Bungee Fun

[Homer Landreth]

OK, I am going to roll the dice and P**s off a group of people and risk being banished forever from this site but here goes: I am going to play the "Old Sarge", my Railroad career safety oriented Father, your Jewish Grandma, and every other vocal person in between and say to you all in that bungee video " WHADDDARE YOU GUYS DOIN' TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF OR SOMETHING ? I don't think I have ever seen such a collage of Ground Safety violations in my life, and from 20 years of Air Force Safety briefings, I have seen a lot of them. In the video, (1).There are no safety glasses, (2). No gloves, (3). No goggles, (4). No positioning of observers to be out of line of flying objects, (5). The operator placed his arms and body in the path of recoil of the tool arm, (6). A pry bar was used where no fulcrum brace was provided, (7) An observer stuck his hands right into the most hazardous point of the tool, and (. An observer had his face directly behind the area where a pry bar would have flown to if sprung. Did I miss anything ? That is not withstanding the personal belief that I would never use that tool. The bungee tool from the SWPC store is infinetely safer because your brute strength is never needed to stretch the bungee. With the tool in the video, if your strength gives out, the stretched bungee can recoil the lever arm that you are using to stretch it, there is no protective stop to keep the full force of the lever arm from whacking whatever part of your body is in it's way. With the SWPC tool you always have the stretched bungee mechanically secured and the leverage to stretch it is mechanically positioning it and there is no recoil risk to the operators limbs. I really do hope that my writing this is taken in the right spirit by all, it is not intended to personally admonish anyone and it is intended to be for the benefit of everyone. It would be really sad to know that someone ended up with a fractured skull or a severed finger or a broken arm by not realizing what hazards are present and what protective measures could have been taken for personal safety. It is also written from having, in the past, the experience of getting a screaming, injured maintenance person over to the hospital after a routine maintenance operation was performed and all of the rules of Ground Safety were not followed. So, if I made anyone mad, please cut me some slack for having a flashback to a really bad day in the past that didn't have to happen. Many simple tasks in what we do with our simple airplanes can be just a microsecond from causing a debilitating injury. Be safe Guys !

[steve]

Homer is right. It was ALMOST as dangerous as flying!

sj

[Homer Landreth]

Well Steve, I guess you made your point on what you think about my reply. So be it, everyone to his own opinion. I do encourage everyone to be careful in what they do because the ramifications and recovery are seldom pleasant.

[smcnutt]

I don't know Steve but I guess he was injecting humor into his post. I doubt anyone could disagree with Homers assesment of the event. Not that we've not all (or most of us) done something similarly dangerous and then in retrospect thought better of it. Always a good idea to learn from those instances and try and do it differently next time. Remember, a severe injury or death would drastically effect your chances to go flying. :shock:

Steve, if that was 'ALMOST as dangerous as YOUR flying' I will keep that in mind should I ever get the chance to fly with you. More humor in case you didn't catch that.

[Curly]

Homer - I think you must have gone to the same school as my welding instructor!

Ron - 6'3'', four axe handles across the shoulders, ex Army apprentice training officer and one of the nicest blokes you would hope to meet. I fronted up to the bench grinder without a safety mask and started grinding! Next thing I got an almighty kick in the posterior (bloody hurt too!) When I looked around there was Ron with a look on his face like thunder! "They can't do eye transplants as far as I know and if I ever catch you doing something that stupid again you'll get a harder one". That was 25 years ago and only yesterday I fronted up to the bench grinder without a mask and immediately got that twitchy feeling in the back of the trousers - so I went and got the mask - Thanks Ron!
(And we are still good mates 25 years on).

Curly

[Curly]

Funny how things jog your memory - I was just thinking about my old Dad (motor mechanic most of his life) who was blind in one eye - courtesy of a chip from the top of a cold chisel. Even the simplest things can get you! ( I ALWAYS grind any burrs from the top of my chisels)

[Hillbilly]

Homer - I think you must have gone to the same school as my welding instructor!

Ron - 6'3'', four axe handles across the shoulders, ex Army apprentice training officer and one of the nicest blokes you would hope to meet. I fronted up to the bench grinder without a safety mask and started grinding! Next thing I got an almighty kick in the posterior (bloody hurt too!) When I looked around there was Ron with a look on his face like thunder! "They can't do eye transplants as far as I know and if I ever catch you doing something that stupid again you'll get a harder one". That was 25 years ago and only yesterday I fronted up to the bench grinder without a mask and immediately got that twitchy feeling in the back of the trousers - so I went and got the mask - Thanks Ron!
(And we are still good mates 25 years on).

Curly

Hes just waiting to get his boot back...

[Gilbert Pierce]

Homer,
I was there and you are right. It was not safe. I think sometimes some of us take too much for granted. There is a lot energy stored in those rubber bands and complacency causes us to overlook what can happen with one slip.

[Steve Pierce]

No worries Homer. after the instructions were read and the parts left to your own interpretation were figured out no pry bars or other implements were needed. It is actually a very good tool and works on several that the Stewart's tool does not.

We would have given you heart failure today. :shock: Removed the front spar attach fittings on a Super Cub with the rear spar attached to the fuselage, front part of the wing hanging from a chain hoist from the ceiling with a strap wrapped around the #1 compression strut and two ratchet straps tied to the top of the front lift strut anchored to the receiver hitch on my pick-up truck. Worked great and beat the heck out of removing the wings to install a modification that might not work. 8-)