Gentlemen, be careful up there...

[W1JS]

From yesterday's Boston Globe:

Man dies in 100-foot fall from Air Force tracking station tower

May 17, 2005

NEW BOSTON, N.H. -- A 55-year-old man fell more than 100 feet from the radio tower at an Air Force Tracking Station and died on his way to the hospital, officials said.
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Frank Gantt, from Peyton, Colo., was doing routine maintenance work on the tower on Monday night and was taking a break when his harness let go, State Police Sgt. Phil Jepson said.

"There were some other workers with him," Jepson said Tuesday.

Gantt worked for the Honeywell Corp., police said.

Officials were investigating the accident.

The New Boston Air Force station is a small satellite tracking station that has 12 military and about 120 civilian employees.

New Boston is one town south of my QTH.

[KB2WIG]

The fall didnt kill him it was the ride to the Hosp. that SKed him ....









Give a man a hot peper and he will be warm today, give him some toylet paper and he'll be warm again  tomorrow morning.

[WB3JOK]

The fall didnt kill him it was the ride to the Hosp. that SKed him ....

"It wasn't the fall that killed him, it was the sudden stop at the ground"

[K1JJ]

"Frank Gantt, from Peyton, Colo., was doing routine maintenance work on the tower on Monday night and was taking a break when his harness let go, State Police Sgt. Phil Jepson said. "

Harness let go?  Man, those things are so overbuilt that's the last thing I worry about. Maybe it was something related to human error where he "thought" he was clipped on, but leaned back and had the shock of his life.  There was an instance where I once worked for a few minutes thinking I had remembered to clip on, but later realized I didn't. That happens when moving rapidly around the tower for busy work, focusing on current problems and becoming too familiar or lax with the process.

Whenever I un-clip and climb, I say to myself, "the switch in on".  Whenever I clip on, I say to myself, "relax, the switch is off".  It seems to work.  

For emergencies, if I fall, I plan to execute a mid air flip like Spiderman to cancel the downward momentum and land on my feet intact.
T

[WA1GFZ]

I have a spare hunk of webbing with a beaner. I never have both hanging cause I'm chicken and too fat to fly with my tiny wings.
Better to hang than fall.

[WB3JOK]

For emergencies, if I fall, I plan to execute a mid air flip like Spiderman to cancel the downward momentum and land on my feet intact.

I see... so you prefer to die by having your femurs rammed upwards through your abdomen and chest, rather than instantly as your skull disintegrates  :shock:

Thought for the day: if a cat always lands on its feet, and buttered toast always lands butter-side-down, what happens if you strap a piece of buttered toast butter-side-up to a cat's back, and drop them?  :badgrin:

-Charles
see you at Dayton!

[K1JJ]

I see... so you prefer to die by having your femurs rammed upwards through your abdomen and chest, rather than instantly as your skull disintegrates  :shock:

You're wrong, femur breath.... :lol:

I watch many Kung Fu movies.  As you fall you read Chinese script upside down that master was killed. Your face show shock. Then man say to you, "you work for me now!"   You  get real mad and fly upwards.   This is true.

T

[WA1GFZ]

Tom vu is that avatar reverb johnny on radio engineer graduation day?
Maybe you could mount that head on the elvis body for the graduation party.

[K1JJ]

Tom vu is that avatar reverb johnny on radio engineer graduation day?
Maybe you could mount that head on the elvis body for the graduation party.

Oh man, that would be too funny.  Thanks to Bob, W1RKW who sent me this CIE grad.

Award Winning TV and Radio Engineer:

[W1RKW]

I wanted to get his head to tilt to the left a little bit but I couldn't figure out how to rotate the image slightly.  Oh well.

[w1guh]

As I learned from the Hitchhikers' guide, flying is simply falling down but forgetting to hit the ground.  That could help.

[WD8BIL]

This is why they have little things called life lines. A seperate device from your work harness that's needed ONLY IF your "harness fails".

But as Vu has said... it's hard to believe an OSHA harness failed unless it was old and neglected.

What failed was his prep process. Inspect your equipment before EACH climb. Even if on the same day !!

[John K5PRO]

It is possible that the poor guy had a defective harness. If someone stored the thing in a box with, say, some lead acid batteries, the nylon or polyester fibers can degrade quickly. Also, storage in sunlight for long periods.

In mountaineering and caving, we replace ropes and harnesses with regularity, even though they look fine, based on exposure to the elements and length of service life.

I looked at my own climbing harness last weekend, as I was removing a 10 meter yagi from a Tristao tower, and applying Liquid Wrench to the rusty bolts. Tried to avoid getting the juice on the fibers. Not all climbers pay so much attention to details like that though, just blind faith in their 'pro'.