14
Swinging a load at a county fair in Kansas taught me a hard lesson about wind
Was setting up a Ferris wheel at the Johnson County Fair last summer when a gust came out of nowhere. My load started swinging like a pendulum and I had to set it down quick before it took out the ticket booth. Now I always check the weather radar before I lift anything over 50 feet.
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
grant_palmer3d ago
And yeah, that pendulum effect is no joke. I had a similar thing happen with a smaller lift moving some bleacher sections at a community field day. Had to drop it fast and ended up with a couple bent rails, but nobody got hurt so I guess that counts as a win. Now I'm the guy who stares at the flags for a solid two minutes before hooking up anything.
1
sanchez.mia3d ago
Read an article from some crane operator's safety blog that said wind at 30 feet is totally different than wind at 100 feet (which makes sense, I guess, if you think about how the air moves up there). Apparently the ground level can feel calm while a few stories up it's basically a full on gale, so those little flags on the ground don't tell you the whole story. I remember it mentioned something about checking a local weather station's upper air readings if you're doing tall lifts, which blew my mind a little honestly.
1