kipperfeet

i thought about getting a dummy to Jo, but then i realised i seem to end up assessing quite a few and there is always one on each course:biggrin:

Not so bad in a college scenario for the training but the short courses may struggle to fit it all in a week, especially if the guys and girls are a bit slower on getting to grips with the height side of things! A nice easy ident test in as well. At least a minimum standard of ident is better than none. I guess the assessor didn't run throught the questions with you then John, if you passed without knowing?

Depends when they were registered bob? If they were registersd before Jan 1st then it can be either, but if they are registered after Jan 1st then the new schedules are in play. This applies to all the units, i assessed some 30 31 on the new schedules and there a bit disjointed to be honest, takes a bit of working around the guidance notes but not to difficult to adjust, Just the 38 that will be interesting. 39 might be a bit tricky in the longrun as you need trees that the stem can be taken down too. I have good sites for all at the minute but when they run short, it may get tricky doing a few assessments using the same tree. Still, keeps it interesting! Never used spikes during training, blimey, thats not very good john.

I would have thought that the amount of movement in a carabiner, and the constant abuse they get, the graphite is gone within a few hours anyway. In my experience of inspecting them, most krabs usually free up after a good clean and wd40 and then when dry, put a small amount of graphite down to keep the action smooth. Within an hour of climbing in the rain, it will be gone and the barrel clean enought to work normally again.

Any Assessors out there assessed on the new 38 schedule yet? I have four to do at the end of the week. How did you get on with the pole rescue section and did it take much longer than the old schedule to do? I have a sneaky suspicion that the spiking maytake some time with the limited experience some candidates seem to have on spikes. I am still a little concerned about nervouse candidates spiking there partner in the face when climbing around them. We used to make all trainees do a spike rescue as part of the course anyway but sometimes it was a bit sketchy!

Hey Tom2020, just picked up on this one, are you at Croxteth campus or Preston Campus?

Relax and enjoy Crimbo. It will be to the new schedule so go on to NPTC | Home go to schedules and click cs 30/31 and make sure it is dated 09 and not 06! Dennis is doing the course and he is very good at getting the best of short course people. Good site and only four on the course so plenty of time to hone the skills. First day is maintanance and the 4 days in the woods. Just need ppe and a saw and files really. the other stuff, felling levers, timber tongs and tape etc he has. Also get a whistle and large wound dressing. Tis up at Dunsop bridge on a clear fell site so hopefully it will be 6ft in snow to keep you on your toes:thumbup: Have a bit of a browse of the schedules but don't worry to much, Dennis covers all. He likes biccies to! enjoy.

"Extract wood products using small motorised equipment" Does that mean radio controlled cars and helicoptors? How cool would that be! Had a read through it and it is a fairly comprehensive suit of units. I didn't realise there were so many.

The guy was wearing one of my original treetop climbing smocks as well by the looks of it! Wehay. Only 30 of those in existance and its still going strong!

You making students do improper things again Drew? Boy are you going to have fun this year!

Yep Forestry spec with armour and all that stuff. I think he as already found a replacement when the insurance comes through so if it turns up it's a bonus but if not, then he will just have to get a new one. Just more of a worry that the yard has been scouted out!

Nope, a mate from down the road Drew. He also has a small arsenal of machinery in the yard so gonna be even more vigilant from now on. Might get a few crocodiles roamin round! No - nothing is safe!

A very good friend of mine has had a Valtra A95 silver tractor stolen from his yard Near to Preston Lancashire. Used to tow the timber trailer and fitted with a winch. Any info on cheap Valtra's you may get notice please ring Denis on 07976826392 D R tree surgeons. cheers

yeh just kidding about the adding on to the price, imagine the customers face when you tell them, "i'll have to put a 2p an hour sur charge on for my boots, actually, if you had called me a month ago it would have only been 1p an hour but thats the Euro for ya!" Then theres the 20p an hour for the fancy trousers i'm wearing, and the time spent stitching them back together cause they are rubbish. I do agree that some products are very badly stitched and fall to bits very quickly. £120 for a pair of trousers to get three weeks out of is a digrace. Hi-flex trousers. Will not buy them again, thats for sure.

£235 for boots that are comfortable when wearing them 5 days a week for 48 weeks of the year, i got just over 12 months out of my haix and my meindles i got nearly 18 months and they were £185. that means the haix cost 98p per day, or 12p per hour. Meindle cost 51p per day or 6p per hour. That seems pretty good value to me for comfortable dry feet at work. My feet are one thing i don't want to be thinking about work, there to much else to think about than worrying about the fact my boots are costing me 12 an hour. Just tie it in to prices.

