educated arborist

:grinning-smiley-003 :dito:AMEN:dito:

this is the risk, that it wil cross with a virus that has the ability to mutate rapidly (such as seasonal flu) which leads to the people that have currently built up an imunity wont be imune and it can rapidly evolve into something far more deadly(like what hapened with the spanish flu) :thumbdown:Oh and antibiotics don't help u when uve got a virus!!!!!!!

good point: most cranes are loler inspected (thorough examination) every 6 months for the very reason that they will be used to 'lift any person' using a man rider bucket/cage. You will also find that some fork-lifts (usually every 12 months) are subject to a thorough examination every 6 as they 2 are sometimes configured/ used with a 'man cage'. The safety factors also change for example a fork lift with a 1t swl whilst lifting goods will (4 arguments sake) be reduced to 400kg (5 men) all of the relevent configuration info must be clearly displayed on both the fork lift & the man cage. I'd also presume that modern cranes have the facility 2 alter their warning buzzers & inhibitors for when they are used with a man rider. If i get some time i'll speak to some crane operators/ operations mangers 2 find out some more. When ive been in man riders the cage has been secured to the hook but there has allways been a backup much like what our friend from NZ described securing via mallions or similar. Crane hooks are only a snap gate & on these grounds i would say it is bad practice & even if you were to attach above the hook like in NZ this would not prevent the snap gate hook from cliping onto a limb, i'm sure we've all had this happen with an accessory crab (whilst in leylandii usually) & it can be a real pain in the ass; one of my loler clients told me he even had to get his groundy 2 come and free him on one occasion.

because it comes from ur pants & is transported up by your hairs, oh & all clothing tends to have blue dye in it to make up whatever colour it is, have u never noticed that tumble dryer fluff is allways the same colour? 2birds, 1 stone

when i was on my ND i was tought that if a legal quarry species is sat on eggs then you can't disturb them but if they've hatched then you can dispatch them humamely, knock on head/wring they're necks etc any1 else heard this? it's not illegal for me to shoot/ dispsatch of quarry so y should it be any different if i'm up the tree?

There's another thread running un soft links on steel core flip lines at the mo and as the thread went on a lad said he'd sussed it ages ago but this is what i often come accross in inspections: is youre flip line spliced at both ends? if so what would hapen when you cut the distel when youre strop is ajusted to full/nearly full length? oh dear were back to square 1:scared1: if it is spliced at both ends then cut the tail end off & use insulating tape to seal, then use more insulating tape & preferably some shrink wrap to build up a stopper which will fit through youre micro pulley but not youre knot, job done! Arial rescue & general risk management is imagining what if? like when andy said: "1st Aider is on holiday, the mobile signal is suddenly crap in the area, and someone left the rescue kit under the workbench today" Is the senario avoidable? yes how can we impliment this job jobbed! Some1 else said they sometimes think something like "now would not be a good time to have to do a resque" could it be made better? if so............... you get my jist

is youre flip line spliced at both ends? if so what would hapen when you cut the distel when youre strop is ajusted to full/nearly full length? oh dear were back to square 1:scared1: if it is spliced at both ends then cut the tail end off & use insulating tape to seal, then use more insulating tape & preferably some shrink wrap to build up a stopper which will fit through youre micro pulley but not youre knot, job done!

rescue practiced every 3 months or sooner & singed records kept, every1 is a1st aider, risk assesment has a box for the nearest land available line which MUST be filled in & will sometimes be a phone box number but is usually the clients, every one on site writes in their mobile no if theyve got it with them, grid ref's of site & suitable meeting point if rural & of helicopter landing spot if available and a spare kit & spikes go on all jobs regardless of the climb needing spikes as spiking can be the quickest way to a casualty on some trees & if its serious enough for a rescue then a live tree will just have to suffer i'm afraid

short of conifers & little trees I allways have a seperate line up the tree even if i don't use it to access the tree is it really so taxing??????????? 5minutes on each job & it soon becomes habit! It also allows you to retrieve stuck rope guides & cambium savers should they get stuck or take the guide out 1st & use a static system to desend tree on rescue line Tell you what every1 on this post try it out for three weeks & if you still can't stand it then suit yourselves but i bet that for most it would become habit on any tree which warrents it?

lol! Ive been doing it since i started working Its a shame some1 doesn't wan't to give the pair of us some handsome salaries to sort out the hse, nptc and al that realy underfunded when it comes to arb + the nptc have an inability to spend their budget on anything worth while!

sorry gimmer we must have been typing bat the same time

Good point about having a route strait down at all times, even if you are KO'd it will save those crutial 5 mins as the rescue'r can fly up the tree (on the access line left up the tree at all times) and yank on your prussik (once clipped to you etc etc etc) Those 5 mins really could be crucial & not having a AR'er on the ground could f**k that right up! If the access line also has the asenders/similer allredy set up & even the spare harness near by & out of the locked van locker it would be sped up even more. As for spiking a pole & not having another set of spikes I bet hindsight probably didn't seem so great for those poor chaps ay?

