So I'm on another wind farm project. One of the turbines has a damaged blade in need of repair, which involves man basket, human being and Grove RT890E with swing-away erected. The problem Before swinging extension out you have to unpin aux sheave/rooster sheave and swing it out of the way. Well it has it's own A2B on it which plugs in to the junction box where the main hoist A2B is plugged in to, so when you unplug the rooster sheave you need to have a jumper plug/ dummy plug to go where you unplugged the rooster sheave. NO Dummy plug with crane. Without it I could not configure crane computer correctly. I would have had to tell the computer I was on main boom while I was using extension. Capacities would have been incorrect and I would have had to lie on critical lift form. It is one thing for a operator to have to boom up a few feet to get in to his chart but this was totally unacceptable in every way and the bosses and safety stood behind my decision not to make the pick. The big question they had was why did another operator make the same pick with the same crane 2 days before without saying anything about this problem.
Glad you had the intestinal fortitude to stand your ground . I respect you for what you did . The guy that run it two day's before has no clue how bad sitting in a court room would be if something had gone wrong . People like that are the one's that make it so tough on the good one's .
Good job... Glad to hear u didn't get too much flack about it... Is it possible that the last operator in removing the extension broke the dummy plug off the chain or something? I hate to think about someone who will lie to the computer when lifting people...
Unfortunately that was not the case. The plug was not with the machine when the other operator made the pick. Guess his actions would have never come to light had I not been in the same situation today. When things like this come up I try to think how my answers would sound to questions asked while under oath in a court room, that is what keeps me sleeping soundly every night.
Good job. Hope that other op doesn't learn that lesson the hard way. I try to imagine how I would tell someone's child or wife what happened. Really makes me not care how inconvenient something is or how upset anyone will be for taking the longer but safer route. Thanks for manning up and showing that there are good ops out there...
Was the other operator an older vet of the industry. Alot of older operators just look the LMI as an operator aid and not the end all be all cover your rear safety god that the newer operators make it out to be.
Coming from old friction cranes i don't believe in relying on the computer to tell me what i can do. That being said. When you lift people, everything needs to be right. People aren't roof trusses, concrete, or any other thing else that doesn't matter. They are people, and they die, and if it's your fault i don't get to see my kids again I'm going to be pissed. If loosing your job is what it takes, than you are better for it. I'm proud of you.
Good on you for standing your ground and not doing something you feel is wrong or unsafe. Unfortunately very few people have this mentality and will put the blinders on just to get the job done. That being said I'm not sure I understand what the issue was. If this was on an older 90 with a different set up then ignore this but if your using the boom extension why would you need a dummy plug? The A2B cable from the extension would plug into the same slot as the Aux Nose and you could then flag the switch on the boom nose. Also why do you need to unpin the Aux Nose to swing the extension out? It should clear. The style I'm thinking of only needs a dummy plug when using main boom without any attachments (Aux/Extension). I only really have experience with newer Grove/National equipment and not so much the older stuff unless it's a specific issue I've had to fix. Mounting a jib on them hasn't been one of them.. yet.
Where are you from Sirius?
Burlington area.
I agree with Sirius. Good for you for not doing something that you feel is wrong or unsafe.