- Unlike most people I don't treat Tommy as a nice person because of his past and obvious desire of continuing it after his wife is gone (scene with Tina at his house). Besides, I never noticed any special bond between him and Columbo (like it was for example with Carsini)
- Edna was horrible - she constantly uses this Maryann girl as her protection to blackmail Tommy. She apparently never thought of helping her anyhow
- I always find it funny when they talk and Tommy say something that they will never find out what he was doing with Maryann. Then Edna answers something about hotels that keep records of them checking in as a father and daughter. And then asks Maryann how old she was then, and she answers 16. I guess they had this kind of discussions thousands of times before. There probably was no need at all to mention hotels and girl's age. But of course I know it is only for us, viewers, to get us into the story. Anyway, still funny for me (because Tommy looks quite surprised when she mentiones hotels, like it was something new for him)
- it looks like on the plane the "cabin heat" switch in OFF, then Tommy changes it to ON. I guess it should be other way around
- question asked probably hundreds of times but: how did he get so fast to the plane crash place from the place he landed with parachute?? :P plus - he was also risking other people's life - plane could have hit somebody, or some house or something
- when Pangborn is writing something on his notebook it looks like he moves his pencil only in one place :)
- Mr Grindell (Scotti) takes Columbo's cigar and never gives it back to him
- Luke Baskin (Edna's brother) - does he speak normal accent? Since english is not my native language, I hardly can understand him
- Tommy says that "whenever he is in the plane, he takes a special seat for his guitar". But just after it he says that he didn't want to put guitar into plane because of special glue on guitar. And as Columbo says, Luke claimed that it was the first time he parted with his guitar. And for sure he was flying before. Does it make sense? Did I miss something?
- about the thermos Columbo says "metal inside the glass". Also here I think should be opposite
- about Korean War, they say "probably you were in M.P." and Columbo says K.P. What those shortcuts mean?
- and now the main question I wanted to ask (and that's why I created this topic but on the way there a lot of other things appeared :P): Tommy talks on the phone about canceling the project. Then Columbo comes back and Tommy asks: probably you overheard me on the phone? Columbo says "no, but I knew you canceled the project. However it's very helpful to know your reasoning". What reasoning?! he didn't say anything about reasoning on t he phone? I never get that. Can you clarify?
- the scene where seamstress opens her cupboard (or how is it called) is kind of strange. First of all is it in fast motion, and second of all, interior of cupboard looks funny, very bright :)
- if Columbo didn't know where the chute was hidden, how come did he know where to wait for Tommy to pick it up??
- Tommy says he feels revealed that it is over now. It certainly doesn't look like that for me
- this is definitely not one of my favourites, Johny Cash irritates me a quite a lot here. It is 90 minutes but for me feels like more than two hours

Edna's brother Luke has a southern U.S. accent. It's to show the country music roots of Tommy Brown. The other day I linked to a chef with a N'awlins accent (New Orleans). Try understanding that guy and Luke will be easy, lol.

Tommy's favorite guitar could be damaged if he takes it onto an unpressurized airplane at high altitude, but he normally takes the guitar because he usually doesn't fly at a high altitude. But for the trip that led to an accident, Tommy decided he WOULD fly high and therefore left his guitar behind with Luke. He broke his habit and Columbo always suspects people who change their routine on the day of a murder (i.e.: Harold Van Wick scribbling a number down for the security guard in Playback).

Tommy guessed that Columbo was MP (Military Police), being a cop in civilian life. Columbo joked "mostly KP". KP, or Kitchen Policing was an assignment peeling potatoes for hours, cleaning dishes, mopping, whatever the cook needed. KP was usually a punishment duty, i.e. your rifle was dirty so a few hours of KP will teach you to keep it clean.

I can't answer your main question about the reasoning for canceling the Tabernacle. Did Tommy say he needed the money for something else? I wish I could help.

Hi Pete, thanks for the answers you were able to make!
That explains some of my doubts, every day you learn something new :)
With the plane I had the same way of thinking but I was not sure

Maybe this is as much of a question as a comment, but it seems to me that instead of cancelling the tabernacle entirely, Tommy could have reduced its price in a big way by reducing the scale of it. Whether it got him suspected of murder by anyone other than Luke, just plain cancelling the project would've been bad publicity for him. And keeping it going in Edna's honor would've been just the opposite thing.