[CQ-Contest] Tower safety

[Doug Renwick]

Here are the full details, quote:

Note: a fall arrest harness would not have saved Paul's life in these
circumstances.

"I don't know that Paul had been working on this tower recently, but he
apparently had a line to the top and a pulley up there.  His usual practice
would be to keep a 1/4" poly rope up to the top and back if he was going to
work on a tower intermittently.  Then, when ready to work on it, he would
use that small rope to pull his good rope up and back down, which is what he
did today.  For a couple decades Paul has liked to "ride the rope" up and
down, climbing the tower only when necessary, or when a winch operator
wasn't available.  Today a friend was running the winch, not Mary.  Paul had
done some work probably at the 50' level and was at about 60' when the winch
operator said the line went slack. The pulley had become disconnected from
the top of the tower.

As I said, I don't think Paul had been on this tower recently, and he didn't
remember that this pulley was not properly attached for work. Normally, a
web "choker" would go through the ring on the top of the pulley, around a
tower leg a couple times, and then its ends joined with a heavy shackle. 
Today, only a nylon rope held the pulley, and it broke.  KB9S said it looked
weathered.  It had probably been up there quite a while, and Paul's memory
hasn't been what it used to be.  He was not up to the top of the tower today
at all, only working near the bottom antenna.

It sounds like the kind of small rope he might use on his belt to initially
carry the pulley and line up to the top of the tower.  Why he left it there
without a proper choker will be a mystery.  I'm guessing it was many months
ago, planning to do this work, but something took him away and he never got
back to it until now.  I am sorry that the winch operator had to see it, but
glad that it was nothing within his control."

Doug

"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein 

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
Edward Sawyer
Sent: November-15-19 4:44 PM
To: w1ve at yccc.org
Cc: James Cain; rjairam at gmail.com; CQ-Contest Reflector
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Tower safety

I have not heard the exact circumstances of W0AIH’s accident.  What was
quickly published was his fall arrest system failed.  He was clearly using a
harness.  If some has the details, I think we would all benefit from
learning.

Even with proper temporary guying, I would not climb a tower to take it down
that had the base legs rusted through at the concrete point.

We would really benefit from the equivalent of NASA’s pilot reporting system
where the details of events and “near events” are publicized for us all to
learn.

I for one, like many tower climbers that I have observed, do a hybrid of
free climb and clipped in.  Free climb to the first set of guys is pretty
common for many of us.  Clipping in as we gain height.  90% of the time
clipped in while climbing.  100% doing work.  Full body harness?  Not
really.  But haven’t used a lineman’s belt since being a teenager.

Is it perfect?  No. But if I am tired. I don’t climb.  And the above is
pretty darned safe when done with good judgment.  A full body harness and
carelessness, or understanding of physical strength, is not “safe” just
because.

Ed  N1UR

From: Gerry Hull [mailto:gerry at yccc.org]
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 4:14 PM
To: Edward Sawyer
Cc: rjairam at gmail.com; James Cain; CQ-Contest Reflector
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Tower safety

Ed,

I think you are applying your analysis from the wrong perspective.

In the W0AIH case, if Paul had been 100% attached to the tower, his winch
cable could have failed and he would have survived (this craziest) winching
approach.

In our local case, the tower base failure as a root cause is a red herring:
It may have contributed.  However, it was a process error.   No one should
consider taking down a tower that was up for ANY length of time without
first fully inspecting the tower, the guying system, etc.   Had these
unfortunate gentlemen taken any time to survey and understand what they were
getting into, I believe this incident may have been avoided.

As K8MR points out, it does not matter how many 1000s of hours of experience
you have, or how much of a bodybuilder you are.   All it takes is 1 second
of distraction to end your life.

73, Gerry W1VE