Alright since Kenny isn't around these days, I'll givie it to y'all... The below is from a video thread at the buzz.
And tip tying is a big No-No, unless we are using a crane or the GRCS to lift the pieces vertically up and away from the climber, or unless the tips must go up to avoid an obstacle beneath them. Anytime a piece is tip tied there is gonna be a much greater tendency for those tips swing up and back right at the climber, no matter how good the rope man is.
Thanks for the cudos and yes I do have a cordless lavalier which we used years ago. I will check it out. Hopefully it still works.
Here's the post from the buzz:
In the video, I actually mentioned "where he ties off the pieces" as a factor in allowing him to safely rig bigger (heavier) pieces, (by reducing shock loads, which unfortuntely I did not mention). I never really understood the importance of rope placement (where the lowering line is tied to the limb or wood) until I took a course taught by Mark Chisholm at Rutguers, in 2002. At the end of the day Mark tried to explain the concept when rigging down a white oak . I fortunately video taped the whole day and was able to get a handle on the concept only after reviewing the tapes a few times.
Mark explained that he liked to tie off the pieces so that there was as little movement after seperation as possible. This greatly reduces shock loads and when done properly, becomes far safer than tying off near the cut. What that often ends up looking like is tying the piece off close to the balance point, and absolutely not past its center of gravity (so the piece stays tip heavy), and then notching the limb to let it fall slowly into the rigging at a slight angle to the overhead anchor. Tying the piece off out a ways from the cut, allows the tie off point to move more before seperation, thus tensioning the line, as the piece slowly moves on the hinge. This puts more of the weight of the limb on the rope before seperation, thus leading to less shock loading after seperation.
Having the rope take more of the weight of the limb by tying off near the COG and pretensioning the line, also facilitates the cuts ability to steer the limb, by greatly reducing the force on the hinge. So when the ground crew pretensions the line, and the climber and rope man work together, the climber can create a good hinge, allowing the rope man to then control the piece. It won't start moving until the rope man lets out a bit. It then is on the rope man to let the piece run down past the climber into a smooth slow descent.
On bigger wood, the principle is the same, as long as the climber is not butt hitching. You can see how smooth that big wood "floats" down into the rigging when the pieces are tied near the balance point. Also mentioned in the taping, but not included in this edition, is a point about what side of the piece the knot is tied on. By tying it on the back side (opposite the face), the piece has less movement when the weight come on the rope, as the knot will then be on the high side of the piece, keeping the piece from twisting violently as the weight hits the rope.
The untrained observer might see all those pieces cartwheeling, and mistakenly think that all that movement is increasing force on the lowering line, when actually there is very little shock loading force generated by that movement, compared to tying the pieces off just past the cut and letting them bomb into the rigging. When the pieces are cartwheeling one side is moving down as the other is moving up. If you observe carefully, you can see that the action of the line is very smooth. There is very little shock load involved.
This is exactly what Mark was trying to teach in 2002. Pat and I were both lucky enough to do a lot of big removals with Big Jon. That man could tie a 40' red oak lead off at its perfect balance point every time. The size of the pieces he used lower down on a regular basis were unbelieveable. He could only pull that off by applying the above principles, combined with an understanding of overhead rigging points and dynamic ropes.
Some years ago Mark gave a talk at the Pen-Del ISA conference, which I missed. Big Jon came back reporting with a somewhat astonished tone of voice, "He (Mark) takes down trees the way I take down trees". I knew exactly what he was talking about.
Spidey tried to explain the same basic principle at AS many years ago... And many others over the years have stated thats the way they lower out pieces, so it is not an uncommon practice.
I AM really thrilled to have video as a teaching/learning tool, where we can go back over and over a cut and really see what happens. I AM actually looking forward to recreating some of the mistakes I've made in non critical situations to show what NOT to do.
Making these videos takes an huge amount of time and energy, and costs a lot! If it weren't for such a slow time in work due to the economy, I would never have the luzury of making them. Its been rewarding and a lot of fun. And hopefully all involved will have something worthwhile to show the grandchildren when all is said and done.
Well old Tom D had a pony tail 
