Aerial Recue Drills

[TIMON]

Just wondering...., do any of you guys out there practice aerial rescues on a regular basis?

Have any of you had to perform this in a "live" scenario and what advice would you give to others who haven't.

Thanks in advance.

Timon

[Joe Newton]

Just wondering...., do any of you guys out there practice aerial rescues on a regular basis?

Have any of you had to perform this in a "live" scenario and what advice would you give to others who haven't.

Thanks in advance.

Timon

 

 

Hi Timon, I've just given one of our lads a very brief run through on it this afternoon, prior to his cs38 next week. I heard from one lad that they wouldn't let them use a hitchclimber in their training!?

 

It's something that I'd love to make the time to practice, but it always takes a back seat to work. Sometime soon I'll meet up with a couple of guys on a Saturday to practice in our own time.

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

Hi Timon,

 

The 'AA Guide to Good Climbing Practice,' as "industry good practice," recommends, in effect, that aerial rescue should be practised every 3 months. This recognises that it's, hopefully, a skill that's not undertaken too frequently and hence revisiting and practising it is a very good idea (and, of course, it helps to demonstrate the employers duties under W@H Regs.)

 

Hence we do look for evidence of this, e.g. a record / note in manager's diary, as part of the ARB Approved Contractor assessment process...and we chat with the guys on site about it.

 

Hope this helps and be interesting to hear what others think / do.

 

Cheers

Paul

[Steve Bullman]

Paul, is this for everyone? Personally I don't see the need for someone who is climbing daily to practise aerial rescue that regularly, it's pretty straight forward stuff with often the hardest but getting up to the casualty is an acceptable timeframe. For ground staff who have an aerial rescue ticket but not much experience actually climbing, that's a different matter

[Joe Newton]

Paul, is this for everyone? Personally I don't see the need for someone who is climbing daily to practise aerial rescue that regularly, it's pretty straight forward stuff with often the hardest but getting up to the casualty is an acceptable timeframe. For ground staff who have an aerial rescue ticket but not much experience actually climbing, that's a different matter

 

 

If your only rescue option is a groundy with no real climbing experience, just a ticket, you're stuffed anyway!

 

If the casualty is still on a working climbing system then like you say it's fairly straightforward for a competent climber. It's when you have to safely transfer a person onto your system and deal with the resulting changes in loading on your hitch etc that it becomes more complex.

 

Last time I tried it my hitch bound up, causing problems that in a serious situation could have been disastrous. I've since examined why this happened (a "seminar" at the cutters&climbers was very helpful) and am altogether more confident.

[Slothlike]

We have started to include this in normal site inspections. A normal audit will be being undertaken when a supervisor will casually inform the ground crew that the climber has been injured and needs rescue. While their still processing that he'll pull out a stopwatch and tell the climber to play dead or injured.

 

All very positive so far with some really great teamwork and rescues.

[RichieR]

Just wondering...., do any of you guys out there practice aerial rescues on a regular basis?

Have any of you had to perform this in a "live" scenario and what advice would you give to others who haven't.

Thanks in advance.

Timon

 

Good thread Ti . When I done my 38 they said the as a climber we should install a second rope in an area of a tree where the rescuer can easily reach the injured climber in case of an accident. How many actually ever take a second rescue line up ?

[Steve Bullman]

never personally

[RichieR]

never personally

 

That's what I think most of us will say Steve. I can see the point of it to speed up the rescue but in reality we don't

[johnanderton]

Ground staff & out of collage guys should defiantly practice there climbing & rescues a lot of staff I've come across ( with tickets ) are very slow ,