Learned a hard lesson about swing control at a job in Boise

Last Tuesday I was working on a 5-story apartment building downtown Boise and had a near miss with the load swinging into a wall. My foreman walked over and told me to stop fighting the crane and let the load find its natural rhythm. After he showed me a trick with feathering the swing brake instead of jamming it, I finished the pick smooth as butter. Anyone else have a mentor that saved them from a bad accident with a simple tip?

3 comments

3 Comments

kimw572d agoOG Member

Man, that foreman sounds like a real keeper. A little tip like that can make all the difference when you're up there. Glad you didn't end up with a wall repair on your hands.

rileyprice2d ago

How long did it take you to unlearn jamming the brake?

val_ramirez2d ago

Took me about three months before it clicked. Learning to feather the brake instead of stomping on it was a total game changer. That whole "slow is smooth, smooth is fast" idea finally made sense once I got the rhythm down.