I have alot of old pics featuring aeronautical devices used for logging. For a few years in the early 90's I was a loading/trucking contractor working with Columbia Helicopters and Evergreen Helicopters around Washington State. I have been in the hot seat of the shovel scrambling and cursing as the pilots buried me in logs and laughed about it! Bastards. Here in Alaska a fellow name Pat Soderberg pioneered loggong with hot-air balloons, and for a few years it really took off, pun intended. Today in Alaska, Columbia Helicopters has a full-time office and shop in Ketchikan and camps in various remote locations around Southeast AK. They are a customer of mine here now on the log loader side of things. Columbia pioneered heavy-lift here is Alaska (on the slope, not logging) with experimensts pulling a loaded 'hoverbarge' around on the ice at Prudhoe Bay. So,I know for a fact there are lots of us here with some pics and stories. How about sharing a few??
I stole this material and photo from another website. How's that for a disclaimer?!! Anyway I like it so here it is. It inspired the thread. In June 1982, Columbia Helicopters was hired by Sohio to participate in a test on Alaska's North Slope. The purpose of this test was to evaluate the ability of a helicopter - the Boeing Vertol 107-II - to tow a fully-loaded hover barge over water, snow and ice. The test began in Prudhoe Bay on June 17. The Vertol's 600-foot long line was connected to hover barge ACT-100, jointly owned by Global Marine Development and VECO. Air blowers on the 170-ton barge forced a cushion of air under the barge, which was kept in place by rubberized skirt material. This first test was run around Prudhoe Bay with an empty barge, and was successful. During this and subsequent tests, the aircraft often flew with a nose-down angle approaching 25 degrees. Next, ACT-100 was loaded with 40 tons of cargo for another close-in test run. Once more, the helicopter showed it could move the barge despite the additional weight. The final aspect of the test was to tow the hover barge over a 50-mile course to a drill site named Alaska Island where Sohio had just completed an oil well. During the tow to the island, headwinds over 30 knots were encountered, and snow and ice buildup were also factors. Regardless, the Vertol was able to bring the empty barge to the island successfully. On the return trip to Prudhoe Bay, when this photo was taken, the barge carried 50 tons of cargo, bringing the total weight to 220 tons. As with the previous tests, this task was accomplished successfully. This photograph is one of longtime Columbia Helicopters' photographer Ted Veal's most famous photographs. The use of a powerful telephoto lens makes it appear as though the helicopter is closer to the ice than is actually the case.
Here are a few from Vancouver Island. Big Sikorsky.
Alaska Balloon Logging, 1973, near Kake Clear Creek Logging, Owned by Pat Soderberg, used this balloon for logging in Alaska in the 1970's. This isnt a great pic as it was taken out of a helicopter on a miserable day. Yarder is a Washington Aero-Yarder, loading shovel is a Washington TL-6 Trackloader on rubber. Also in the pic you can see a Cat dozer (used to anchor the balloon) and a grapple skidder to bring the logs from the yarder to the shovel.
that is one cool photo. they had one on the wall at VECO camp when i worked for them on the slope. i will ask my little brother (10th or 11th employee hired by Wes LaMatta Columbia owner) if he has some Columbia logging photos laying around i can scan. the Crane was a workhorse in its time and the biggest in the US until Columbia got a bunch of Boeing 234 Chinooks. the standing joke around crane pilots was, when are you going to make enough money with that aircraft to buy the other half of it?
A bunch of years ago, had to 90 or 91 we worked on a spread of equipment from Oregon that was moving to Vancouver Island. Whispering Winds I think was the name. They had two Washington Yarders and a LS98 Link-Belt line machine for loading logs. They also had an HD21 dozer to use for parking the balloon on at night. I don't have any pictures but have seen a couple on web awhile back. We had several Washington Iron mechanics working for us at the time and that's why they came through the Komatsu dealer. At any rate I did most of the work on 98 while the Washington guys redid the brakes and generally cleaned up both machines fixing wiring and air systems. I was talking to one of their operators when they were getting ready to load the machines on the barge. I asked about the operating issues of the balloon. He told me wind was a big problem. The balloon had so much lift that they would play hell getting the thing down in a blow. They parked the balloon by hooking it to the HD41 at night and the fellow told me a couple of times the machine had been drug out of place. Anyways, another great thread.
Whispering Winds rings a bell with me. I figure I've probably forgotten half what I have been told, so maybe someday I'll remember why it sounds familiar. Anyway, everybody post some pics. I'm still trying to find mine, lol.
