KE3Q's narrative, causes me to wax poetic on the same topic
THE DAY WE SHOT THE ROOF:
(guilty parties identified....boy, I wish we'd have taken
that picture when I wanted to!)
I've been using fishing arrows as hoists for the last 10 plus
years, most of them in Vermont, with 140' trees.
In mid-December, I was snaking my 160 meter Carolina Windom over
the 140 foot white pine which was midway in its span...and needed
to run to the hardware store for something.
WJ1Z (sorry, Bob) was helping, and we were using his compound
bow. There was 2 foot of snow on the flatroof of my home...and
to be helpful while I was running the errand, Bob shot an arrow
over the tree. Now, they never go precisely where you want them...
something inevitably gets in the way...and he decided to pull it back
and set up a better shot.
So, here comes the arrow, over a branch 100' in the air....a bit of
back tension, flipping end over end before finally stabilizing.
Point down, straight at my house. The snow fine-tuned the arrow's aim,
right into the membrane roof.
I got back from the hardware store only to be met by Bob with a sheepish
expression on his face...and an offer to pay for the damage.
(trocal roofs are easy to fix. We shovelled it off, dried it off,
and patched it with rtv and duct tape. Didn't replace the temporary
patch until mid-summer, when the roofer could get there.)
But therein lies the tale....this stuff is dangerous! It could as easily
have been someone's head. As I write this, I have a fishing arrow hanging
from an oak tree over my MD driveway...the game tracker string broke and
tangled around a branch. One day, we're going to shoot a car, I suppose.
And then there was the time we were working on the FRC club repeater, and
Bill Smith dropped a wrench from 120'. It passed about 6 inches from my
shoulder, and buried itself in the ground. I NEVER work under towers
now, ALWAYS wear hardhats, and always run my hoist lines through a pulley
and away from the tower, so ground crew is standing clear. Having safety
ties on all tools would be a good idea, too.
n2ea
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