While a little late, I'll respond for future reference.
For most fixtures, best practice is to run a rope from the top, through one handle, through the
yoke, up through the opposite handle, and then knot on top, center of the
fixture. The knot should be as close to the
fixture as you can get it, so the "up" person doesn't have to lift the light quite as high. Many people use a
bowline as the knot. Just make sure the
bowline is tied correctly. I personally prefer to use a "figure eight on a
bight" knot, with a carabiener, and a
daisy chain webbing for faster and safer operation. Tie any excess rope tail as a backup knot.
This method puts less stress on handles, and the
yoke acts as a backup if a handle should fail. I recommend against using the
safety points for lifting for several reasons: best practice is to
safety the
fixture to the pipe/
truss/structure before you untie the rope. Often that is not
practical when the
safety point is used for lifting. Additionally, the
safety point often is just a hole in a piece of metal, which presents sharp cutting edges to the rope.
My exception to the above is for small moving
LED fixtures that don't have handles (such as impression x4's)... since going through the
yoke ends up flipping the light over, the
safety point is about the only place that can lift the light and keep the clamp facing up.
If a
fixture weighs more than 50 pounds, I usually rig my rope as a double
purchase system.
To rig the rope for lifting, use a shiv/pulley above where you want to hang it.... higher is better. Just remember that you will be putting well over twice the fixtures weight on the anchor
point (a 50 pound
fixture, needs 50 pounds of pull on the other side of the rope just to keep the light
in one place, so that is 100 pounds of force on the anchor for a 50 pound light. Pulling the
fixture up puts even more force on the
system.
My regular lifting kit includes:
1 rope bag (aka pumpkin)
1 150' 5/8" cotton static rope (this allows a 70 straight pull, or 45' double
purchase pull)
2 split shiv pulleys (only one needed for straight pull)
2
daisy chain webbings (one for the anchor, one for the
fixture)
4 self closing, self locking, steel carabieners (2 for single
purchase, the extra 2 make double
purchase easier, but aren't required)
1 "bear paw" rigging plate. (optional, but makes the double
purchase setup nicer)
Hope this helps.
Rig safe
Ronald Beal
20 year touring veteran, who has roped in over 1000 moving lights.