Alas, all I have left are mental pics. Thanks again for the pics above though. Take care
Thanks for hangin' with us Dave. We're glad you found us and your contributions and recollections ar invaluable.
If there is an obvious answer to this question I have completly missed it, which for me is nothing out of the ordinary. How do the baloons control their direction? seems to me it would be a hard thing to do unless the loading dock was always upwind and they just winch it back and forth with a dozer?
There are two yarders, one on each side of the cutting. One lets cable out while the other brings cable in to pull the balloon through the sky.
Great pictures , you guys get up to some tricks..... What inflates the balloons ? Is it hot air or Helium or some other gas ? How can they stay up overnight ? How much weight can they lift ?
Aero Yarders I have some pics of parked Aero-Yarders, I think from Mesachie Lake, (together wit a lot of other slides). Trying to make a plan over how to get them scanned...
The balloons are filled with helium. There is usually a truck on site with what look like torpedo tanks stacked on each other. They can pump the helium into the balloon or out as needed.
Perhaps one of you guys could confirm this or explain where my memory has failed me but when I worked for Husby from Sept. of '86 until May of '87 he ran that Sikorsky S-64 at Eden Lake and I was told the following by one of the crew. First, the agent in Canada was Silver Grizzly at the time and the Erickson Air-Crane as it was called was operating out of Medford Oregon back then. This was before Husby took over as the agent etc. Anyway, I was told that the crew on the chopper were in constant radio contact with Medford (to keep track of actual flying time for maintenance purposes I think) and also that they could change the insurance coverage on the thing to suit whatever conditions they were in and/or to cover whoever was flying in the chopper at the time. I raise this question because when the then Premier of BC, Bill Vander Zalm flew a turn in it I was told that the insurance rates increased for that 42 minute period of time because of who the passenger was. Seemed a bit far-fetched to me at the time but given how some things work in the real world I'm now wondering if there is some validity to that claim. Anyone know? I also recall one dark and stormy night being the one human on the planet who was lying spread-eagled on top of a 30,000 gallon fuel tank while the wind blew about 60 knots and the rain was going sideways as I tried to see with a feeble little flashlight how close to the top the fuel was. It was being pumped from the fuel barge that visited Naden Harbour on a regular basis back in those days and someone had to tell them when to stop pumping. I think it was about three AM when that was happening and I was strongly wishing I was back in my bunk in the bunkhouse rather than being where I was. That thing went through a lot of fuel. An old but not terribly fond memory of mine. LOL Take care..
My only experience with heli-logging was when I took an evening drive to watch the late shift at work. I was driving along, wondering why the truck was shaking so much.... The bloody sky crane was hovering down the road above me, open grapple hanging over my truck! I wasn't impressed. Them things sure burn a lot of fuel, more in one day than all the rest of the equipment on the claim, combined.
Washingtons baloon yarders and helium tank Yard in Menachie lake, I think. Sorry about bad quality, I transfered the pic's from slides via a wall to my camera.
Sikorsky S-64F, Canadian Aircrane Sikorsky Skycrane, this is the F-version with 20% or something more trust compared to the more common E. With chokers it had on this location a ground crew of 6 X 3 men hooking on turns and 2 landings with 3 men taking off chokers and a Cat 966 piling the logs. Very dangerous place to work. In addition a foreman and an ambulance guy. Two pilots and three mechanics in the service area. And, of course, a chartered service helicopter to fly chokers back in the woods. Extremely high production, after what I remember I would guess around 10 cu. meters every 1 to 1,5 min for 30 min, then 20 or 30 min rest and fueling.
I see now this is not the same chopper, the one in the air is up in the end of Sproat Lake and is the "weaker" F, if I not remember wrong (I think the E have twin wheels on the main gear, but I may be wrong)
Awesome Pics of the Aero-Yarders Torkerl! These are the best pics I have seen of these machines, and every Aero-Yarder 'Washington Factory Photos' pic I have ever seen was of machines on military/tank undercarriages. I have never seen these, and they almost appear to be big Terex track frames.
How does the balloon move all that wheight or what does it do?:beatsme
contacting the operators of balloon logging I spoke with a few researchers recently who are interested in contacting the operators of balloon logging systems. You mentioned Pat Soderberg's hot-air balloons at "Clear Creek Logging", someone else mentioned "Whispering Winds", and Big Iron said his little brother worked for Wes LaMatta at Columbia in reference to balloon logging - I had only heard of Faye Stewart's "Flying Dutchman". Can you let me know if you know anybody who operated balloon logging systems? They seemed to have disappeared by the 80's.
