Rigging Education Video

Most in trims are set at about 4' AFF. This means the arbor is all the way out against the upper crash bar and you are no longer using the lock to hold the load.

Now if a particular space has that in trim set to let's say 2', then that's a design flaw.

I have on several motorized systems designed it so battens could come to the floor. May program in trim at 4', but seems it could be useful and cost is usually nothing. I have some deep rigging pits where I thought about it for manual, but haven't done it. I would if a movable stop on the T wasn't so complicated and unique.

Its just one more tool/ one less restriction for the techs and designers.
 
@microstarYes, I'm well aware of additional warning trims and spirals of ooey-gooey sticky residue accumulating on the operating line.
Personally, when the purchase line is something like Multiline or similar, I prefer flagging the line rather than tape. Takes a little skill to get cloth flags in the rope, but once you learn how to do it, it makes life pretty easy and no sticky residue. Of course, you are kinda hosed on cloth flags if your purchase lines are Stageset-X or similar.

I think the video is a very good idea and well executed as well. I think it will be good resource.
 
The one bothersome thing I noticed was when the lock ring was removed, then the operator left the rail to check that all was clear. In my mind the stage should be checked before the lock ring is removed. The operator should never leave the lineset unattended with the lock ring removed.
 
Down on the front line to move a batten in, and down on the back line to move a batten out.
@icewolf08 @StradivariusBone I'm almost embarrassed to be typing this. One of my "brothers" who spent most of his working life in one of my city's steel mills ALWAYS explained / illustrated it thus:
He'd position himself in front of his assistants and give a presentation reminiscent of stewardesses pointing out the plane's emergency exits. He'd stand there with his hands clenched into gripping fists, alternately positioning both hands against the center of his chest, then together out in front of him, then back against the center of his chest while simultaneously reciting his mantra:
"It's easy. Repeat after me. In. Out. In. Out." It was embarrassingly simplistic to observe. I'm embarrassed to admit it but he was unforgettably definitely correct. Hands in to fly in. Hands out to fly out. He knew the mentality of most of his work-mates and reduced his instructions to their lowest common denominator. Whatever works.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
@icewolf08 @StradivariusBone I'm almost embarrassed to be typing this. One of my "brothers" who spent most of his working life in one of my city's steel mills ALWAYS explained / illustrated it thus:
He'd position himself in front of his assistants and give a presentation reminiscent of stewardesses pointing out the plane's emergency exits. He'd stand there with his hands clenched into gripping fists, alternately positioning both hands against the center of his chest, then together out in front of him, then back against the center of his chest while simultaneously reciting his mantra:
"It's easy. Repeat after me. In. Out. In. Out." It was embarrassingly simplistic to observe. I'm embarrassed to admit it but he was unforgettably definitely correct. Hands in to fly in. Hands out to fly out. He knew the mentality of most of his work-mates and reduced his instructions to their lowest common denominator. Whatever works.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
That's genius! I'm stealing it.
 
FWIW: Our rail is at the deck, locks about 3 ft up. Our pipes all fly in flat to the deck, so we're not on the stops at loading height.

And whether we pull down on the back rope or up on the front is pretty much an operator decision; we do usually finish the move on the front rope, though.
 
As a basic warning, I think you might cover that in the event of a run-away - DO NOT try to stop it and move fast out of the stage area. Too many injuries and at least one death I know of where someone thought they could stop it and grabbed onto the hand line, forced to release it when they hit something on the way up - probably with their head.
I can supply a pic of the hand of my theatre manager, the one time he forgot this rule.

And this rule applies *even if you're wearing gloves*, which you should always be doing working fly, and I don't recall you mentioning that.
 
FWIW: Our rail is at the deck, locks about 3 ft up. Our pipes all fly in flat to the deck, so we're not on the stops at loading height.

And whether we pull down on the back rope or up on the front is pretty much an operator decision; we do usually finish the move on the front rope, though.
@Jay Ashworth I've three comments:
1; I'm surprised to learn your pipes fly in to deck level and I sincerely hope the arbor is against its upper stops at that point.
2; My vote remains with the 'always pull down' camp.
3; As you leave pulling up or down on the near rope to your operators, and as your rail is at deck level, can I assume your tensioning idlers are also at deck level [As opposed to in a pit below deck level] and you instruct your operators to routinely kick down on your tensioning idlers after each time they've completed a 'pull-up' operation?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
@Jay Ashworth I've three comments:
1; I'm surprised to learn your pipes fly in to deck level and I sincerely hope the arbor is against its upper stops at that point.

I've never tried to fly a pipe past the deck. :)

2; My vote remains with the 'always pull down' camp.

I generally do, cause it's easier.

3; As you leave pulling up or down on the near rope to your operators, and as your rail is at deck level, can I assume your tensioning idlers are also at deck level [As opposed to in a pit below deck level] and you instruct your operators to routinely kick down on your tensioning idlers after each time they've completed a 'pull-up' operation?

Our bottom pullies, whatever one calls them, are in a pit about 2 feet below the deck (and hence 5-6ft below the locks).
 
