Bolt

mmmmm. Gamey! I just cut the breast meat off them, nice and quick, and you can then get on with your evening. Just like little tiny cutlets, very dark - so nice in a rich stew (don't know recipies though, that bit isn't in my job description).

Brilliant! A question thou... If it was a refresher, I guess you are experianced, and even already have a ticket. How did you find the training over two days?, was the length of the course ok, or did it drag on a bit? (I guess the wasps would have slowed things up a bit). Did your instuctor run out of stuff to talk about at about 11am on day 2? or was it 2 short days? Awaiting your views with interest

I am glad you guys are taking the carbon thing seriously. So far we have had... Souping up an L200 Taking a Mog out for chips Thrashing the 4x4 to get it through the boggy bit at the bottom No time to think about carbon footprint. Still busy worrying about the Y2K bug and the hole in the ozone layer. Oh yeah, and acid rain, atomic war, running out of whales etc,etc,etc.

If its used hard and constantly and lasts 3 years, its dosen't owe you much. How is your storage? after all, your harness doesn't have to go through any more than you do when you are wearing it. It it stored wet on a kit bag, or chucked amonst the tools in the back of a pickup, or crushed underneath other stuff in a foolwell? Do they ever go for a spin in the washing machine. Great harness though, had mine for (too many) years.

You can't argue that helicopters get through the fuel. A combican, and a futher bowser in the back of the pickup.

but don't overestimate them either!

Also, if the chain has come into prolonged contact with an abrasive surface, such as tarmac, stone etc etc then you may have lost the chrome plating on the top-plate surface. If this has happened, you can sharpen it as much as you like, but it won't stay sharp.

As Peter said. Surely you should be picking up gate problems at the pre-use check you perform before each and every use. When I train for CS'38' I cover gates in great detail. This is because 'self lockers' are utter rubbish. Current guidance is that you should let them lock, and then check they are locked-each and every time the gate closes. This is madness. Self lockers were introduced because we were not to be trusted to do up our screwgates. But we can be trusted to perform a check incase the infallable gate does fail. And now you get loads of bish about 4-ways being better (yeah, better at failing even more because they are even more complicated). [rant rant rant] Maybe we should all go back to screwgates and rely on ourselves and a few darwinian principles. Anyway. You should have been trained to do an adequate test, and this should have also been covered in your assessment. Don't rely on others such as LOLER inspectors to do your checks (or your maintenance- he is inspecting as he finds it, not providing a cleaning and lubrication service). All that aside, use PETZL, as they seem to know what works in the real world.

I remember having a pair of boots, must have been around 2006 I think, that I DIDN'T hit with the saw (I normally get 'em in the toe caps LOL)

Good advice! (but make sure you use a rotating choping block that incoperates a tyre, and a dodgey finland twisty axe)

But its a tragic shame how often they are.

Fair play to you. Nothing worse than other 'professionals' messing up your endevours.

That last one looks like a perfect utility reduction.

why would you do this, adi? ....and you, recenty trained

Deffo 346. When you need something bigger get a 441 aswell :-)

Ha Ha, Sometimes I can be such a knobber, The first time I read your post, I thought you were asking for advice. It was only a bit later it occured to me you were giving it. Glad I didn't offer a few patronising pearls of wisdom

and to think, he only called the AA because his battery was flat following leaving the radio on.

At least this way your saw will get plenty of rests . ..............I wonder if cutting what you can from the top and then getting straight in the end grain with an axe would work.............

Have you (and /or he) had a shufty at these? NPTC | Assignment Schedules

The reason a tree "barbers chairs" is simply because there is too much hinge (its easier for the tree to split up the trunk, than it is to bend all that hinge over). This can be caused because the tree has a lean in the intended direction of fell and starts to fall 'too soon' before the back cut is finished, or its being pulled (again going too soon) or it cops a sudden gust of wind (again going too soon). Having a back cut that comes in below the bottom of the sink cut also increases the risks. Ash is great at splitting like this, as is sweet chestnut. However, Oak (I have found) is also surprising good for doing this. Conifers generally don't do it so much.

topping down trees using 'det cord'. Chapter 6 of my new book. Now I will have to experiment somewhere else.

A bigger saw and longer bar would help. But when you blunten that long ol' bar on the ground (and, no offence, you will at somepoint) you are going to find yourself spending hooooooooours sharpening. you could, as chris sugessted, just cut blocks of the end. but if your saw is nacked already, you will surely be killing it shortly. any chance of getting some mechanical assistance to get it up on blocks / off cut branches?

:thumbup:great thread:thumbup:

HSE's requirement is that there must be someone immediately able competent and equipped to undertake a rescue without delay. You therefore should be equipped with a 'rescue' rope that is long enough to get a casulty to the ground in a one'r, without having a re-anchour part way down. You rope should be at least twice the 'working height' of the tree. As a climber, you perhaps could be on a shorter rope (if this is your preference), or you may have redirected yourself through a fork to reach branch tips, or you may have fallen throught a fork whist busy injuring yourself. Ether way, in my opinion, a climbers line may not be long enough to reach the ground from any anchour point. This is why aerial rescue training and assessment covers transfering the victim onto the rescuers rope.