The earliest reference I have to balloon logging is a Vancouver, BC company, "Air-Reel Transport Ltd.", they operated on Seymour Mountain, North Vancouver, 1962-3. Hope this helps.
Thank you for that info.. I haven't heard of that. From what I've heard, balloon logging was actually invented by the Dutch in the mid '50s, and brought to N. America not long after.. and I don't know who pioneered it here, so that's a great lead. I was specifically after any specific names of the operators, like Pat Soderberg, who actually did the work of balloon logging, and could talk about its benefits and shortcomings. If you know anyone, I would very much appreciate learning how to connect with them. Also, some of the only video footage of balloon logging still around is a couple of clips from a Lassie episode in the late 60's.. any other video footage would be very interesting to the discussion as well. Thanks for the help!
Everyone I knew who was ever involved has passed on to that pig flat old-growth patch in the sky. I will get with the 'archive' person at the Alaska Forest Association, and see what we can come up with on Pat's operation. I do know that Bohemia Inc, also used balloon's to log in Oregon for awhile. I wish I could help you more. The Washington Iron Works salesman who sold those balloon yarders is actually a friend on mine, and less busy right now than he would like. I'll see if I can get him involved some. He's been sending me alot of email lately which leads me to believe he is bored.
Haha! I'd love to talk to him! I've heard of Bohemia.. for some reason, I think it's associated with Faye Stewart's team, but I'm not positive. A couple other names: Sherman Hoke, John Bell, and several from the Oregon State Univ. Forestry Dept. Thank you very, very much.. there are no other resources on this, so I really appreciate anything you can provide!
It's bugging me enough that I'm throwing it out here for further research, but I'm sure I recall Vern Wellburn being involved in a balloon logging type venture back in the early 80's I think. I can't recall if BCFP was involved or not or even if he was working for BCFP at that time but I'm positive he was involved somehow. He may still be involved with the museum at Duncan here on Van Isle but I'm not sure of that either. Research Vern Wellburn a bit and see what you come up with. Take care.
Pat Soderburgs balloon was named "Queen of Shebb" and shipped to the North Yeman port of El hodida in mid 1977 along with (I beleive) was also his D8 ground support cat Also shipped over was a Madill 071 on tracks(brand new) and other support equipment, 2 boats ,2 pickups ,1 suburban , forklifts, 2 mobile homes, light plant , power poles, rigging, helium trailer etc. etc. etc. Also along for the adventure and to do the grub work was a Madill mechanic (ME) a cable guy from Port Angles and 3 baloon loggers from Forks Wa. as well as managment types. Plan was to unload ships at port. balloon was destroyed by wind mid Dec 1977 having never pulled a turn of cargo (flew some test flights) Rest of equipment was abandoned on the beach and crew all brought home Tax write-off We never went back.
Sorry. hunt & peck typist and can't spell either. Balloon named Queen of Sheba. I have a couple of pictures of balloon & 071 but apparently can't post yet. Too junior I guess.
Balloon yarding Some pic's from my professor's (Ivar Samset) main work on winch and cable systems. I have a pdf of the balloon theme (10 pp) if somebody is interested. Pic's are from a Bohemia Lumber operation in Goose Bay, California 1983
Balloon logging The yarders I photographed had belonged to "Skyhook Enterprices", I think that was owned by a man with a polish name. It was an article about Pat Soderbergs outfit in Pacific logging congress papers from late 70's, but I can't find it. And, we recently visited a former Bohemia shop, you could probably get in touch with someone that knows something through Weyerhaeuser there. I also (now this is the best part...) know about a balloon logging film in the archive of the Norwegian forestry research institute, I'll see if I can get hold of it and make a copy.
Erickson Aircrane Hydraulic longlines... Photos from Cameron
I actually may be able to help. I work with a guy who grew up in Canada in the logging camps while his dad was, what I was told, the manager of sky hook enterprises. My buddy was only about 10 (23 now) when his family moved down here to western Oregon and got into the steel business.
I was told the "F" model had the dual wheels, we had it in camp a few times at Powell Daniels, cann't remember the name on it, but I hauled fuel to it. Would take 600 gallons a cycle which was 45 min. of fly time and lay 150 meters of wood in the landing in that time. The "E" model that came in was called "Bubba", it was one of the older machines. told that at end of a cycle it could lift 20000 lbs where the F could do 25000 lbs. (I'll try to load pics).
