Not meant as an insult to you, but other readers might appreciate my 2cents--Since you're on a residential lot, precise felling can be critical. Take your time, building a well-formed notch, which means (a)one (b)clean (c)straight felling edge, at the intersection of two clean flat planes, e.g. the top and bottom cuts. As if that weren't enough, it has to be carefully aimed for the fall. Only a hot dog will try to brag about how easy that complex geometric task is to do. Getting the two straight cutting planes (the top and bottom cuts) of the notch to exactly intersect in one straight line, which is aimed the right point, while cutting thru a cylinder, let alone an irregular one with spiraling buttress humps etc., on stump on uneven and tilted ground, is not as easy as many might think it to be.
On large trees with critical aiming, I've even used a carpenter's T-square to check the "aim" the notch edge. Absent windage and an uneven hinge, the tree will fall within 1-5° of a good, straight, single edge, notch, which has not been undermined with Dutchman cuts. It's also my belief that if center of gravity of the tree is eccentric to the line of the fall, it will *not affect the aiming of a well made notch and hinge. The notch *will control the fall, and the momentum of the fall will already be aimed by the hinge, before the so-called COG can even start to spin the tree.
On a large tree, with buttresses etc., it might take a good hour to two even to form a straight one-edge notch, at the correct depth etc, for control on a residential fall. After getting most of the notch wood out of the way, it might work to "shape" the notch inward in small steps to get a single clean edge, aimed just right.
If you overcut the inside edge with either the top or bottom cuts, you have a dutchman potential, which can barberchair (a young arborist was *decapitated a few years ago (rescue crews put his body in one body bag, and his head in another!) from a hasty notch and barberchain, working for a developer here in Northern Virginia ), and you won't know where the tree will fall. Your 440 will handle plunge cuts nicely, which can reduce the barbechair potential, but that won't reduce the barberchair risk from an overcut in the notch.
If you don't want the tree to "jump" off the stump, open the notch face up all the way (make it 90°+ viewed from the side). Otherwise the notch will close at some point during the fall, and will lift the trunk and pull the hinge wood all the way out. If you can keep the trunk "on the hinge," as it were, then you can push 6-10" logs under the raised trunk, then you can cut the hinge wood and "drop" the log off the stump an onto the ground logs. If the tree snaps the hinge, then it's kind of hard to predict where the trunk will land. The limbs that hit the ground first can cause the trunk to roll or bounce in the opposite direction. But some times the branch "first to hit" will just snap, so it can be hard to predict what the bounce will be, if the hingewood has been broken.
I also use a 12000# hydraulic winch, with a dynamic pull (a nylon strop with say 100# of chains) for residential drops (MileMarker brand--same as on the military Humvies). It's the weight of the chains that makes the winch line do its thing (from the top, accelerates the tree in the right direction). But, I can put a few tons of pull, at 30° off the line of the notch, and the tree will fall, *precisely on the line of the notch, and for purposes of aiming, will ignore the pull of the winch. (But the acceleration is fantastic, for snapping limbs, and getting the trunk down on the ground--so that it can be limbed *safely.) A hydraulilc winch is also handy if you need to drag the trunk, or a large branch, out of way, or to roll a large tree over, and raise it up onto some ground logs, after after partially limbing a side.
Take great care with them limbing operations --- especially on large trees, limbing is more dangerous than felling, all day long.
