This just all sounds like a bad idea. As far as I'm concerned this is one of those topics that you either have the budget to do it right or you don't do it at all. Things like the Genie fork lift look good but it's not what they are designed for and you are going to get slammed with a law suit. Modifying a bucket genie lift sounds like an even worse idea.
By the way Logos. How
OSHA regulates theater is a very vague and confusing topic. In my state for
OSHA laws do not apply. We have our own state industrial
safety laws. In the case of schools most of the
OSHA laws don't apply because they
cover employees, not students. It's a mess. You would think there would be
clear rules about using lifts and fly systems but there aren't. Instead it's all buried in other job applications so you often have to be a
wizard to just figure out what
OSHA has to say. In the
safety class I took last summer we were told that there is only one state with theater specific occupational
safety laws... no not New York, California, or Nevada... IDAHO! Yep the state that only has two theaters has strict
safety laws about rigging.