cool video. Speedlines are fun havn't done one in a while now I'm itching for some speed lining.... Mike
I'll tell you a dirty little secret about speedlining Mike, be very carefull about speedlining big wood like I did on that very job.
The brush sedately making it's way down 150 feet between those two condos is all very cool and relatively controlled. But about the time you speedline fair sized wood those distances at that steep an angle, things happen alot quicker and considerably faster. That kinda weight on a taught bull line of that length likes to waddle from side to side bigtime.
Even with a landing zone as wide as I had(25ft), keeping that size wood within that parameter required the man on the winch to keep winching to avoid each condo despite his instinct to slacken the winch line and get the wood on the ground and slowed down.
I damn near killed the owner of the company I was subbing to, and my best friend, when the last, biggest piece of wood required him to stay on the winch control too long, and the 600 pound euc log came within inches of him before the steel carabiner hit the steel hook of my winch line, giving him an up close view of a big log reaching for you, and only steel on steel stopping death in front of your very eyes.
He stayed on the control the whole time, looking death in the eye, rather than let that euc log hit either one of those condos, friggin nerves of steel, that's why he's one of my best friends. Though I came too close for comfort at getting him splatted.
The moral of the story is to keep your speedline termination point atleast 15-20 feet behind your winch, don't let that point get close to you or your truck.
Speedlining has very real dangers that demand careful planning and attention.
Haul back lines and such take time, but add a great deal of dynamic force control.
I hope to do more vids on speedlining, and have even developed a new saddle tool component to make it more efficient and faster. I'll be posting vids of it soon I hope.
Work safe guys.
jomoco
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