Made my first big newbie gaffe last night. Production machines were all parked for a Shut-Down so we were just doing pit maintenance. Most guys slept or watched movies but Keener-me wanted practice. It takes way too long to rattle in and back out of the pit so the common practice is to just slide down the digging face if the Shovel needs a clean-up or for fuel/lube, etc. I found an old spoil to practice on (about 38-40 degrees). I was being extra cautious and working a ton of material below me as well as beginning on a decline. Most guys just use a small pile at the end of their push and slide down. This was was my end goal after three progressive go's. Unfortunately the berm I was on the last time had other plans. I made one small push and was backing up to make the leap when the material below sloughed off. With the tracks still spinning in reverse I nose-dived straight down! I landed in a huge range of free dumps (each 310 ton free dump is about 12 x 12 meters and 10 meters at the peak). Fortunately I got myself out before anybody saw (months of ridicule!). Another hard lesson learned was to not be so carefree with the filler caps. I went to kill the master while I tried to figure out what to do and accidently bumped the Tranny fill. Bloody tranny fluid gooped out everywhere! I walked over to a Lube truck that was parked nearby and drove about 2 clicks to where another 10 was parked. Talk about learning under fire! Some of the best slot pushing I have done to clear the material under the blade! I actually had to do a chin-up to get into the cab. I was able to stand straight up on the kick-board (think thats what its called?) above the brake/decel. She was digging one hell of a hole with the tracks and it took me a few minutes to realize I was panicking and pushing the stick into float instead of power down. I now understand why guy's get so attached to their machines! I rattled around the corner with the 2nd D10 and had to peel my lips up off the floor. On my way out I must have been too startled/nervous to see but this thing was literally straight up and down. You almost feel like shedding a tear seeing her stuck helplessly like that. Definitely the most forgiving thing I have ever run. After I dug a big hole in front of the blade with the 2nd one she just climbed out and over the mess of a spoil I made and was ready as ever to get back to work. Any points/tricks for the future? I understand on most new FTP Cats you can disable Float and I am thinking I will do that. I know I should learn to exercise more control with the stick and not panic slamming it into the locks though. Lesson learned - at the least hopefully a greenhorn punk mess-up thats worth a few laughs to you experienced skinners!
You know when your wrecking in a car the hardest thing to do is turn loose of the brakes? Well when operating equipment FEAR is like that brake problem. You have to remain confident and keep working the machine. Once you let fear take a hold everything starts going pear shaped in a hurry.
What surprises me is that they didn't give you more training, both before putting you on the machines and after. It sounds as if you are on your own to sink or swim. A friend of mine was hired on to drive one of those big 300 or 400 ton dump trucks at one of the big coalmines in BC (the place name begins with E and ends with d, if that means anything to you.) Before that, he had never driven anything bigger than a pickup truck. They let him drive that big dumper, even though he was not licensed to drive even an 18 wheeler. Luckily, he didn't back it off the mountain or run over any vehicles before he quit.
I had the same kind of experience when I drove an ice cream truck in college. Couldn't see out of the side mirrors so when I had to change lanes I would just start to go and wait to see if anybody started honking. If no honking, I figured it was safe to change lanes. One day didn't know how to properly recharge the freezer over night, or didn't do it right, so the next day all the ice cream melted. Try selling melted ice cream bars. That day was a total waste. Then to boot, I knocked off a few mirrors parking the truck in their garage at night. Had no idea how wide it was and what a wide berth you had to give it to park it in a parking spot. Not to mention the tickets the cops gave out for selling at parks and baseball fields where they already had a concession stand and the local laws protected them by prohibiting trucks to drive in selling food and drink. You live and learn. Good thing your co-workers didn't observe you in action the other night. Good luck with it.
Definitely part of the fun of "learning by fire". The city your buddy worked in (I use "city" loosely) would be Elkford. You would be amazed at how training works at the big mines. The most training guy gets is his first two sets on the Haul Trucks. You start on the Komatsu 930's (310 ton payload, 1.1 million pounds GVW). Two sets and away you go. From there it goes down. A half a day or so on Wheel Dozers and they turn you loose. Dozer's are little more than reading the operators manual and a quick ten minute check-out of how to check the oil and where the Master is. Things are on such a big scale the quality of the work is not really stressed - just production. If a guy wants to try and become a decent operator by the world's standards he's totally on his own.
With the price of a d10 / 11, I'd be making sure my employees knew what the heck they were doing. Even if the machgine was insured, whats the wait time on getting a new one if you trash one?? I'd at least have some older d-5h's or something around to make sure that the guy knows whats he is doing before lettin him loose with an 11. Glad to hear your ok, and the machine was not damaged.