benedmonds

I've put flying on hold for the next few years/decades, till the little uns are bigger. It is not a hobby you can go do for a week or two a year. IMO... I guess you could if you got your tickets and went abroad, but even then there's no guarantee. I once spent ten days in Austrailia at one of the best most reliable sites in the world and only got a couple of crappy flights in! A couple of mates did manage to fly 100Km but they were pretty good. They have HG flight parks in Florida where you get towed up which is a pretty reliable way of geting into the air and the weather is normally OK, but to me the running off a mountain is half of it!

Before being self employed and having children hang gliding and paragliding was what I lived for.. I have two wings ( one of each) sitting round slowly deteriotating. There is nothing like it in the world, the feeling of climbing wing tip to wing tip with a buzzard or red kite as you thermal up is unbeatable. The little beeb, beeb sound of a vario as you go up still fills me with excitment.. The memory of not being able to get down in rough conditions is still the scariest thing I've endured.. HG's are faster and as you lie prone you feel like superman, when conditions get bad you can just pull in the bar a fly fast. They are bit and not much fun to carry up a hill, so generally restricted to sites with roads. Towing up to height is however viable from trucks, winches, boats, or micro lights. This opens up flying in different wind directions and conditions etc.. PG's are slower and you fly in a sitting position, as you can't go as fast as a HG they have a smaller wind window and will get blown out before the HG's. The wing can also colapse in rough conditions which is not great if close to the ground. You can carry them to the top of a hill and in a car and plane however. I would say PG's are slightly easier to lean to fly and a bit cheaper. 7 to 10 days good weather should get you the pilot rating. Go to the BHGPA. As to the dangers, both HG and PG have potential. Both will fly on their own but you would hurt lots on either if you were to try to land like without imput. PG pilots get more spinal injuries as you can land on your bum, HG pilots face and arms are more common as you have a control frame to hit. The biggest issue is however it becomes all consuming. You sit on the top of hills waiting for the wind to, change direction, drop, pick up, etc, etc.. If you bomb out and your mates fly off, you hate them. If the weather looks good you have to go fly as you can't miss a chance. Weekends with nice sunny days can be spoilt as too windy, or not windy enough and you just sit around on a hill. If you've got the time do it... But go learn somewhere sunny. I learnt HG while in Florida and PG in New Zealand. Green Dragons do trips to spain I think.

Happy New Year... Saws nicked: 3 x MS200's ms 660 ms 440 ms 240 039 Hedge trimmers: HS 85 HL 75 Robin HT491WV I'll post some serial numbers. The bstards didn't get the 084 I picked up last week so if you knicked it and want to come back I'll leave it out.. If some one comes offering you a load of used saws let me know...

I do reports for my local housing association. They call me up to go and look at a tree and I charge £25 for advice, recomendations and a work priority. If it needs work I give a quote which they then except or don't. It worked well, I could recomend proper works and plan the job. Unfortunatley the manager changed now I get "can you go here and reduce the tree 50%" They can however bring in alot of work so don't get huffy over a wasted trip.

I have attached a link to where the documentation is on our website to register as a waste carrier/broker of waste for you. I have sent your request to register the paragraph 21 exemption to the simple exemptions team. I have also attached a link to the legislation regarding this exemption. A simple exemption once registered is registered for life, you will receive a document to confirm this has been registered for you. You should ensure that you are working within the guidelines in the legislation for the exemption. If you change the working practice at any time you should contact us to make us aware of any changes to the working process. You should also advise us of any change to the address that the activity is carried out at. http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/sectors/wastecarriers.aspx http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/permitting/34813.aspx Your business would benefit being informed of new legislation as it is announced, we offer this service on Netregs our sister website, sign up on the link below: http://www.netregs.gov.uk/ Many Thanks Paul Carnall Agricultural Waste Team National Customer Contact Centre ( 08708 506 506 * [email protected]

I don't want to start the whole debate again, I just searched though the old links and it's done my head in.... Can anyone give me a link as to where I can download the application forms. I've searched here and the EA's web site, I can't find them and got borred looking..! I need a chip storage exception form too.. Cheers Sorry Skyhuck, we carry root balls and waste sometimes.....

