Falling flat logs from height

[Arborymasters]

Conventional vs Humboldt?

How to accurately judge rotation?

Seems a hot debate. Guilty of treeson did a good vid describing what's in Gerald's book. But I have a large spar the customer wants to save for milling but it's right next to some structures and other important obstacles.

I want to fall the logs flat, for obvious reasons. And it has a back lean, so I will have to wedge it over. Thickness at 60ft is 36inches. Dbh is maybe 48. Relatively uniform width. Large wood but it's cedar, so light.

Thoughts?

 

[cookies]

Fall it safely, wants come in second place. Cedar loves to throw branches like spears into the air in all directions when it hits the ground, be safe.

 

[northmanlogging]

Conventional vs Humboldt?

How to accurately judge rotation?

Seems a hot debate. Guilty of treeson did a good vid describing what's in Gerald's book. But I have a large spar the customer wants to save for milling but it's right next to some structures and other important obstacles.

I want to fall the logs flat, for obvious reasons. And it has a back lean, so I will have to wedge it over. Thickness at 60ft is 36inches. Dbh is maybe 48. Relatively uniform width. Large wood but it's cedar, so light.

Thoughts?

guilty of treeson? Not to talk smack, but them doodes are nearly green, so take anything they have to say with a grain of salt.
As for falling the tops flat, I hear 1/3 of height is the rule of thumb, but I've never cared about such things.
Cedar only losing 12" in 60' might be a miracle
For better advice on topping trees etc, you might want to pop into the arborist 101 thread, them guys do this sort of thing on the regular.

 

[Sierra_rider]

I'll admit that I'm a bit hap-hazard at getting my logs to land flat, but I usually have pretty good success. I had something similar to what you describe, except it was redwood we were trying to save out. IIRC, I did humboldts about 2/3 the diameter of the spar with a pull line(hand power only) attached. The pull line seemed to help transfer the energy forward rather than rotating...redwood is fairly brittle and I think the top log was the only one that broke.

I'm not a guy that does it full time, merely an educated idiot that does it part time, I offer my advice with a grain of salt. I do gotta agree that safety and no damage is going to come first, if you can accomplish that, then of course try to save the logs.