I was thinking about Reg's big trees, and thinking I'd like to try climbing one. If I did something like that, I'd want to have a line set so I could rappel down if I got too weirded out. How to set the line? Probably out of bigshot range, no? Got me thinking you could maybe fly a line up with a drone. Maybe too much drag for a reasonable machine to carry? Just musing... I'm sure I'll never climb a big tree, and I don't need a drone for the stuff I do, but ya think it would work?
Set Throwline With A Drone - Stupid Idea?
- Thread starter lxskllr
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MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Hey, if I a drone I'd be using it! )outside of that I'd just toss it up there!!!
Nutball
TreeHouser
You could climb with a throw line and use it to advance your climb line.
kevin bingham
TreeHouser
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Nick araya uses drones to set lines in palm trees in la. Flying drones near branches and leaves is tricky. Nick has a fishing set up that is used on drones. Folks fly out from the beach, you can see where a school of fish is with the drone camera and then you drop the hook and bait right on top of the fish.
vharrison
Island Girl
That fishing set up sounds cool as all get out!
kevin bingham
TreeHouser
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You can also trawl with drone. Dragging the bait around until a fish grabs it and pulls the line out of the drone that has a release clip that keeps the drone from being pulled into the water. It all seems cheating to me. But at the end of the day fishing is all about figuring out how to get an advantage and the tech is pretty neat. Setting a line in a palm is notoriously difficult pulling the line through the tangle. Nick can just fly the line up and over the best part of the palm. I can see it being good for the sequoia s where the first branch is 150. They are also wide open with not a lot of interference from leaves and branches.
John, you would need a climbline set for a recreational climb like that, spiking trees that won't be removed is a no no, especially super old awesome ones. If you don't have one already, a bigshot or apta potato gun thing can be super critical for a tree company, being able to set lines with ease is kinda what climbing hardwoods is all about.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #8
I'd want to spike it. I wasn't really thinking of a recreational climb. This is all hypothetical, but I'd want to do a prework "recreational" climb to see what it's like flip lining up a monster tree. I have zero concept of what it would be like going up a tree with nothing to hold onto aside from the flipline. The biggest I've climbed, I could have (unsafely)gotten up without using a lanyard at all, by gripping the bark til a little way up where I could hold onto the tree. It would be interesting not having that option available, and to see what it's like to get *really* high off the ground, and whether or not I could even do it.
Burnham
Woods walker
Ya shoulda been there!
I personally feel spiking up larger diameter wood is safer than skinny wood, because a flipline will actually catch a fall instantly. Of course you hit a certain diameter that makes it more work, and that sucks, but i haven't ever been in that size of wood, and in the midwest will likely never get there. Alternating fliplines and the like, and actually needing the wrist roll to get anywhere, would be cool to do once but I'll never do it. Skinny wood, the kind i find myself on most of the time, without a wrap, will not catch a fall unless you actually have your hands on the line to squeeze the trunk. Hence part of the reason i suck on spurs 
Having said that, I've gone up on just spurs and flipline a bunch, sometimes it's the easiest way to get up there, and is perfectly safe if you have your hands on the line by the trunk to squeeze if you gaff out.
Having said that, I've gone up on just spurs and flipline a bunch, sometimes it's the easiest way to get up there, and is perfectly safe if you have your hands on the line by the trunk to squeeze if you gaff out.
pantheraba
More biners!!!
I assume you at least always do use a lanyard. Once...and only once...I spiked up a tree with just spikes...combat boots, spikes, shorts...no harness or lanyard...about 20 feet up. Looked simple, didn't want to put the saddle on...hot, summer, deep woods building an obstacle course for a survival course. The fellow in the tree needed nails, I think, so I grabbed a handful, put on the spikes and took the nails up...young, 20 something, dumb, can't get hurt mentality. Just as I started down a spur kicked out... and I ended up in the soft forest floor seemingly OK...no bone or body injury. Then I saw my knee. Left spike had gone in just above the right knee...look at the picture closely and you can see the triangle shape of the gaff. I don't know if I got gaffed when the spur first kicked out and I stepped into my own knee or if it stuck in my leg when I hit the ground. Net result was a hole in my thigh. They did quick first aid, loaded me into the trusty 1968 Scout and hadn't gone 50 yards before the fellow driving got flustered and ran the jeep off into the muck/mud at the creek. I spent about an hour in the back of the jeep holding pressure on the wound while they cut down a long stout tree to leverage under the jeep to get it out of the mud.
On the way to the doctor in town (about 30 minutes away) Fergie, the future Marine, was in the back of the Scout with me, controlling the bleeding. He saw some deer running up the side of the steep hills along the Richard Russell Highway that led to town. He got all excited and let the pressure off the hole. I told him I'd appreciate it if he cared more about my bleeding out than the stupid deer. And then there was the doctor that sewed me up as he told the story about his medical certificate...from an island in the Caribbean...because he wasn't good enough to get into an American medical school. Bedside manner.