Try a.b. treplie (can't remember how you spell it) as well, based near to Oslo. I worked there for a while years ago and the work was good. Just been taken over as the old boss has sold up and they are looking for climbers as i know. Lad i know is out there at the mo, but moving to N.Z. in afew months. Expensive place to live if you like a beer though - over £10 a beer in the centre and that was 8 or so years ago so you may need to take up drinking snow melt water!

Forgot to mention in the last post, as i was boring myself to sleep - LOLER regs are a subsection of the PUWER regs and have been IN FORCE since 1998. THAT IS 11 YEARS!!! Work at height regs came in to force in 2005. Might be worth having a read of that to. Doesn't say much really, just that you must be able to justify what you are doing and have risk assessed it in a nut shell. enjoy.

Reading this, i just wondered how many have actually read the AIS and INDG publications that help us understand all these legal requirements for running a proffessional industry. Lifting operations and lifting equipment regs is a sub section of provision and use of work equipment regs and came out in 1992. That is 17 years ago! I agree that if you read to much in to and let it stress you, it does seem like you would spend all your time doing paper work and none doing tree work or earning a living. Actually, it is fairly basic when you get your head around it to put it in to place. Once that is done then simple things like risk assessments (under MHSWA) take seconds and loler checks by a competent person on high level of wear items (friction hitch chord) takes five minutes at the end of the week to document. I could tell you what to look for and what kind of rope you are using and how it works and designate you to be the competent person, and then it is your resposibility to check it and document it weekly, keep the records and use them as proof if need be. (so long as the person is confident that they know the difference between 9mm chord designed for high friction use and washing line!) It just stops that tatty bit of rope that has been used for climbing for two years, then towed the van out of field, then lowered lumps of wood off and then climbed on again failing with your life on it. Yes, there is quite a bit if you tot it up to worry about, but once its done, it is just ticking boxes. (i don't profess to know it all by the way) I have tons of information on the area of legislation and to be honest, not all is black and white but most is and there is a lot of info out there. If i had two days spare i would write an article on it but i havn't got two spare days. Thankfully, loads of other people already have! In my opinion, getting this simple stuff in place is the difference between a proffesional tree gang and pikeys. What the pikeys dont care about is that one day they will get killed doing dangerous things for £50. Bugger that for £50. Simple guides to LOLER and PUWER regs are on the aie website and at all the trade fairs on the hse stands and take two minutes to read. Just my opinion:bored:

Oouuuhh, sound like an interesting job! You been watching axe men Alex?

Echo 351wes. Great little saws and you can get them with dime tip bars. so light and powerfull for carving and the easiest saw to start i have ever had. cheap too. I got mine direct from countax for less than £200 with the carving bar. bought it just for carving when i was flusher than now but just can't seem to find the time to carve at the minute.

I'll be there anyway, doing the rounds and sipping gin and tonic and rehydrating with beer. been out in Cirencester the last few shows and is good for a giggle. see you all there.

Sounds like a great day, if Ted Greene is doing then it will be good. He was up at our College giving a talk to the students last week and still on form. Seen him talk on quite a few occassions now and spent a bit of time in the bar with him at the woodland trust conference last year. Good value and the passion he has is unrelentless. In his own territory he should have some very interesting things to show you, shame i didn't hear about this one of i would have made the trip south. Where was it advertised?

I thought i read somewhere that it was at Sparsholt too. May be it should travel each year around the country. Let some of you Southern softies get a taste of real rain! Not tthat it would bother me because i will watch with an umbrella and a cup of tea.

Glad to see others are as keen on raising for the service, can't remember the exact cost of putting one in the air per hour but it's more than my hourly rate i'll tell you that! We do a bit if we can and any training sites we do from now on, we will ask for a small donation for the work we do and save it up for the Lancashire Air service and pass it on at the end of the year. Getting back to the emergency procedure thing, a lad i know, his climber cut his finger off a while ago now on a site (caught under a lowering rope in a crotch). Called an amubulance, then realised he didn't know where he was and panicked and ended up driving the lad to the nearest hospital he new the exact location of. 35 minutes away! Turned out there was an A and E 2 minutes away in the small town he was working in. I got a call to see if i could go and make the tree safe while he was in Hospital. I did and couldn't believe the mess, Blood - on MY SAW!!! Any way, to cut a long story short, i use that story when training to emphasis the importants of tits up procedures. Now i have a good story to emphasis how well it works. None in place= hour later and a lost finger and lost movement in the arm, major stress. thorough in place = life saved, stress free. Right about the GPS though, grid reference from os or post code is far more accurate than just relying on gps.

Wow, it looks like there really was a problem witht that course at Myerscough then, i Chatted to Tree life at the AA trade fair last year and they seem pretty switched on. The y also are based in My home Village so they must be good! Apologies for the delving but some times people do a lot of winging because they didn't pass but clearly not in this case.