort to distinguish between "facts" and "fairey tales".

You state that the FBI indicated there were two flight paths for the hijacked airliner. Simply put, the airliner could not be in two places at the same time. So which flight path is correct? How about "neither"?

I believe you described yourself as a Boeing engineer in an earlier post. If that is correct, get out your calculator and see how the times and positions given on the FBI charts check out with other information. Then you may need to revise some of your ideas.

The saga of "Janet" and her x-ray vision has been thoroughly discounted by everyone who has taken a look at that possibility. The human eye just simply cannot resolve things two miles away in such detail. And the fact that an overcast, yes an overcast, prevented "Janet" from seeing the airliner in the first place further complicates her claims.

Finally, the only thing dumber than making a parachute landing adjacent to the Portland Airport would be to make a parachute landing on top of the Portland Office of the FBI.

Sailshaw, You need to get busy. You have a lot of catching up to do.

Robert Nicholson

[georger 244]

Quote

I have to agree regarding the 'Janet' story, which on its face is completely ridiculous and in no way believable.

Heavy overcast at 5,000 feet, rain, darkness, and a plane flying along almost another mile ABOVE that cover. 'Janet' claimed that from this vantage she was able to see the figure of a 'what looked like a man,' standing on the airstairs.

Galen Cook even buying into that story and then supporting it in an interview with Scott Schwebke of the Utah Standard-Examiner damaged his credibility severely.

Cook even claimed that the reason the Bureau supposedly threatened 'Janet' was to make sure they didn't have to draw resources from the search that was going on up at Lake Merwin at the time. Cook actually BELIEVES this stuff!

This should be telling you something...

Be sure to telegraph your feelings about Galen Cook.

This should be telling you something...

It's only data, Blevins. It isn't an invasion from
the Smog People.

[sailshaw 0]

Robert99 You have your blinders on too I see, just like Blevins. From you "You state that the FBI indicated there were two flight paths for the hijacked airliner. Simply put, the airliner could not be in two places at the same time. So which flight path is correct? How about "neither"?
You need to read my post, I said the two flight paths on the Air Chart from Snowman or Sluggo show one over the Portland airport and the other possibly to the west of the airport. I did NOT say the FBI indicated two flight paths. You need to carefully read before you critique me.
Thanks,
Bob

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

The finding of the DB money on Tina's Bar was also with held by Himmelsbach and Seattle FBI agent Carr first heard of it from the news media.

Not true. A press conference was held almost
immediately. Himmelsbach notified the media and
invited them in with the Ingrams. Seattle was
notified instantly. The media was all over the site
at Tina Bar including in the air over the excavation.

Where did you get the idea H witheld info ?

The tall good looking guy in the middle, who looks
like a P51 fighter pilot, is Himmelsbach.

I dont believe Mr. Carr was even with the FBI
in 1980 although I might be wrong?


in 1971?

Georger:

Perhaps this man who claims Sheridan was Cooper needs to get on a plane and go face to face with Sheridan. Of Course, if Sheridan refused - this man will make something out of that! This should be done while Sheridan is still alive and able to speak for himself. I really hope he reads the thread, but due to the extent of his intellect and interest, I doubt he does and he may not feel like dealing with rumors.

Sheridan is in his 80's and his health has not been good. I was hoping I might catch a glimpse of him in reference to the Freedom re-enactment they just completed. I expect his age and health may have kept him from participating in this venture, but I am sure he was there in heart.

Why do I remember this about Sheridan? Because I do and because it is important due to a memory I keep tucked away in a safe place - if this memory was made public you guys would laugh your heads off and call me delusional, connecting dots that do not connect or call me a liar. I told Mr. H about this "memory" way back in the beginning...but, it seemed unimportant to him and to me. It was just a memory of a conversation...I had NO idea Sheridan was connected to the Freedom Riders until he was publically mentioned and investigated by this thread as a Cooper suspect.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

Quote

I have to agree regarding the 'Janet' story, which on its face is completely ridiculous and in no way believable.

Heavy overcast at 5,000 feet, rain, darkness, and a plane flying along almost another mile ABOVE that cover. 'Janet' claimed that from this vantage she was able to see the figure of a 'what looked like a man,' standing on the airstairs.