The only negative of a soft link is adding length which is why most people have chose the grab in the 1st place the way to add a soft link adding the minimum amount of length is a micro/quickdraw sling if you get the right length you can choker it to your grab then clip in your crab & it'll only add 1cm!!!!!!!! The sling must be rated at 22kn+ but can be any width/diamiter where as if you use rope the minimum diamiter would me 10mm & by the time youve tied 2 knots it'l add 10cm+ to your system preventing u from being as close to your work hope it helps

What do they do if your KO'd?

Every one that i've met 1st hand that has had an accident up a tree/ been in the crew when its happend has managed to get themselves down, one of them with a life threataning injury losing pints of blood, i imagine his adrenalin levels were off the chart & was probably feeling little or no pain. The point Andy was making about a hard days work is the most important factor in risk reduction in our industry. I don't beleive that there are many if not any accidents within our industry in which fatigue was not a factor. Using erganomic access teckniques is something that not alot of firms do but it limits fatigue & cramp alot and if an access line can be left in the tree during the climb this would speed up a rescue 10fold but how many of us actually do this? The AR training could be greatly improoved apon but it's not realistically going to happen any time soon as with most things in our industry it falls apon ourselves to ensure we are 'compitant' Not only is there alot more to an AR than the rigging but the NPTC doesn't even go through that effectivly does it?

one of my clients owns a fair sized firm-4 crews of 2, they practice arial rescue every 3 months & they also grade the dificulty of a climb & the resque when quoting & on the RA. Very interesting as some easy climbs can make a dificult resque such as pole resques? How would you rescue some1 from a 20' conifer hedge? have you ever practiced this? have you ever practiced a pole rescue? I once had to rescue a climber who got the willies on a pole & went into koala bear mode; not only was the rigging of the rescue not too easy but i had to get him to release the tree from his koala grip!!!!! Prehaps any future arb based FA training could include actors as casualties? My wife is an LD nurse & their training included 100's of acted senarios (not that anything can quite prepair you for getting people int ECA (padded cells) for real!)

Can often work out cheaper to pay some1 else anyway, I only charge £40/kit for a repeat inspection that includes collection & delivery! Or we can do it on site if prefered. Check out the link in the trade directory (top right of page) for loler uk

Go to your library & tell them you need an athens acount to view bs standards then download BS4043 & BS3936 They are the standards for planting root balled trees & nursery stock, there might be one for bare root somewhere but i cant find it. An athens acount is invaluable( bs standards can usualy cost £80 ea!) Beware of google & wikipedia though! good luck

If your loler inspector can't definitivly identify wheather or not a splice is fit for purpose be it hand made or not you should think about changing your inspector. A compitant inspector should be able to identify safe kit without in-depth traceable records allthough they are preferable they are not a 'must' for loler inspection. If your looking for an inspector who knows what he's doing & won't cut off correctly fassioned splices check out the trede directory page (top right of page) for the national service provided by loleruk or ring 07835029923 & speak to mike.

I think that you have to weigh each employee individually & pay them acordingly. A newly qualified ND student may not be able to climb FA but he has all his tickets. A hard working aprintice, no tickets with you paying for all his training but is early to yard, grafts all day & a good learner with potential to lead a team. An ausome climber whos quick efficient, never damages property & is above all safe but is then i'll at least 1 or 2 days every week. A lead climber whos compitent yet not the quickest but with exelent client manner & business knowlege & skills who can litraly run the show while u go on holiday. What is each worth to you??? Pay them acordingly Personally: ND lad allthe gear no idea £65/day but could see rapid rises to £100/day in the 1st year or so, or dick around & stay on £65-75 Aprentice with ton's of potential £70/day increasing as he gets his tickets Good climber with sh*t atendance £80/day possibly less/day but with an atendance bonus for a clear week Lead climber who can run the show £100-£160/day dependant on experiance.

