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The things you remember...
14 years ago
General
... when the fecal matter hits the ventilation system.
An interesting story here, but first a trip in the Way-Back. About 11 years ago, I was sitting in Aviation Maintenance school with this motley crew of classmates from all walks of life. One of which was a former construction worker or contractor from New Jersey. He was relating to us how, if something is dropped or falls, they were taught not to yell 'heads up', but instead 'headache'. Reason being, when most people hear 'heads up', they do exactly that, look around to see what is going on, before reacting. Where as if you see something falling and dont want people squished, you want them to react now. So, 'headache' became synonymous with 'run like hell or you're gonna die'. Supposedly any job working with equipment on-high uses this protocol.
Flash forward to the other day, me and a few others from my shop were in the process of erecting a portable doppler weather radar in our test yard. The radar unit itself is about 140lbs in a 3' by 4' radome, that sits atop a 30' telescoping mast. The mast is extended with a tire-pump connected to the base, and stayed by four sets of guy-ropes.
One thing I dont like about this radar, is that you can only tighten down the lower most set of guy-ropes to start. THEN you need to pump it all the way to the top in order to tighten down the rest, the mast virtually free-standing until then.
So here we are, got the mast pumped all the way up, and are working on the third set of ropes, when -something- happened. I dont know if the wind got it, or one of us yanked on one of the ropes, but the mast twisted at its base and started to topple over.
My first two reactions were simultaneous: I ran over to the side opposite the mast was tilting to help another guy with trying to slow or stop it's fall by pulling on the ropes, and at the same time starting barking out 'HEADACHE' at the top of my lungs.
11 years since I was told that context for the term, and I cant recall any time I ever had to think about it. And yet when it was most appropriate, I didnt think about it and just remembered.
As for the radar, we managed to save it after getting EVERYONE in our building to manhandle it upright so we could retract the mast again. $500,000 catastrophe averted.
Still, odd the things you remember out of no-where when the situation needs it.
An interesting story here, but first a trip in the Way-Back. About 11 years ago, I was sitting in Aviation Maintenance school with this motley crew of classmates from all walks of life. One of which was a former construction worker or contractor from New Jersey. He was relating to us how, if something is dropped or falls, they were taught not to yell 'heads up', but instead 'headache'. Reason being, when most people hear 'heads up', they do exactly that, look around to see what is going on, before reacting. Where as if you see something falling and dont want people squished, you want them to react now. So, 'headache' became synonymous with 'run like hell or you're gonna die'. Supposedly any job working with equipment on-high uses this protocol.
Flash forward to the other day, me and a few others from my shop were in the process of erecting a portable doppler weather radar in our test yard. The radar unit itself is about 140lbs in a 3' by 4' radome, that sits atop a 30' telescoping mast. The mast is extended with a tire-pump connected to the base, and stayed by four sets of guy-ropes.
One thing I dont like about this radar, is that you can only tighten down the lower most set of guy-ropes to start. THEN you need to pump it all the way to the top in order to tighten down the rest, the mast virtually free-standing until then.
So here we are, got the mast pumped all the way up, and are working on the third set of ropes, when -something- happened. I dont know if the wind got it, or one of us yanked on one of the ropes, but the mast twisted at its base and started to topple over.
My first two reactions were simultaneous: I ran over to the side opposite the mast was tilting to help another guy with trying to slow or stop it's fall by pulling on the ropes, and at the same time starting barking out 'HEADACHE' at the top of my lungs.
11 years since I was told that context for the term, and I cant recall any time I ever had to think about it. And yet when it was most appropriate, I didnt think about it and just remembered.
As for the radar, we managed to save it after getting EVERYONE in our building to manhandle it upright so we could retract the mast again. $500,000 catastrophe averted.
Still, odd the things you remember out of no-where when the situation needs it.
Irwin
~irwin
Interesting! Some lessons stay in memory, at least...
