pantheraba
More biners!!!
I am on our local Dive Team....search, rescue, recovery for water situations (bodies, evidence, etc.). We also do land work but this question is water related.
We recently did our second vehicle recovery at this bridge site on the Chattahoochee River. There is a boat ramp upstream and local bad folks seem to like to launch cars from that ramp. The cars float downstream and often lodge right there at the bridge. (the one we recovered about 2 years ago had been stolen from the Atlanta Police impound lot!!!) No bodies found in cars yet.
About three weeks ago we got called to check this car out (video below). They have us on standby in case there are bodies need to be recovered in the car. For this particular operation we had to launch our boat, get people in the boat, go downstream, navigate and hold a stable position while the people in the boat passed a lifting strap through the roof of the car.
All went fine but it was a bit time-consuming and laborious.
I started wondering if this could be done without using the boat. I figure I could set up an anchor point perhaps on the and of the wrecker arm. Then rappel down on ddrt system as we do in trees...I could lower myself down to the roof and be secure and stable while I passed the strap through the top of the car, hook it up to the wrecker cable and then I could ascend my rope back up to the bridge.
I could remove myself from the wrecker apparatus and let them lift the car out of the river once I was back on the road above.
I'm wondering what you guys recommend as a good way to make a good anchor point so that I could run my rope thru a belay block or rescue pulley and go DDRT down to the target car.
Maybe a chain around the wrecker arm, securing the ends with a screw link? Or a nylon double eye strap, heavy duty? Attach a rescue pulley to the chain with a biner (lockable, of course) and descend/ascent with that? Open to suggestions.
You can see the wrecker "arm" in the first 7 seconds and at 3:37 and 6:50.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RSEaSA12z_M" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
We recently did our second vehicle recovery at this bridge site on the Chattahoochee River. There is a boat ramp upstream and local bad folks seem to like to launch cars from that ramp. The cars float downstream and often lodge right there at the bridge. (the one we recovered about 2 years ago had been stolen from the Atlanta Police impound lot!!!) No bodies found in cars yet.
About three weeks ago we got called to check this car out (video below). They have us on standby in case there are bodies need to be recovered in the car. For this particular operation we had to launch our boat, get people in the boat, go downstream, navigate and hold a stable position while the people in the boat passed a lifting strap through the roof of the car.
All went fine but it was a bit time-consuming and laborious.
I started wondering if this could be done without using the boat. I figure I could set up an anchor point perhaps on the and of the wrecker arm. Then rappel down on ddrt system as we do in trees...I could lower myself down to the roof and be secure and stable while I passed the strap through the top of the car, hook it up to the wrecker cable and then I could ascend my rope back up to the bridge.
I could remove myself from the wrecker apparatus and let them lift the car out of the river once I was back on the road above.
I'm wondering what you guys recommend as a good way to make a good anchor point so that I could run my rope thru a belay block or rescue pulley and go DDRT down to the target car.
Maybe a chain around the wrecker arm, securing the ends with a screw link? Or a nylon double eye strap, heavy duty? Attach a rescue pulley to the chain with a biner (lockable, of course) and descend/ascent with that? Open to suggestions.
You can see the wrecker "arm" in the first 7 seconds and at 3:37 and 6:50.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RSEaSA12z_M" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>