Zipline, thoughts

[RC0]

And thanks all, by the way !

[Wooden Hand]

There's less Danger in my setups Paul, because I know how to mitigate it. It takes experience.

 

This is not advice, but if you were wanting to experience danger.....strip out a 100 ft + conifer and dump the top onto a wide angles zip line. Only needs to be hand tight and locked off at the ground anchor.....rest assured the top will take care of the tensioning you speak of.

 

Is it vogue to make videos of speed lines like this? I don't watch those hyper produced pop videos, been always interested in technique over glorification. If it is so then what a regress...sheesh.

[Wooden Hand]

Everybody and their dog out here wants me to show them how to speed line, it gets under my skin because I

have no idea what they are asking. Why does the speed line have such mystique, certainly topping out at that height and diameter takes careful planning and a brave heart but for me has little technical interest. I can't call it because our skinny trees don't get much past 30M, still a sketchy scenario but I choose to train the guys to dynamic rig over free falling, for me the physics lay in our control that way.

As speed lines become interesting technically, heavy sections, multiple stages, objects to traverse past/under/around they get equally boring. Speediness bore me and on that note I shall make some slings up, give it a go and perhaps end up with my foot in mouth.

[Wooden Hand]

I meant speedlines bore me...damn auto correct

[atree]

How do you tension your zip lines..on the beach and in general?

[RC0]

Everybody and their dog out here wants me to show them how to speed line, it gets under my skin because I

have no idea what they are asking. Why does the speed line have such mystique, certainly topping out at that height and diameter takes careful planning and a brave heart but for me has little technical interest. I can't call it because our skinny trees don't get much past 30M, still a sketchy scenario but I choose to train the guys to dynamic rig over free falling, for me the physics lay in our control that way.

As speed lines become interesting technically, heavy sections, multiple stages, objects to traverse past/under/around they get equally boring. Speediness bore me and on that note I shall make some slings up, give it a go and perhaps end up with my foot in mouth.

 

It's the fastest, and most energy efficient way to rig a conifer, or similar single stemmed tree....hands down.

 

Watch the other vid I put out previous to this. The economy of effort and time is very apparent. Just me and one other guy. The tree had to be rigged because of stuff underneath, no way around it. So, to rig the limbs conventional style Darrell (groundworker) has to lower each limb to the bottom of the tree, lay it out somewhere, then cut it up, and then make a couple journeys at least dragging the branches to the burn-pile....or could easily be a chipper on a different site. It becomes a 5-10 minute turn around per limb, if he's works hard....less time as we get into the small stuff past 100 ft. Meanwhile I'm redundant for long periods, waiting. That set-up needs 2 groundworker to realistically keep me busy. It'd be tedious, and I'd probably price my self out of the job with such a wasteful and time consuming strategy.

 

The zipline is probably one limb per minute on average, once we're set up. Darren doesn't waste any time or energy because the limbs are delivered right to him, over the targets, facing the right way. Large and small, it doesn't matter. No need for a 3rd guy. No sawing, no dragging, simple hardware.

 

Why would you want to spend time going from A to B to C, when you can skip B altogether, effortlessly ? Is that too boring, Paul ?

 

The logic is so obvious. Mystique doesn't come into it.

 

What I tried to convey in the video, is that there are measures you can take to make the job safer by a margin or two.

 

You should get on to that. By the looks of the fauna out there I'd bet it's a technique thatd lend itself well. It's gonna happen anyway. In your shoes I'd rather be the pioneer than not.

 

Adam, we usually tension by hand. Occasionally a 2:1, but not often.

Edited October 9, 2015 by RC0

[Stephen Blair]

Good tip with the positioning of the sling, I just put it to where I feel it should go but that's worth remembering .

[Wooden Hand]

It's the fastest, and most energy efficient way to rig a conifer, or similar single stemmed tree....hands down.

 

Watch the other vid I put out previous to this. The economy of effort and time is very apparent. Just me and one other guy. The tree had to be rigged because of stuff underneath, no way around it. So, to rig the limbs conventional style Darrell (groundworker) has to lower each limb to the bottom of the tree, lay it out somewhere, then cut it up, and then make a couple journeys at least dragging the branches to the burn-pile....or could easily be a chipper on a different site. It becomes a 5-10 minute turn around per limb, if he's works hard....less time as we get into the small stuff past 100 ft. Meanwhile I'm redundant for long periods, waiting. That set-up needs 2 groundworker to realistically keep me busy. It'd be tedious, and I'd probably price my self out of the job with such a wasteful and time consuming strategy.

 

The zipline is probably one limb per minute on average, once we're set up. Darren doesn't waste any time or energy because the limbs are delivered right to him, over the targets, facing the right way. Large and small, it doesn't matter. No need for a 3rd guy. No sawing, no dragging, simple hardware.

 

Why would you want to spend time going from A to B to C, when you can skip B altogether, effortlessly ? Is that too boring, Paul ?

 

The logic is so obvious. Mystique doesn't come into it.

 

What I tried to convey in the video, is that there are measures you can take to make the job safer by a margin or two.

 

You should get on to that. By the looks of the fauna out there I'd bet it's a technique thatd lend itself well. It's gonna happen anyway. In your shoes I'd rather be the pioneer than not.

 

Adam, we usually tension by hand. Occasionally a 2:1, but not often.

 

Well, yes and no. Out here I learnt a lot about pre-rigging, perhaps it is the smaller tree, I'm not sure, but in many situations we can drop a few branches here and there into the structure and fell it or pick it out whole, nobody is sitting around waiting for another, just a different way, location specific, of getting it done.

[RC0]

Well, yes and no. Out here I learnt a lot about pre-rigging, perhaps it is the smaller tree, I'm not sure, but in many situations we can drop a few branches here and there into the structure and fell it or pick it out whole, nobody is sitting around waiting for another, just a different way, location specific, of getting it done.

 

Smaller tree ? doesnt matter, its the same principal. Ive watched some of your videos in

past. Its mostly typical of tree work anywhere. Trees, targets below, and resources to deal with them.

 

Heres a small tree. but it still had to be rigged. I couldve dumped it all at the bottom of the tree of course, and dragged it through the gate. But why ? We were there about 2 hours from memory. Me and another guy. A different style of slinging though.

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/video-forum/73586-zipline-swinging-limbs.html

 

You're still young Paul. Dont get set in your ways out there.

[gibbon]

Hey reg/Tim hope your both well. Sorry but can't see reg's vid cos wifi is too slow here. I always felt that letting branches run was the fastest and easiest for little pieces and doesn't tie up grounds men. Dumping branches on to a taught line and letting it run a little combined with control line works good for medium chuncks. For big limbs dropping it all in to a slack system with a control line and add tension after worked for me. I think the vid Tim posted had a bit of everything. If your pushing it I always used to prefer a smaller rope in the hope that the rope was the weakest part of the system over the tree I was tied too.

 

Mat

Edited October 9, 2015 by gibbon