Canandian Air-Crane S-64E flying wood.
Beaver Rescue! The Beaver hit a chunk when landing, opened a hole in one float and slowly rolled over, every one got out with only wet feet! This S-61 of Vancouver Island Helicopters came in to get it back to town. whole camp came to watch. Secuity Bay, Weldwood of Canada.
up up and away....
Heli-logging at Jervis Inlet out boating one day and found these guys flying wood.
I worked for Erickson Air Crane which is also Canadian Air Crane, i have worked below many of them, all Erickson aircraft have names painted on the nose i have worked with Georgia Peach, Elvis, goliath, and even cgjzk that worked in cali one summer. amazing aircraft that shouldnt fly but do very well they do like theyre 300 gallons of jet A evry hour though.
Beaver Mishap Where did this small disaster happen? I went from logging to fixing float planes on the west Coast of Vancouver Island back in the early '80s. By looking at the rear window of the Beaver, I can tell this is an old pic because most companies modified their aircraft to the bigger side windows. Care to name the airline? It never failed to amaze me that pilots sometimes would hole their floats and would watch helplessly as their A/C slowly turned over and sank. It happened to more than a few machines I was involved with. The smarter guys would try to tie up to something and keep her from going over or take off quickly and get back to base or even beach the bloody thing. I put lots of temporary patches on floats to get them home. The Beaver shown seems to have taken a bit of damage to the float struts by looking at the angle of the float to the wing - something came loose. However, when they finally had it out of the water and heading home, the thing appears to be hanging normally. These mishaps were probably one of the reasons that I got out of fixing float planes.
The Beaver was out of Campbell River spit, believe it was Coval Air? They had a diver in the water hooking it up, put a roll on it to sit right then lifted it out, then sat it down on the road to secure every thing so it wouldn't spin on the way home. This was in Security Bay which is in Boswell Inlet, close to Rivers inlet. Was July 1989. The bay was deadly for planes after the log barge finsihed loading, debrie every where!
I remember Coval Air - I'm not sure if they survived their disaster of their Beech 18 crashing and burning on take-off out of Port Hardy. Vancouver Island Air might have swallowed them up. I'm sitting here thinking back and there sure have been alot of fatals in float planes over the last 25 years - especially the last few. I'd hate to have to buy insurance as an operator.
Wyssen Balloon Setup. I heard stories of what was called the "Wyssen show" - which is what they called an experimental set-up they tried at M & B Sproat Lake Division back in the '60s. It was just off of Two Rivers Arm at Sproat Lake and involved a Swiss yarder with a high lift balloon set-up. They even imported a couple of guys from the old country to run the operation. This was not a complete success because one morning after a big storm they came to the setting to find most of the rigging and the balloon had buggered off. During the high winds of the previous evening, supposedly the balloon took off and took lots of rigging with it. Thus ended the experiment - but it went down in Division folklore - I had it described to me many years later. Anybody ever hear about this kind of yarding set-up?
I can't believe it would be cost effective to fly logs out like that. Combine labor with fuel and it doesn't equal the value of the timber? Also, how dangerous is it to fly up there in Alaska? I read somewhere that 80% of all helicopter and plane crashes in the U.S. were in Alaska. Really cool pictures... looks like nice scenery in the summer.
In recent years a number of Erickson Air Cranes have been working in Australia during our summer months as water bombers fighting bushfires. I know Elvis and Georgia Peach have been here and I heard on the news today that Gypsy Lady is here now or on the way. There may have been others too but these are the one's that I can remember. I'm pretty sure Elvis was the first one maybe about 4 or 5 years ago. If they make the news in any dramatic way I'll make a post here.
Flying Scotsman logging Eugene Oregon These pictures were taken in 1987 NE of Eugene in the Cascades. The show was downhill except right off of the landing. Below the balloon you can see the where the In-haul Berger yarder line connects to the haulback Washington yarder. The dropline has Johnson electric chokers for the rigging crews enjoyment. The chokers were color coded so if the turn was to heavy the yarder engineer could drop selected logs.
Link Belt LS-98 Heres a closeup of a flying log, then logs on the landing. The loading machine was a Link Belt LS-98 and the clean up machine was a John Deere 540. The Berger Yarder then the Washington yarder.
