I am always scared when I climb my tower. I trained as a fire fighter and
learned that a fall from 50 feet or higher is almost always fatal. I still
use only a nylon belt and two gorilla clips to be sure I am 100 percent
connected at all times. Now, at age 75, I am thinking about a full harness
with fall arrest lanyard.
I hired a climber last year to put up a star guy mount at 140 feet. He is
young, and a professional. He was up there in about one minute, attached a
haul rope with pulley, then repelled down in about 10 seconds to get set up
for hardware raising. Maybe I should stop climbing an let him do all work
in the future.
73, Keith NM5G
-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
Herbert Schoenbohm
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2017 8:00 AM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] March QST cover
Wearing some sore of head protection is critically important working on a
tower. The new helmets designed for that work are required for most tower
climbers. Bumping in hard to a steel extension above can knock someone who
is unprotected unconscious. Also a falling bolt or hardware from above can
have the same effect. This can always happen when you
least expect it. Two of my sons are Comtrain certified tower climbing
instructors. One of the working on a 300 foot tower in St. John had a co
worker starting his climb with my son below preparing to go up next.
The site owner require them to use the safety cable that runs to the top.
At 100 feet my son's co worker took a short rest and then bang the cable
snapped (at the top connection) just as he was trying to hook on.
The co-worker fell over 100' and only survived by a microwave dish at 50'
breaking his fall. The entire length of steel cable fell on both of them on
the ground. The co-worker had many broken ribs and other bones....but the
safety helmets spared both of them. The news got around fast and while in
the hospital a few hours after surgery there were no less than four
attorney's wanting to take the case. I think the settlement was for
$650,000 from the tower company since they only allowed you on the tower via
that safety cable. (Ironically this very tower had been totally inspected
by a stateside company)
Herb, KV4FZ
On 2/28/2017 9:28 AM, Jim Thomson wrote:
> I never used a hard hat on a tower.
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