Over-all: A+. A few items in the video you might consider reworking / re-shooting:
  1. You show the flyman releasing the rope lock BEFORE checking the hauling line tension, The procedure should be to check the hauling line tension BEFORE you unlock the line set - otherwise you might be in for a big surprise.
  2. Nobody is wearing hardhats. Weights, battens moving (or not moving), all kinds of sharp edges and corners on lights, etc., are all opportunities to get your flesh and bones torn-up. A lot of work done in the theatre is performed leaning over with our butts in the air and our heads down, so using hard-hats with chin straps is a really good idea, otherwise you may find you hard-hat falling to the floor below. Lead by example by showing all stage crew wearing hardhats with chin straps.
  3. You list the procedure to add all the lights / scenery to the batten, then load the arbor. I'd revise this to show the users performing a pre-rig planning session where they figure-out how much weight is planned to be added to the batten (lights, cables, scenery), then figure-out how many 10, 20, 40 pound weights will be needed to compensate and balance the load. A spreadsheet is a good tool to have them create (and for you to check that they didn't mess-up the calculations). Plan your fly - fly your plan. Once that is done, then you train your ground crew to pace their addition / removal of lights / scenery so the Fly Crew can keep-up with them. Ten workers each adding 20 pound lights at almost the same time can happen a lot faster than one or two Flymen on the Loading Bridge can realistically transfer weights. This is particularly important on the load-out. If the batten is stripped faster than the arbor is unloaded, you can have a run-away occur very quickly.
  4. Your video showed some battens in your loft that did not have the yellow end-caps on them. Get them all capped, and make a point of pointing-out that they should all have caps so the crew reports battens with missing end caps. A 2" diameter RED-RING on the cheek bone or around someone's eye or around their nose (good make-up session for the video) can exemplify what happens when you inadvertently walk into the end of an unprotected batten pipe.
  5. You refer to the ' 'fall arrest harness' but it is unclear whether the user is using a 'fall restraint lanyard' or a 'fall arrest lanyard'. I think the term 'fall protection harness' is more appropriate (the harness does not arrest the fall), and then you refer to the 'fall restraint lanyard' being secured to the designated anchor point(s) so the worker cannot fall down the fly well. A 'fall arrest lanyard' is the type with a controlled tear-apart section that decelerates you after you have already fallen. The point of the 'fall restraint lanyard' is to prevent you from ever getting into a position where you can fall.
  6. The crew is all wearing blacks. Blacks are fine during the run of a show, but they are not appropriate during load-in and strike. Bright fluorescent safety colored shirts and hard-hats are highly recommended so everyone can see each other in what is otherwise a dark work environment.
  7. Although many people prefer to operate the hauling lines without gloves so they can 'feel' the rope, it would be good to suggest that persons with uncalloused hands consider wearing leather work gloves, particularly if your fly system has older hemp / sisal type ropes in lieu of cotton ropes. The weight loaders should be wearing work gloves that have a 'grippy' rubberized palm / finger surface so they have better control of the weights; and gloves with padded / ribbed backs so they are less likely to get a bruise when they have a weight dropped on them or get pinched between some weights.
  8. Stage Crew working the batten loading / unloading should be wearing safety glasses. A loose end of a power cable, tie rope, or wire rope that whips out due to careless handling can slam you right in the eyeball and do a lot of damage. Frayed wire rope ends can scratch an eyeball seriously. Broken glass (lens chipped, shattered lamps, shattered glass reflector, etc.) can fall-out of light fixtures, too. You really don't want a glass shard in your eye.
  9. Stage Crew and Loading Crew should both be wearing shoes with steel / composite protective caps over the toe area. Dropped weights, scenery, or lights can damage feet; and thin dance shoes / tennis shoes do not protect against nails and tacks penetrating from the bottom side. You can get OSHA compliant work shoes for $20 if you shop around, so there is no excuse for giving student a pass on this.
  10. Loading Crew should wear knee pads.
  11. Lifting and turning procedures should be taught to all crew, as the added eccentric weight of a light or counterweight can pop hip joints and tear-up backs. Lifting with your legs and making sure you pivot on the balls of your feet when you turn are both lessons to learn. Getting someone down from a loading bridge with a buggered-up knee or popped hip joint is VERY difficult. Do you have a plan for this?
Many of the items above are the result of recognizing that a stage is a construction site (OSHA Part 26). General industry rules (OSHA Part 10) can be applied during rehearsals and shows, but the rest of the time treat your shop and stage as a fully functional construction site. A good way to formalize this is to have a procedure established where the TD / Head Carpenter turns-over responsibility for the stage to the Stage Manager (change-over from Part 26 rules to Part 10 rules), at the beginning of a rehearsal or show; then have the Stage Manager turns-over responsibility for the stage to the TD / Head Carpenter after the show / rehearsal is complete (change-over from Part 10 rules to Part 26 rules). It doesn't matter if you are actually legally required to operate under OSHA rules (this varies by location) -- do it anyway -- it is good training for the real world.

I agree with the suggestion that you use spike ribbons in lieu of spike tape on the hauling lines. Get a Rigger's Fid and inserting the ribbon in the rope is easy.
 
