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Arborists Hand Signals By the AWG


jaime bray
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Pete,

 

i shall make note and report back to the group. Some do feel counter intuitive, but was trying to tie into as many scenarios as possible.

 

Do you do much crane work?

 

Is the arms out a standard sign for crane work. my memory of the task research eludes me.

 

I have done a little crane work & I don't think it is a crane signal.

 

I'm glad you are willing to discuss the signals. I am by no means saying I am right, I am just interested in developing such things.

 

Thanks,

 

Pete

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Any job now requiring concise communication is now done on two-ways, and any hand signals are pretty much as Pete describes. When in the highway scenario, the controlling groundie will ensure positive signals with both hands for either a definitive "Stop" or thumbs up for "Go" as in the past we have found that one hand maybe less visible, or even concealed from view behind foliage. For health reasons, I'm out of action on most of these jobs for the time being, but when I'm back in the thick of things I'll certainly use some of them where applicable.

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One of the most important things with hand signals I find as a climber is that you should only communicate with 1 person on the floor. As a freelancer I work with quite a few differant people and they all have simalar hand signals but you need to trust each other.

I will make it clear what I'm gonna do, wether it be knocking a bit out or where I'm gonna cut a lowered section so to give an idea of size and until I gett a thumbs up will not do anything, I will always only do this with 1 person that I trust and they trust me. Once your given thumbs up you have to trust that every thing is cool to cut, it's when you have to many people on the floor telling you differant things when things can go wrong if you pay attention to them all.

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We have some funny signals the boys on the ground send to the climbers. Forearm raised vertically and other hand 'chopping' in halfway on the forearm means 'stop fluffing about and send the whole top, you have heaps of room ya nancy'. - used when doing removals.:001_tt2:

 

Same signal but with hand 'chopping' in at the base of the forearm/elbow means 'room to fell it whole now, stop chogging the stem its taking too long'. :biggrin:

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We have some funny signals the boys on the ground send to the climbers. Forearm raised vertically and other hand 'chopping' in halfway on the forearm means 'stop fluffing about and send the whole top, you have heaps of room ya nancy'. - used when doing removals.:001_tt2:

 

Same signal but with hand 'chopping' in at the base of the forearm/elbow means 'room to fell it whole now, stop chogging the stem its taking too long'. :biggrin:

 

:thumbup:

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Interesting topic! AA signals seem counter-intuitive. especially one hand up for stop. This ofr us usually means either OK or 'akcnowledged, I'll go and do that asap'. For me the most important one os for switching off saw. With a saw off communication is always then easier.

On a windy day or when high up sometimes shouting isn't enough. I usually supplement what I am saying about a cut by indicating with forearm (with elbow against back of teh other hand) what is to happen with branch to be cut eg. fold up, fold down, hinge and swing left etc.

And a sweep of the arm indicates the need to clear an area better than tapping a helmet.

So, I suppose we all have our own systems. As long as they are pre-agreed on site and are unambiguous and easily remembered it doesn't much matter what they are.

I would add though that for traffic management something that can be seen from 200m away when the signaller is little more than a silhouette has to be needed. Whole arms then become essential.

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Did a slinger signaler course some years back for crane work (may have moved on from back then), but were shown a bunch of generically recognized hand signals that are form memory much the same as those in that doc.

I also recall the fella instructing us saying that as long as everyone around is familiar with certain signs for specific opp's then all is ok. So I guess common sense prevails in most situations and good team communication is key.

Good idea to have such an info sheet put together though for the basics. Rules made to be bent.

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Any job now requiring concise communication is now done on two-ways, and any hand signals are pretty much as Pete describes. When in the highway scenario, the controlling groundie will ensure positive signals with both hands for either a definitive "Stop" or thumbs up for "Go" as in the past we have found that one hand maybe less visible, or even concealed from view behind foliage. For health reasons, I'm out of action on most of these jobs for the time being, but when I'm back in the thick of things I'll certainly use some of them where applicable.

 

Thanks for your feedback, Re. the one handed signals, the siganals were trialled on a few large tree jobs in busy urban areas where shouting was deemed unorofessional and the noise factor meant that the you couldnt hear the other person regardless.

 

With the larger trees, feedback from climbers was that although you can see one hand up, a thumb or hand up was still awkward to completely see. Two arms out is quite distinctive and could not be confused with anything else.

 

thanks jaime

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