Originally Posted by
Old Farang
What ever the cause of the release; that strop is WAY too short!
Not really. Most down town lifts with the crane are done on short strops. Part of it has to do with safety zones. We have to have a safety zone typically radius of 1.5 times the maximum eight of the aircraft. If you use a 100' line, that adds 150' radius to your safety zone, and that gets expensive when paying for the cops to close more streets.
Typically these are done at first light on Sunday mornings as there is less people around.
Originally Posted by
Bksmithca
Correct me if I'm wrong but on the Skycranes isn't the load controlled by an operator sitting behind the pilots facing the load. Would he or she not have control of the load release button?
Not always, but in this case you may be right. FYI, that "operator" is a pilot and is able to control the whole aircraft from that seat.