dudeman17

I'm not in a position to question either your or Ryan's research of the particulars. I just like to toss in general info about parachutes and their use. Cossey moving a ripcord handle to make it less accessible to a student is reasonable, but he would not put it out of comfortable reach to the user. If he thought that he had, he could always move it back before selling it. All a user would have to do is put it on and familiarize themself with it. Hayden wouldn't necessarily need his two rigs to be a matched set. He likely had one that he preferred and that he himself always wore. His second one was likely for when he took a passenger up for a ride. 'Meeting regulations' means he's required to wear it during certain types of flight. 'Never intending to use it' means he would never intend to actually bail out, he would prefer to work out his problems in-cockpit. I know both Bruce and Blevins interviewed Hayden, and Bruce has pictures of him with the returned rig on. Did Hayden ever say anything of that nature, whether that older one was the one he liked to wear or not? Is it established that Hayden was indeed an aerobatic enthusiast? R99 asked about his airplane, and it was identified as a WWII trainer. I'm not a hundred percent on this, but I think that an old military trainer restored for civilian use might likely be classified as experimental, and that in itself might require him to wear a rig, even if he's just cruising in it. It would certainly be capable of aerobatic maneuvers, but I think a lot of pilots just cruise them. Kind of like someone restoring an old classic muscle car.

I dunno... If he's familiar with that store because they arrange repacks through him, it might make sense for him to sell a bailout rig through them because he knows that pilots go there for them. And I think that 'harder pull' business is just more Cossey balderdash. Ripcords are exceedingly simple devices. You put the rig on, familiarize yourself where the handle is, and if you need it, you grab the damn thing and pull it. Nothing hard about it at all.

Yes. Kind of an interesting rig that instructor has on though. By 1985 pretty much all experienced jumper sport rigs were piggyback rigs, that is main and reserve both on the back and no front reserve. Most instructors would just go ahead and wear that. But some of them were still a bit bulky, so in a small plane like that... That rig he has on is a single canopy back container, but on most bailout rigs the ripcord handle is on the left side, which I don't see. What I do see is a soft pud handle on the right side, consistent with a cutaway handle on a piggyback sport rig, used to release the main before deploying the reserve in the event of a malfunction. At first glance it looked like maybe a base rig, which uses the cutaway handle and 3-ring attachments to attach the canopy to the harness. But I don't see the 3-rings on his shoulders, nor a pilot chute pouch on the bottom of the container. It does look like a ripcord housing going down from that handle to the bottom of the container. So it looks like a bailout rig with a unique ripcord setup.

You make that sound like you don't think he would own such a rig. Sure he would. No he wouldn't skydive with it, but he would wear it while flying, if he was flying jumpers in a small Cessna he would be required to wear it. And he might likely wear it as an instructor while putting out static-line students.

It's curious the lack of activity. It was somewhat slow before, then when the sale and impending shutdown was announced, some people came back and activity picked up a bit. Now that the site is back up,... nothing. Do people not know it's here? Have they just decided to move on? Are the moderators the same? I'm not on any social media, so I can't see what (or if) is being said elsewhere. ???

Apparently the whole site still lives, but very few people are aware of it. I wonder who's running it and why they didn't say anything. Looks like you won last post, and despite my ribbing, Ian won first post back.

Nope.

Where was that at? I just saw your post at Shutter's site. Only a couple other posts on this site so far, apparently the word isn't out yet?

Actually it does. It has accurately predicted so many things about science, medicine, biology, astronomy, human history, and human nature. It predicted you and what you just said to Ron. Good luck with your extended vacation at the lake.

That patch is interesting. Yes the '#5' would be consistent with student gear. That 'M... Johnson' written on it is likely the previous owner. But that the patch says both 'SSS' and 'Coss' is interesting. I've always been of the understanding that Emrich was the dz owner and that Cossey was his hired rigger. Student training is bread and butter for the dz business, so the dz runs the school. But that the patch also says 'Coss' makes me wonder, was he partners with Emrich in the business? Some dz's are owned by non-jumping pilots. It's a flying business, and they can fly a lot and still be at home. If Emrich is such, then maybe. But if Emrich is a jumper and instructor, there is no way in hell that he mistakenly grabs that dummy and doesn't know what it is. Ain't happening. My thought is that, especially after learning that the backs are pilot rigs and can't accommodate reserves anyways, yeah, he grabs the cheapest stuff, including that dummy, intentionally. But he wouldn't want the FBI to know that. Why do any of us know that? When the plane lands in Reno, that thing is gone, and that fact should have remained unknown. Why would Cossey blab that to a reporter? I'm sure Emrich had words with him about that, and his statement 'I didn't realize it at the time' is CYA. I also don't buy that they didn't know a hijacking was occurring. Parachutes are specialty devices, you need training and experience to use them. Cossey and Emrich are not going to lend out rigs just for the asking. The flight service guy had to at least explain something like 'I dunno, but there's a jetliner sequestered on the tarmac and the FBI is involved'. ----------------- Yes. It was 120 days for quite a while, but a few years ago it went to 180 days. Some countries have it at a year.

Thank you for that. Owner, Seattle Sky Sports, so that's not Cossey's, that belongs to the dropzone, most likely one of the student reserves. I would've guessed that repack cycles in that era would've been 90 days, but someone posted something here recently that indicated it might be 60 days. So it's either in date or just out of date, meaning it was currently in service.

A couple questions: The good reserve, the one the FBI has... 1. Did either Cossey or Emrich ever ask to get that back? 2. Are there pictures or documentation of it's packing card? I'd be curious what the last repack date on it was.

Unless that is definitively documented I don't buy it. Emrich owns the dz and the jump school. (He is a jumper and instructor, right?) He owns all the student gear and training aids. He knows that dummy reserve drunk, in the dark, and half asleep. Sure, Cossey put the dummy together, and he maintains the student gear and packs the reserves, because he's the rigger. But it's Emrich's stuff and he would know it cold.

I can personally attest (shhh...)