Last night, Mast #1 taught me another expensive lesson! I was checking the remote camera during some rough weather when I noticed one of the top guys flailing around in the wind. At first I thought a rope had snapped, or another shackle pin had worked loose. By the time I got up to the field, the weather had gone absolutely wild.
Turns out the culprit was a turnbuckle that had gradually undone itself under load.
This is exactly why I test things properly. You don’t learn much lowering towers every time the forecast looks a bit lively. You learn by discovering the weak points, fixing them properly, and improving the design.
In this video:
– Remote camera footage of the storm
– The moment I realised something was wrong
– Why the mast survived
– What failed
– Why the prototype 160m top section probably increased the wind loading
– What I’ll be changing next
Sometimes experience comes from books. Sometimes it comes from nearly losing a tower at night in a storm.
Enjoy the video guys.
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