[log in to unmask] wrote:

> It may just be a coincidence, but the older 55-something guy, in the 
> chrome yellow harness, is working about twice as fast than the younger 
> do-rag guy, a 30-something.

The 55 year old prbly knows where he is going. The 30 year old is 
thinking if he will get any tonight and wants to conserve his stamina 
just in case.

> When a stage actually falls, and you are flopping out there in mid-air 
> like a fish in Kansas, can they lower the lifeline and bring you down 
> like that?

Never had to do it. Suggest that they cut the rope up near the top. The 
Fire Department is the responder. Actually the rope grabs can be 
released in a manner that you can descend the lifeline and the lifeline 
should reach to the ground. But most guys if they are stupid enough to 
be on a rig that goes down won't know how to use their equipment. 
Chances of lowering the lifeline are next to nil as there will not be 
much of it up above to spare.

>   Or is the preferred method just to grab you in through the nearest 
> window.

I know that they often do it through a window. I would rather go through 
a window.

> If rescue is some ways away, is it ok to swing from side to side to 
> get to an open window, or should you just stay put and yell?

Do whatever the hell you can do to get out of the fix. Used to be not 
too long ago that instead of a harness you had a belt, a single belt 
that went around the waist. If you got dropped... and when a rig goes 
you are likely to fall at least 10' - it could conceivably break your 
back. Then they had a problem that if you were not holding onto 
something, like your lifeline, you might end up hanging upside down. At 
Apple we used to put guys in a belt then a lifeline and hang them so 
that they could see the difference. A full-body harness supports more of 
the body parts from one-point high on the backside. Your ass, being 
center of gravity in most humans, is lower than the point of connection 
so the tendency to hang upside down is not quite as possible. Hanging 
around in a harness is uncomfortable, with a belt it is even more 
uncomfortable.

>  And, once they get you off, and if you're union, do you get paid for 
> the full day, even if you go home at 11 AM?

No comment.

I was once sent out on my own on a site doing a survey of stone to be 
replaced when the plank I was on fell out from under me. It was not a 
regulation scaffold plank. I was wearing a belt and found myself hanging 
in free air... I was below an overhang 2 stories up. It was not much 
fun. I got banged up a bit. I did manage to swing my way to safety. I 
went home for the remainder of the day and told them that they had 
better pay me for the whole day if they expected me to come back again. 
There was nobody around for me to yell to. It is one of the reasons I 
insist that everyone work w/ a partner. That and the problem w/ used to 
have before cell phones of getting locked out up on the roof in a snow 
storm. One time on the roof had to call Buffalo for them there to call 
the super in the building to come up and open the door.

My 1st cantilevered rig -- I am so happy I no longer work for the Tmason 
guys - was made w/ 2 x 12 planks ballasted w/ Portland cement bags on a 
10 story building w/ rope falls. I soon noticed that when the cement 
bags got wet that they tended to crumble. They did not want to spend the 
money for standard rigging equipment.

][<

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