Choker straightening device Here we have a shop made cable kink removal device. You would lay the kinky knob end in the device and use your knee to activate the press. The yarder operator thought the addition of a hand valve control was needed to hold extended pressure on the cable to allow smacking it with two hammers on opposite sides at the same time. The hammer trick is to allow the bound up wires to slip back into pre-kink position. From my experience this hammer method is only partially effective, a cork screw is a cork screw. The next pic. is of the landing area and the two yarders
Balloon logging cont. Bosses and culls in the first picture The close up is of a cull Douglas fir log which has come from a Hemlock climax forest. What this means is the 677-700 year old firs have been dying and rotting for a long time. Shade tolerant Hemlock have been living in the understory sucking up vital moisture and completely shading the forest floor. Young Douglas Fir trees need direct sunlight from large openings in the forest canopy to grow and thrive. The regeneration of large tracts of Douglas Fir only happens after a major disturbance such as a landslide, or a fire, maybe a volcanic eruption, or my favorite a clearcut. This wood got used by society and the forest got replanted to the proper species thus starting a new cycle of life for the associated wildlife.
Balloon logging Tree Farmer, great pics. Seems it is not to many pics of balloon logging available, even if one should think anybody visiting such shows took a lot of pic's... Here is one picture for this tread, an unused Bohemia Lumber emblem we found in Weyerhaeuser's shop in Springfield, Or. How is the GT4 project going by the way?
My heli pictures Just a few pictures of when I was heli logging! Any body remember these choppers?
Sikorsky (spelling?) air cranes I think. Pretty impressive ships from what I've heard. Never worked around them. Great pics.
Erickson Lumber was the largest user of air canes and liked them so much they bought everything to build air cranes from Sikorsky in the early 90's. http://www.ericksonaircrane.com/
Sikorsky S64 Skycranes. I worked around them at Kutzamateen Inlet and Alice Arm north of Prince Rupert in 1979. The Silver Grizzly Timber Company if I remember correctly. I worked on the road crew trying to stay ahead of them building roads, landings, log dumps, etc. They could sure move the wood.
Is anyone still balloon logging? If not what killed it?
Yes I do remember Tri eagle
Have you 075 seen some balloon yarding equipment up there on the north part of the Island? The Skyhook Enterprices yarders and other equipment looked very neat when I saw it around 1998 in Cowichan (pic posted another place in this forum), but later I haven't seen or heard about it.
Timber Ridge Forestry out of Alberta is getting in to the Balloon game with a custom setup that is being built by Boeing. I am not sure when they are supposed to start but its part of their Environmentally Sound Logging Practices campaign.
That was interesting Ryan, post if you find out some more about this! Here's, by the way, a link to a historical site in Oregon with some nice balloon logging pictures: http://dorenahistoricalsociety.com/tag/sky-hook-enterprises/
No I never have heard of any one balloon logging up here.Looks like it would work good though,Even Heli logging has slowed down to next to nothing around here, costs just to high for the price of the wood.
My experience with Heli logging was in the early 70's on the Quinault Indian Reservation. A company used a small chopper to fly shake blocks out of areas that had already been replanted. Walk in, sometimes quite a distance. Bring a huge Stihl with 36 or longer bar. Gas, oil, froe, mall, and lunch. I worked on these shows a few times when the logging got slow. Sometimes just worked on the weekend to earn extra cash. The guys who ran the chopper would fly around with one of them hanging below the chopper on a long cable with his home movie camera. They filmed us logging several times as we were logging in the same area they were cutting blocks. One day they actually flew the camera man inside our guyline circle and hovered there filming us loading an off highway truck with big cedar. When my uncle swung around for another log, the pilot set his camera man down on the load. When Norman brought the next log around, he lifted the camera man up, and after the log was on the truck, set him on the load again for more filming. My uncle called the pilot, 'Captain Whirly". We really did not like them coming inside the guy line circle like that. Sure would like to see the film they shot though. Was fun to see them fly around like that. The guy in the harness on the end of the cable was quite good at manuvering himself by sticking out an arm or leg.
According to Ken Drushka Flying Scotsman Enterprises, formed by Faye Steward (that worked for Bohemia Lumber in Oregon) and Dave Balinski started in 1990 Skyhook enterprises. Steward had been central in developing the system and the Washington Aero-Yarders. Balinski sold out in 1992 to Ted Leroy, Don Williams (Lineham Logging) and Frank Beban. They had to sides running, Seymour Inlet and Phillips Arm, last one was on a Ted Leroy contract with MMB. A Swedish forestry professor visited Ted Leroy's balloon logging show in 1995, he was then told that hunters used to fire at the helium filled balloon (!). Every year the balloon was so full of holes that the leakage of helium had to be stopped. Hence the balloon was repaired with tape from the inside by persons wearing oxygen masks.