Lots of good points there, Erich. Not at all trying to dismiss anything safety-related, but personally I feel like you listed enough material for another video entirely! Our routine here is to spend the first 2 months or so of the semester doing the "book work" on all aspects of technical theatre as related to what the students will be expected to do. A lot of this is more focused to training kids to be operators first and only focusing on the design and planning of a design later with some of the 2nd or 3rd year kids.

For us, most of my kids don't actually ever load or unload an arbor. I train them how to do it and I let a few interested/capable ones do it from time to time, but the majority of our events don't require the fly system beyond setting drapes and the bulk of the ones that do require hanging anything typically are only asking us to hang drops. We do tend to fly much more during our own drama productions, but that's 3 times per year max. Most of the time I need kids that can move a pipe safely and be familiar enough with the system to know when something isn't right or needs attention.

That all being said, the first week of class is pretty much all safety and how not to kill anyone in the theatre. Interspersed throughout the year we reference back to that. My kids have a good safety culture and will call each other out on not using PPE and are good at policing themselves, under supervision of course (I don't exclusively rely on them to make sure they are safe obviously). I'd like to eventually build this into a series of intro videos and in my planning I was thinking of creating a safety one that centered around carpentry, but also touched on other aspects of stagecraft.

----

Back to the pulling down notion, I was an audio guy, turned lighting guy and starting this job four years back necessitated I learn about rigging. The TD immediately before me was a great guy, but not very experienced in tech theatre and the one before him (who was the first for this facility) was a musician and audio guy who also had to learn on the fly (ha).
They both pulled up to fly out and I think the reasoning here was (beyond being audio people) is that our lock rail is in the middle of the arbor travel, meaning that when most curtains are at in trim, the arbor is right at lock rail height. Also, being at height, you are also contending with the lift lines, since the majority of out trims will put the arbor below you. Now, I know there's nothing wrong with pulling down on the arbor to move it, but I think that's where the trend here might have originated. I'd be interested to hear from others who have worked on systems with an elevated lock rail too. I generally have pulled down to start a set moving up and then pull up to maintain momentum.

I went back and looked through a few of the resources I've acquired and only saw mention of pulling down on the back line in a white paper from Clancy. Everything else seems to just reference using the purchase line to move the arbor/batten without describing much at all about the direction. Granted, that's just a very limited sampling from a few minutes of browsing yesterday.

I do love that about stagecraft though. I never cease finding something new where there's 100 people that are stunned that you didn't know it was that way. Reminds me of cheeseboro/cheeseborough/cheeseburger a bit.
 
The operator should never leave the lineset unattended with the lock ring removed.

I got some PM's about that one too! Sorry, that has been the protocol here. Visibility from our lock rail is limited, so kids would check the rail, look at the stage and call out, turn back around and pull the wrong set. Removing the lock ring first I think was his way of making sure the kid thought about what set to move. It will be reworked in 2.0.
 
Further about "which line to pull" -- Just like moving a guillotine curtain, I tend, once started, to use *both*, to make the move smoother; I'll move both hands down the lines, gripping the front, and then both hands up, gripping the back.

Assuming the lineset is in proper balance, of course. If it's out appreciably in either direction, you gotta pull down, cause you need gravity's help.
 
Over-all: A+. /QUOTE @teqniqal Erich; 3 points you MAY consider including:
1; NEVER start battens swinging. So often you see pipes being flown in to their bottom EOT stop and they're being flown in perfectly fine by the fly person; descending FLAWLESSLY without any hint of swinging. (Which is a good thing) :
a; if someone is waiting to spike a precise location of where an item, legs, scrim or projection screen for example, will land on the deck and
b; Swinging battens are in no one's best interest when one, or more, crew members decide they're going to help the poor fly person pull in the batten. WRONG!
c; At that point, the last thing the fly person needs is someone pulling down on the batten when it's already travelling in of its own volition and the fly person is gently slowing its descent as it's approaching its lower EOT [End Of Travel] stop.
d; The batten was coming in with extreme lateral positional accuracy when some uneducated "helper" starts it swinging like a pendulum BEFORE anyone's had a chance to accurately spike its precise position on the deck (If desired / required)
A swinging pendulum suspended from a 40' grid requires appreciable time to stop swinging.
When suspended from a 120' grid, you may as well call "Lunch!", or at the very least "Coffee".
2; You wrote of the proper tool to use when inserting ribbons into the operating line in lieu of spiking with various types of adhesive tapes which are prone to slipping and leaving sticky, grime attracting, residue behind. You MAY want to mention the tip of the cutting blade in your favorite Buck knife is NOT the tool for the job and you MAY choose to elaborate on why.
3; Someone should mention it's extremely useful to have lateral center lines indelibly indicated on every batten and it's probably useful to explain why a center supporting cable rarely lines up precisely with the center of the deck.
Normally a center supporting cable will be off center by the radius of its loft block / sheave.
Thank you for an excellent, and comprehensive, list.
@BillConnerFASTC / @MNicolai , would either of you care to comment?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
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Your post, quoting teq, is *entirely* a quote of him, even though most of it is your writing.

Probably a typo in a /QUOTE tag.
 

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