Rescue Plan and Tallescope Usage

[J Pearce]

As far as I can see the days of the tallescope are done. If your stage can take it use a scissor or boom lift, if not a mains powered vertical lift is no heavier than a tallescope and with the new rules no more inconvenient. A battery powered lift is more convenient but slightly heavier.

It gets round the rescue issue because it has hydraulic release, it also gets round climbing fatigue and can be used by one person on stage (with another out front calling the focus), rather than a team for the scope.

[ramdram]

If there was a strike by the Emergency Services then, following an accident, possibly the guy in the basket mates would attempt to help. This rescue attempt may work, it may not, and another person could be hurt.

 

There again, the management might deem any tallescope work verboten until they knew there would be cover. Who can say until the event happened?

 

Doubtless the RA would have been written to cover this eventuality...after all, working without the F&R bods on the end of a 999 call is a risk, is it not?

 

It may be too that the person who would be the bod in the basket may refuse to work in said basket because a). there was no proper rescue cover or b). he or she might not be entirely confident their mates could mount a rescue.

 

And, whilst on the "what if" questions...most of the assumptions made hitherto have a scenario where someone is stuck in an erect, perfectly stable, tallescope. It may be the tallescope is partly collapsed, leaning on some bars or truss or against a wall or wrapped in the legs, tabs, borders, scenery etc, etc and the basket can't even be seen. Or a cable is wrapped around the bod or basket or both.

 

How many rescue plans are you going to have and how many times are you going to practice the drill for all scenarios?

 

And while you are thumbing through this compendium of plans the bloke is bleeding to death or choking his life away.

[GRisdale]

The ABTT COP includes the requirement for modifications to the Tallescope. The modifications come as a kit of parts which the manufacturers of the Tallescope AAP, have designed and are supplying as a kit. The kit includes:

 

A second pair of outriggers (4 fitted in total)

A set of 4 castor wheels which do not ‘lift’ when the brake is applied.

A set of 4 pushing bar extensions which stand vertically at the 4 corners of the base frame.

Sorry this is off topic, but this is actually one of the funniest things I have heard in a long time. Nice work AAP - that'll fix it!!! It's amazing what you can come up with with just a couple of years of development!

 

Gareth.

[Ynot]

Jeez!!

There are only so many "what ifs" you can allow for in an RA!!

 

In this example, IF the fire service were on strike I'd say that maybe you'd need to compile a subsidiary RA to cover the period where they're not available!!

 

 

[ramdram]

I am still of the opinion that the "authorities" are fully intent on closing down all the "less safe" means of working at height.

 

Nobody would have the time, or will for that matter, to come up with all the possible accident scenarios...then formulate a viable plan(s) for rescue not involving sky hooks...and simply buy some other form of access kit.

 

Perhaps, and some say this is far more likely...there is an HMG conspiracy to close down all theatres with stages incapable of withstanding a troupe of performing elephants when some genius, but insane producer, decides to reanimate "Hannibal" from the days of the Palais Garnier.

[ninjadingle]

Ramdram... I'm playing devils advocate, based on a situation that has happened before and has the potential to happen again....

 

(Also as I covered the last fire strikes and know how much training the guys who cover it get, potentially could be interesting!)

[ramdram]

But aren't we all?

 

Revisiting this notion that some stages may not be able to withstand the weight of access kit other than a tallescope...it occurs to me that when the stage was being designed the architect would not have insisted on using 1/8th ply or strips of balsa.

 

I would suggest that the stages are in fact over engineered owing to the theatrical architect knowing his trade and planning for a lot of cast prancing around onstage, with props etc, etc.

 

As remarked above shirley the cleverest thing would be to oik out the plans for the stage, find out the loading figures, then invite the makers or suppliers of other access kit, scissor jack types and so on, to visit and give an opinion?

 

Even if you were obliged to lay "weight/load spreading" boards beforehand it would not be that difficult. Crikey, it might even be easier that concocting a suite of rescue plans for a distressed tallescope...

[Ynot]

Many touring shows - especially dance shows - often bring a temporary sprung floor with them, which is often by necessity one of the first things down on stage. That in itself means that whilst the main stage may well support a Skyjack or similar MEWP, the temporary flooring may not so. That therefore limits what can be 'driven' over the stage during those load-ins etc.

 

 

[ramdram]

Good point. And very difficult to focus on an empty stage.

[J Pearce]

The 1a category static vertical lift we have at work is fine on a sprung floor. Really as far as I can see these are the new tallescopes.

They can be hired for around £120 a day, so most places could probably own a lightweight scissor lift and hire a 1a in for the odd touring dance event.

 

To be honest I'm not sure why you would want to use a tallescope (under the no moving rules) instead of something like a 1a lift.

[Glyn Edwards]

Partly because with 4 people you can get a tallescope up a flight of stairs to service the lighting on the FoH mezzanine level of a venue I know. I've yet to meet any scissor lift that you can do that with.

 

The other problem I foresee, based on experience here at the Belgrade is that our stage will take the weight of a genie or other access platform, mostly. Sadly getting it on stage over the dip traps is a different story. Smiliarly we have been told we can't use ours in the centre stage area for fear of it ending up in the trap room below.

 

As far as money is concerned, £120 a day means being able to buy a new Tallescope every 8 months or so, assuming daily use, or at least that it is available for use for relamping the dead unit overhead etc.

[Tomo]

The 1a category static vertical lift we have at work is fine on a sprung floor. Really as far as I can see these are the new tallescopes.

They can be hired for around £120 a day, so most places could probably own a lightweight scissor lift and hire a 1a in for the odd touring dance event.

How much does that weigh?

 

The biggest tallie comes in at 127kg plus payload, 241kg max. gross.

The lightest 4-8m vertical personnel lift units I see knocking about seem to be 300-400kg plus payload, 500-600kg (max. gross).

 

So even now we're looking at a minimum of double the weight, which I can see being trouble in many cases.

 

I also find the idea of having to use weight spreader boards beneath such a unit quite worrying.

It's easy to get that wrong, and there is little scope for markings on the stage denoting "safe areas" given that the industrial process of staging a show almost always requires a false floor, paint, or other things that hide the 'raw surface'.

[J Pearce]

I'll look it up on Monday, I seem to remember its around 200kg, but can't remember if that is gross or machine weight. It helps that ours is a non battery model, so you're not lugging a huge battery pack round too.

[Paul TC]

The biggest tallie comes in at 127kg plus payload, 241kg max. gross.

The lightest 4-8m vertical personnel lift units I see knocking about seem to be 300-400kg plus payload, 500-600kg (max. gross).

 

So even now we're looking at a minimum of double the weight, which I can see being trouble in many cases.

A good 30 years ago I was using a very lightweight work platform lift powered by CO2, like the genie materials lift, when I spent a summer amongst other things changing light bubs in a shopping centre. Can't find a link to anything like it on the web. Used to have a deal with the on-site pub over the CO2 cylinders, Emergency let down was easy, as there was a gas release valve at the bottom. From dim and distant memory I had 5 mins trainning on the use of it.

[GRisdale]

Even at 600kg gross weight, spread over at least four points (excluding the outrigger for a moment), that's about the same as four fat people standing on one leg,

 

Haven't seen many venue specs with "You may not nail or screw into the stage surface. Groups of obese people may not hop on stage". It's an insurance time bomb. Maybe the ABTT should commission some lab tests on it.

 

Gareth.