It's hard to know what the poster's level of knowledge and skill are on sites like these. You could have 5 low level skilled posters all saying the same thing and you would think they probably know what they are talking about. Unless you know better. And the reputation feature is more about popularity in your clique than any representation of real world knowledge.
So here is some of my background and experience.
Been a self employes professional arborist since 1981. I now pay the mortgage on over 1 million dollars worth of real estate.
Have written two lead articles in TCIA magazine, July '04 on the tapered hinge and June '06, the fundamentals and fine points of footlocking. Tom Dunlap said of the latter article that it was the most complete and informative article on the subjest that had ever been published in writing or video at the time. I made the cover photo in both issues.
I was invited to speak by the ISA at their International Tree Symposium in 2004.
I AM a hands on arborist. Most weeks I work 5 or more days in the field. I have run crews that have put $11k in trees on the ground in one day with the crane. I regularly produce $75-100/man/hour even in this economy. I have rigged and or dropped many trees that other companies were going to use a crane on.
My mentor, Jon Grier, was the top take down man for the most reputable tree service in the philly suburbs. He did monster removals everyday for years. He learned a lot from his co-worker Jim Roach, a 7 time winner of the penn-del isa tcc. I can't put into words the level these guys are climbing at. You'd have to see it to understand.
I own all my equipment. Its paid for. Have over 500 hours personally running the Rayco super rg-50. I worked hugo in '89 and Isabel in 2004, and Charlie, Jean and Francis in 2005.
I won the aerial rescue at the isa Penn-del chapter wetern division TCC in 2006. That was only the second time I had ever done a rescue. I also timed 78 seconds in the footlock that year. That is cerainly not fast, but at least I can footlock.
I have a lot of knowledge and experience and I AM willing to share it when it recieves the respect it is due. So what are you all here for? (Yes, genated my delivery sucked.. I was in a pssy mood that day.) Are you here to learn or not?
Seems like many here would prefer to make fun of my hair (granted that was funny) than learn something. So who are you going to listen to.. the guy that doesn't own a porta-wrap or me?
So I'll amswer GGs question:
You took too many wraps on those pieces. The first shot of climber shows him unecessarily one-handing the saw (which he does throughout the video) above his head. That is a dangerous practice, especially for an inexperienced climber. There is a reason why ANSI rules against that. In the second shot, the climber is improperly positioned relative to the cut, either from fear, laziness or possibly from not having his TIP point high enough.
Then in that same shot you are standing too far away from the porty, with too many wraps. There was slack between you and the porty as you walked up to take the wraps off You edited out taking the wraps off. So it took you at least 20 seconds to get that piece to drop from the time it was cut, maybe more. That is a waste of time. It adds up if you do that 30-60 times a day. Not only is it a waste of time. You have no control to let the piece run, which can cause them hanging up on the stubs (which shouldn't have been left there in the first place). The video shows a close up of the porty with 3 wraps on it. There was no piece on that video that needed more than 1 wrap.
Also when you just automatically just take three wraps you don;t get a good feel for letting a piece run, which you may have to do in a very controlled way in critical situations. So it is good to practice in non critical situations.
It would have also been better to have the porty on ground level, though you may have had your reasons for working from the roof. Perhaps the rope was not long enough. You could have laced the lowering line around the house with a little care, which would have put two extra hnads on the ground where they were needed.
What's wrong with taking a piece in two (or three!) when it could be easily and safely taken in 1, is again time. All those mistakes add up... at the end of the day, you could have saved 2-3 hours.
Those are the answers to your questions. I made notes of 15 mistakes made in that video. Many of them multiple times. So does anybody want to learn from this video? Yes or no... either post or rep to speak your truth.