Galen Cook even buying into that story and then supporting it in an interview with Scott Schwebke of the Utah Standard-Examiner damaged his credibility severely.

Cook even claimed that the reason the Bureau supposedly threatened 'Janet' was to make sure they didn't have to draw resources from the search that was going on up at Lake Merwin at the time. Cook actually BELIEVES this stuff!

This should be telling you something...

Be sure to telegraph your feelings about Galen Cook.

This should be telling you something...

It's only data, Blevins. It isn't an invasion from
the Smog People.

In this thread I have never defended nor have I disputed anything about Galen Cook's story regarding Janet. On the surface I believed this to be unbelievable as most of you do.

After my trip to WA in Oct of 2011 and my interviews with various "witnesses" who spotted the plane - I have had reason to form an opinon based on these eyewitness accounts.

Number one - I believe the media or witness or Cook over stated what was observed on that night in 1971. Now that I know the "exact" location from which Janet sighted the plane and dotting that siting along with the other sitings that night - I believe she actually did see the plane.

Did she see the aft stairs open and a man standing there and did she see a flare? I seriously doubt she saw what was claimed, but she DID see the plane.

There are many explanations in my layman's mind that could explain what she thought she saw. There are many explanation for the "flare" she thought she saw - reflections in the hazy sky from something on the plane or on the ground.

As for claiming she saw a man standing on the aft stairs - this is either media talk or her imagination. We have never heard her story in her own words (I can attest to the media misquoting individuals - been there and done that).

My own interviews do place the siting within the path I understand and have been told the plane made (per crew members and the known flight path). The dots fall right in line with places Duane took me and told me about.

Do NOTE that Duane showed me places that are out of the flight path, but the conversation was different in regards to the importance of these locations. Part of this was about his life in that area and people he knew.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[Robert99 50]

Quote

Robert99 You have your blinders on too I see, just like Blevins. From you "You state that the FBI indicated there were two flight paths for the hijacked airliner. Simply put, the airliner could not be in two places at the same time. So which flight path is correct? How about "neither"?
You need to read my post, I said the two flight paths on the Air Chart from Snowman or Sluggo show one over the Portland airport and the other possibly to the west of the airport. I did NOT say the FBI indicated two flight paths. You need to carefully read before you critique me.
Thanks,
Bob

Sailshaw, The maps on Sluggo's site that show flight paths came from the FBI. If those maps show two flight paths then who put those paths on those maps? FBI?

Perhaps you could elaborate on what you were saying or trying to say?

Robert Nicholson

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

Galen Cook? I had more respect for him when he was still investigating actual facts. He seems to have strayed from that path, which now gives him near-zero credibility.

Pretty soon he will be hunting down Bob Knoss for his next interview.

Mr. Blevins - speak for yourself because all to soon you are in for a really "BIG" shock. Galen Cook has been researching this subject for many yrs - and his search has been far more time and labor and financially intense than you could ever conceive.

You are a Johnny-Come-Lately who threw a story together in a couple of yrs and couldn't even get your facts about the actual event in order until those of us in this Thread did that for you.

You KNOW Kenny Christiansen had hazel eyes but the TV program, your book and your story seem to "gloss" over this one very important factor regarding the identification of Cooper. In 1971 - contacts did NOT exist which could change the color of the eyes so intensely and if they existed would have been unaffordable for a man wearing a J.C. Penney tie and cheap suit. His shoes where the most expensive thing he had on.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[sailshaw 0]

Robert99 The Air Chart that I saw in either a post of Snowman or Sluggo is identified as follows at the top of the page: "www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment"
It may have been supplied by the FBI but it looks like a valid Air Chart with markings of time superimposed, 20:14, 20:16, and 20:17 hrs. The blue flight paths that I describe are probably part of the Air Chart. The times are on the flight path to the West of PDX Portland airport and within walking distance. Again, just a cake-walk for an experienced skydiver like Sheridan. He was too smart to jump into the woods even though he had plenty of experience doing that as a Smoke Jumper.
Bob