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Hand signals vs radio on a blind pick, and the guy who changed my mind at a job site in Fresno
I used to be hard headed about this. For 11 years I ran the controls and thought hand signals were the only real way to work, because a radio can cut out, batteries die, and a bad spotter on the other end is worse than no spotter at all. Then about 6 months ago I was on a tilt up job in Fresno setting panels where I could not see the landing zone at all from the cab. The rigger, a guy named Marcus, asked me to use the radio instead of his hands. I told him no thanks, we do it the old way. He looked at me and said, 'I can see the wall, you can only see my hands, so which one of us should be talking.' That stuck with me. We ran that whole pick on the radio and it was the smoothest set of the day, and I have been splitting the difference ever since. So where do you all land, do you trust a good talker over a good set of hands, or is it hand signals or nothing for you?
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viola1712d ago
You ever had a spotter who talks too much though? That's the only thing that bugs me about radios. I was the same as you for years, hands or nothing, because at least with hands you know right where the guy is looking. But Marcus was right. If the rigger can see what you can't, let him talk. Now I run radio on anything where I lose sight of the load and it's way less sketchy.
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