Boom pendulum caught me off guard on a job in Portland

I was lifting a HVAC unit on a tight rooftop in Portland last Tuesday and the wind caught the load just enough to start a nasty pendulum swing. I had to cut the hoist speed and let it settle with a tagline before I could set it down clean. Has anyone else had to deal with surprise swings from gusty wind?

2 comments

2 Comments

cameronb5212d agoMost Upvoted

My cousin runs a crew in Seattle and says they never bother with taglines on roof jobs, just let the boom do the work and bump the load into place. I've seen guys on the coast handle 30mph gusts without cutting speed, they just feather the controls and trust the crane's stability. Maybe your swing was more about how fast you were traveling the load than the wind itself, a slower boom speed might have let the air grab it worse.

mason_foster6811d ago

Isn't that how everything goes, people always think their way is the only way till something goes wrong?