Don't try spurring up without a harness and lanyard...it can get pretty weird pretty quick.
On the way to the doctor in town (about 30 minutes away) Fergie, the future Marine, was in the back of the Scout with me, controlling the bleeding. He saw some deer running up the side of the steep hills along the Richard Russell Highway that led to town. He got all excited and let the pressure off the hole. I told him I'd appreciate it if he cared more about my bleeding out than the stupid deer. And then there was the doctor that sewed me up as he told the story about his medical certificate...from an island in the Caribbean...because he wasn't good enough to get into an American medical school. Bedside manner.
Don't try spurring up without a harness and lanyard...it can get pretty weird pretty quick.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #13
Yea, I'm always suited up. What I usually do on my little stuff is climb like I don't have a lanyard. The flipline is cupped in my hands, and I haul it up while holding the tree, checking length every so often. I'm usually only supported by the line when I'm cutting or resting. The couple trees I did with some size, I started the climb using the flipline a bit more than usual, but it wouldn't have been essential. If there were wolves behind me, I'd have gotten up the tree with spurs only :^D
edit:
That was a hell of an ordeal Gary. LoL at that doctor :^D
edit:
That was a hell of an ordeal Gary. LoL at that doctor :^D
murphy4trees
TreeHouser
If you can figure it out, let us know. The APTA is the current state of the art technology when the limbs are out of big shot range.
Marc-Antoine
TreeHouser
Either ways to launch the throwline, I have to figure out a new one. I suck more and more at it. I don't have much practice, that's a point, because I try to avoid it the most I can with my telescopic pole. But recently I had to dead wood a bunch of oaks along a driveway, 20 forest shaped trees in the 65-80 feet range. The throwline was mandatory, but it was awful, like 20 or 30 launches each time. It seems that my right hand doesn't respond as well as before, perhaps a age/carpal tunnel thing. Either the line slept out of my fingers and that went way too low, or if I held hard to keep it thigh, I can't get the release signal soon enough and the damn thing went over head. And the temperature wasn't cold enough to be a good excuse.
I like the drone idea. It would be a slow and steady travel up there, more convenient in my eyes than the dragster start of the Bigshot or the Apta.
I like the drone idea. It would be a slow and steady travel up there, more convenient in my eyes than the dragster start of the Bigshot or the Apta.
What do you call " Big shot range"?
We've set lines in Giant Sequoias and redwoods at 70 meters with a Bigshot.
That is 15 meters above the top of the highest tree in Denmark.
You must have some Whoppers in PA if you can't get into them with a Bigshot.
For setting lines, get an APTA. It is extremely rare for me to need more than one shot with the APTA. So much so that I use it on everything, big or small, because it is as close as you can get to a guarantee.
Gary, your story reminded me of my first time on spurs. I was younger and dumber, about 14. An older friend and I were checking hawk nests and he had brought along a set of spurs and asked if I wanted to give them a try, said sure. Nest was about 60 feet up and overhanging an embankment. Strapped on the spurs and up I went. Just spurs, nothing else and I'd never used the damn things. Moron!
Made it up, counted 4 chicks and headed back down. Made it most of the way before I drove the right foot spike deep into me left ankle. They make quite a hole, lol.
Gary, your story reminded me of my first time on spurs. I was younger and dumber, about 14. An older friend and I were checking hawk nests and he had brought along a set of spurs and asked if I wanted to give them a try, said sure. Nest was about 60 feet up and overhanging an embankment. Strapped on the spurs and up I went. Just spurs, nothing else and I'd never used the damn things. Moron!
Made it up, counted 4 chicks and headed back down. Made it most of the way before I drove the right foot spike deep into me left ankle. They make quite a hole, lol.
gf beranek
Old Schooler
Neither did I. Crack me up, Stig.
pantheraba
More biners!!!
Professed and confirmed idjit...right here! DMc...good one...I thought I was the only one goofy enough to climb with just spurs! And when I read between the lines, it looks like we are in good company with Stig and Jerry!!
murphy4trees
TreeHouser
I usually can hit 75 -85' fairly accurately. At 200' your big shot is bigger than mine!
murphy4trees
TreeHouser
SeanKroll
Treehouser
I've shot a measured 175' TIP with a Bigshot, 80# braided halibut line, 4 oz Wesspur Bumblebee weight, and an open-faced reel.
Bob Stewart's homemade pneumatic launcher was blowing over 160' pondo pine at Willie's GTG.
Bob Stewart's homemade pneumatic launcher was blowing over 160' pondo pine at Willie's GTG.
RegC
TreeHouser
I think its a great idea if the drone can safely fly through the crotch. Id think some sort of light weight horizontal rod, a foot or more, would need to be attached to the drone to attach the line to the end. That way you're not going go hit the rotors with the line on the way down. Couple time it would've been really handy last week, although probably not in the rain.
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