some very good points, especially on machine splices been discussed many times before off of the forum. The point made about a governing body on splice compitence: who would it be made up of? who would fund it? some of the problems at present are: some splice testing is inconclusive/voided as the rope will aften fail at the other end of the rid before the desired load is reached Some manufacturors Y*** ahem don't seem to want to make it impractical/too expensive for british hand splicers to become Yale certified riggers. they even ran some poxy notice in an AA newsletter (from memory may have been a similar publication) Insisting that there are no approved yale riggers in the uk & that its machiened splices are made to the highest standards I would personally dispute this as, i assume would cletus & many other splicers I know would & have disagreed with this. In theory a correctly fasioned hand splice is, if anything stronger than a machine splice as it is not as far along its cycle to failure.there are many other benifits to hand splices but i realy have 2 go 2 bed. A body of assesors is great in theory but very hard to implicate/ fund Allthough i don't believe any1 in the UK has done yet some splicers in europe have been assesed & can assign CE marks to their splices, i know little about this but i have been told that the system of assesment is sooo expensive & time consuming that it is unworkable & beond un-economical. If a group of compitant uk splicers were to lobby together they could prehaps use their combined knowlege, experiance & contacts to draw up a standard to which & by which splicers should be assesed, name themselves, & then try to lobby manufacturers & insurors to recognise them & their scheme. discuss

In brief: Yes your boss is obligated to ensure your kit has a 'thorough examination' (inspection) under the loler regs every 6 months for climbing & 12months for rigging. New kit, if provided with certificates of conformity does not need inspecting for 12 months ( but in reality it would usually be done within 6) If you are a subbie then you would typically arrange the inspection(thorough examination) yourself. The inspection is relevent for the kit not the firm (but you will probably have to get your boss to photocopy the paperwork if you leave) It is extreeeeemly rare for an insurance company to 'send' an inspector but they will now, typically, ask to see a copy of your in date jinspection certificate when taking out a policy/ for a renewal if youve any more questions just give me a ring, hope that helped, mike

On a positive note numerous coppers have been polite & curtious ive given one discounts off tree work after he pulled me & gave me a producer i wouldn't be taring them all with the same brush most are real nice blokes. My fondest cop memory was when i was pulled at 3 in the moring on a dead motorway clocked well over 110 i held my hands up & assumed i was about to loose my licence, he checked the car hadn't been stolen from cardiff audi (it was on test drive to me) said i was a niced chap, that i should lower the speed in the future & didn't even give me a producer let alone a ticket LEGEND!

ive been pulled over by a copper in a 40zone to tell me i was going over 30, i was polite & curtious inhpointing out the 40 signs. he then brethalised me, 0, and then took all of the contense of my jeep (alot of ****) layed it out in the road rummaged through it all gave me a slip of paper & fkd offleaving me with 30mins of re-packing to do. Then there was the time i overtook a copper in preston within the speed limit he then pulled me over, read me my rights & swore at me telling me it was a single lane carageway, i didn't argue, no point. he didn't tell me my charge but said i'd get a summons in the post. I then wasted 1/2 a day photographing the road markings (dual caragway!) and going to the poliece station, his CO was quite a different chap very appologetic & assured me he'd give officer brown a good dressing down as well as throwing out the charge which was driving withou DC&A. Even after the way he'd treated me i figured it wouldn't be nice to blight his record with a complaint despite his co suggesting i do just that. Then there was the time i was pulled over in my van & told it had no insurance, i explained there had been some mistake but the copper insisted the computer was full proof & he would nbot ring my insurance company & impounded my van 200miles from home despite a mecanic friend of mine offering to bring his policy roadside & collect it. A few hundred £'s later i got home and rang my insurance company as it happens i was insured but they had fked up not putting my cars details on the MID i gave the copper a call and told him what had happened he said i'll c u in court. neither he or the cps showed to the 1st appearance 200m from home the magistrates appologised but explained i would have to come back as the cps had not been given oppertunity to call whitness, 2nd day in court, 2 months later he didn't show in court & a 3rd date was set not guilty, at last. As you can see my objection to cops with an attitude problem is completely un-justified i have a clean licenece & heve never had a fault accident so am not bitter about being caught. If i was commiting an offence i'd hold my hands up don't get me wrong but i dont suffer fools gladly: cops, tree officers, tree surgeons, family members, anyone with a real attitude problem in fact.

it doesn't eat me up its just 'sporting'