First off I'm not posting this to brag.. We've been ticking over Ok for the last 6 months, not overworked and we've not been giving our subbies as much as we were at the start of the year. If it wasn't for a few big jobs we'd have been struggling in the summer. We have been slowly expanding from a 3 man team and have two transits which we have been working together for the last year. We're getting our dead chipper fixed so will potentially have the ability to run two teams and so get through work much quicker. Work has been steady up till last week when I got a number of big jobs accepted. In the current economic climate would people just book in work into the next couple of months and therefore risk losing jobs that won't wait 8 weeks, or should I bring in the subbies and get the work done quicker? I don't normally like having more than months work booked in and am happier at 2-3 weeks, I hate it when people say "how long?" I know its a good position to be in. I am thinking of just plodding through it which has not been my business stratergy up till now.... If your one of our subbies your views might be biased:001_tongue:

My local council just emailed it to me.. Shame it wasn't a couple of months back after I went to great effort to do my own!

My favorite was the ten minute rant over the phone complaing about sawdust on the car and how rude the worker had been. "I don't want him to get the sack, but" I didn't tell him that it had been me he'd been abusing even though I'd remained polite on both occasions. "I'll come and have a look at your car sir and give him a stern telling off..... *****!"

We've found with our tractor a bucket for chip and a set of tines for lifting logs and brash is fine. We've a heavy duty grab that we've used once, been sat in the yard for the last year. If you get the tines under the logs and tip it back you don't need to grab them, same with brash. It could be that the ex farmer who operates the tractor is quite skilled in the opperation, but never bothered with a grab. Worth having a quich change mechanism.

It' great being the boss, you just rake it in....

I don't think the council in question have their own arboriculturist. I also think it was the developer that was fined not a contractor. To that developer the fine is peanuts. It is interesting to note that the fines in these cases are not split 50:50 to the land owner and contractor and that it's the developer who gets hit with the biggest part of the fine. Not a reason to do unsanctioned works on protected trees, but it is reasuring to note that the tree firm doing works is unlikely to get stung for the sort of money that the developer will. I've had my rights read a couple of times, once felling small stuff in a conservation area and once when a TPO had been put on over the weekend. Also been threatened with court over taking down a dangerous tree, they aint very friendly. It is worrying but makes me feel better knowing that my side of the fine is more likely to be around the £1-2K mark then the £10-20K.

I aim for £450-£550, for general stuff with a 3 man team, but more if there is lots of waste or it is difficult work. Often find multiple small jobs can earn you much, much more per day that big orrible take downs.

You would struggle to make any money round me at the pay rates some of you guys are suggesting. To win council work round here you can charge 350-500 a day for a 3 man team. Two climbers at £150 and a groundy at £100, doesn't leave much to pay for everything else. Subbies might be able to demand higher rates but employees get training, holiday and sick pay and paid when there's no work so are going to be paid alot less. My fulltime groundy is on £55 a day basic if we are doing well he'll get a cash bonus. We have a subbie groundie who is as good as any you could find £60 a day. Subbie climbers £100 or £120 a day. As to paying groundies the same as climbers, don't talk daft.... It takes years of experience and training to climb well, you can get a pretty decent groundy trained in a couple of weeks. We also sometimes get groundies for free for up to 4 days a week for 12weeks (in theory)! Some unemployment thing, not the most reliable but can help dragging. We've had 5 now. first lasted a couple of days, second is still with us 2 years, third also only lasted days, 4th a couple of weeks with some sick in the middle as he hurt his wrist and the current a few days so far but he's also missed a few..?

I thought if any one could work that out it would be you.. How many m3 do you get in one of your arctics? They were 27-30 tons can't you work it out from that?

Buxtons

If you are getting a 441, get the heated grips, I was getting tingling fingers from our old 044 and 046, since getting the 441 with heated handles I've not had a problem.

My sister in law is visiting with her baby which doesn't sleep, but crys lots.. One of my 3 kids generally wakes at some time but this child is a banshee. Been wearing green peltors, but have to sleep on your back!

any organism that lives on dead organic matter

My Petzl got run over by a tractor last week, got a Stein, I prefer it to the petzl. I'm not convinced by the visor but giving it a go and it seems pretty good, just see how long it lasts. The peltor ear defendors are not as good as snapping in place as the sordins on my petzl but I'll live with that. Everyone will also take the mik if you have a visor... Get the Stein IMO

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Not mine but we have this when we need. We've got a log grab for the loader, but it's so heavy we never use it, so if anyone wants one..

I took 2 of mine and 4 of thier cousins last week. Under 2 is a bit young for much of the stuff, but still worth a visit. They do get bored of you checking out the name plates on all the trees... http://www.kew.org/education/cc.html

They look like the Armillaria I saw on a lime earlier in the year. http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3884