Finally found the article on balloon logging with the Washington Aero Yarders, I'll try to scan it soon.
I think it was in the 90's when a bow hunter took out a Weyerhauser chopper. He thought they were harassing him while he was stalking a deer, and flung an arrow towards the chopper. Hit the tail rotor and put it down. Think I'm lying? Look it up in the Longview Daily News. Sometimes low tech is best. Lucky shot? Or just good? At least they stay away from bow hunters now.
Many years ago they used a ballon logging the North Vancouver mountainside. Not sure if it was in the Lynn creek watershed area or not, does anyone remember this? I'm assuming you intended this post to be in this thread, rather than the one about shagged off clothes, so I moved it here. Digger242j
Siller Brothers, from Yuba City. It was called Tri-Eagle when they first started up in the 70s but eventually the name was changed to Siller Brothers Aviation. The green S-64 was bought used from Evergreen. The red one was bought new from Sikorsky. They logged heavily during the bug-kill salvage days back in the late 70s and early 80s. It was a highly migratory outfit...you lived out of your suitcase. We used to shoot for 1 million feet a week on the landing and it didn't take us long to work ourselves out of a job. Siller still runs S-64s along with some S-61s. They're not logging as much as they used to. They do a lot of fire work and construction lifting now.
Yes,it was actually on the west side of the seymour watershed,north of the dam. You can still see the block from the top of the Seymour ski hill.
I was one of those that was living out of a suitcase back in those days. The pictures were taken near Doyle California. I loaded logs for all of sillers copters. It was great times following the traveling helicopter show. Gologit, sounds like you were there too.
I was one of those that was living out of a suitcase. Rented out my house and traveled with the helicopter show. One more picture taken from the Doyle job. The next landing we logged 7 million feet in it. It was a huge landing but when we were done we were really cramped for space. Monster slash pile!
Yeah, those were some days. I'd gotten hurt working in the woods so I took a job driving the fuel tanker for the helicopters. I was in and out of Doyle quite a bit. If I remember right the area we logged was supposed to become some kind of fancy ski resort. Wonder if that ever happened? After a couple of years on the tanker I went to turning wrenches on the red '64. Charlie Knight was the crew chief. He'd walked down the assembly line with that ship when Sikorsky built it and knew every nut, bolt, and rivet in it. I did that for another couple of years and we sure saw the country. We logged as far south as Johnsondale, all over the Sierras, and around Covelo on the west side. We sure got to know a lot of coffee shop waitresses. I finally hung it up near Coquille, Oregon. It was Thanksgiving and everybody took off for the holiday. Except the mechanics. We stayed up there and did a rotorhead change. In the rain. Figured it was time to head back to California.
I'm not sure if you have all the facts here, jackd. You may want to think before posting aloof comments about "disasters" and "crashing and burning"; people's familys are involved, and you never know who's reading. Coval Air did survive for 10+ years after this disaster, and it surely wasn't swallowed up by Vancouver Island Air Where you working in the 80's?
Sorry if you took offense to my posting but my comments were not intended to be 'aloof' and disrespectful to people's families. That's not my nature. In answer to your question at the end (if I understand it correctly), I worked for a air carrier on the Island back then.
looks like siller brothers
Choker Straighteners We used choker straighteners in northern Cal. Each tower had one on it's landing. We had good luck with them, they made a big difference. Perfectly straight? No, but it took out the big kinks and the bleepholes........ ours were built at the shop with a foot air valve mounted so you could use your lower thigh to actuate it. We liked 'em. We used them on 7/8 - 1 3/8 chokers. You had to really rasstle the big ones. We also used a torch or a set of wire cutters to eliminate the jaggers.
Enjoyed pics of heli and balloon logging.........I'll bet the balloon logging was sure quiet in the brush. No motorized carriage, probably pretty smooth rigging I would imagine. Would like to have seen it.
Heli Logging, North Van Island, May, with the Kamov
What happened to R&R Conner Aviation,are they still in business?
Well, I'll be. We always had a fictitious device called a "choker stretcher" we would send greenhorns to fetch but I never realized there actuall existed a real device. Interesting! Perhaps you've heard The Chokerman's Prayer? Oh Lord up above Come down if you can Don't send down your Son It's a job for a man With marlin spike teeth And breath of fire Please take out the kinks From this choker wire