Another thing is to not operate anything on the
rail (or "flys" as some use) in panic or adrenaline mode. Make sure you know which rope moves things which way. Always always always lock the
lineset when you're not about to move it, or anytime you're hands off. Get a pair of gloves- like REI or Black Diamond climbing gloves (fingerless, so you don't have to take them on and off to push the
button on your com), or Harken brand or other brand sailing gloves.
Use
spike tape (if the
venue allows) to
mark where you want to stop in your move as you grow the tree.
Mark each position with a different colored stripe just over the top of the rope lock.
Look onstage AND at the
rail, back and forth as you make your moves, so you know what's going on all around you.
Nobody should be talking to you on
deck when moving the
rail, unless it's to
call an emergency stop.
A
theatre in Hamilton, Ontario's locking
rail was ~30' above SR. Due to structural steel, two arbors were never installed. The plastic labelling strip had been pre-manufactured and bore numbers for all 40+ sets, even though two sets were never installed. Since all the carriages, locks, head and loft blocks were on site, when the supplier's installer arrived, we negotiated to have
line set 19 totally omitted and to add longer cables, since they were being cut from a reel on site, to the carriage for the other blocked
arbor and use its limited travel to hang and fly the centre
cluster of four Apogee AE5's. The limited travel permitted the
cluster to be flown into
deck level, out to it's normal operating
trim and out of sight during straight / non-musical productions; there was never any need to fly the
cluster out to
grid height.
When the supplier completed their contracted installation, they (in) secured their ~1/4" thick 'write on' labeling strip to the lock
rail with double sided tape. Over the course of the
venue's first season, 4 to 6
foot portions of the labeling strip fell off. None of the carps department thought it worth their time to drill, counter sink, tap and
bolt the labeling strip to the
rail, they simply added more tape and hoped for the best.
Tying this back to
@What Rigger? 's post regarding
"to not operate anything on the rail (or "flys" as some use) in panic or adrenaline mode."
During the performance of a musical with three or four carps on the
rail, some of whom were totally unfamiliar with the
venue, two consecutive lengths of the plastic labeling strip fell off leaving the two carps handling the lower numbered half of the
rail scrambling; they were racing DS to set #1 then
FRANTICALLY counting locks 'til they got to their
line set.
Guess what happens when you FORGET there is no set 19.
A
border they'd seen no need to
spike since it was trimmed and locked off for the duration of the production, was unlocked and hastily flown in by a fly-person in a panic; in a panic since he was already late by the time he'd counted to some number past 19. There he was pulling as quickly as he could staring intently for his
spike, the non-existent
spike since he was one set away from where he should've been.
Imagine how startled the cast were when a
border began piling up on the
deck.
There are several lessons to be learned in the foregoing.
(My alarm's summoning me to evening
med's)
Bye, gotta fly! [No pun intended.]
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
