KEF

well after weeks of heartache and late nights the day is finally upon me,

the aircraft hanger I've been working on for the last few months hits site in style tomorrow.

the main spine girder weight almost 70 tonnes and will require 3 100 tonne cranes to lift it into postion.

total lift operation involves 5 cranes, 6 cherry pickers and no two way radio's. (airport - can't mess with their coms)

already had bad omens, one of the foundations collapsed during the concrete pour and the first two crane operators failed to satisfy the health and safety planner.

if it all goes wrong watch out for me on the six o'clock news, i'll be the guy beating himself about the head with a calculator.
(this could be a career defining moment)

Lensman

May the spirit of Isambard be with you. Good luck!

oilman

Good luck! I'll be on the golf course.

Cheers
Oilman

renegade_si

Best of etc. I'll be buying electricity and running power stations. As usual. But at least only until 4.15 when I leave to to go Henley. Must remember camera, must remember camera.

morganrogers

renegade-si....

Buying electricity ? Does the word 'NETA' mean anything to you ?

Morgan.

MarkW

Good luck!

I was nervous enough last year when our builders had to knock down a supporting wall in our house and put a couple of steel girders in!

cw007

that wouldnt be Glasgow Airport by chance?


That place is full of omens..... Damien to name but a few.

renegade_si

Morgan - spooky - YGM....

NETA is my life....

morganrogers

Renegade_si -

Guess what lives in my computer room....

renegade_si

more info morgan more info - check your PM!

eccles

Soooo, how did it go? Did you make the front page?

KEF

Well it's up, lets hope it stays there,
fabricator dropped a bollock, quite a number of untightened bolts in the girder meant that his squad had to check every bolt, cost us about 2 hours standing time. (quite alarming when i pulled one out with my bare hands, and i ain't no hulk lookalike)

I had to leave early so i didn't get to see them release the main shackles, by 5 o'clock they still had to erect 3 of the secondary trusses (required as a minimum to stabilise the main girder) but even under almost it's full weight the stiffness of the frame was amazing. the speed of the main lift was also unbelievable, as was the amount of snaking which occured when the trailing edge left the ground.

couldn't have got a better day for it high twenties and little wind (prestwich is usually like tornado valley) now where's the aftersun?

relieved? you bet.
now back to waiting for my car.

to get an idea of scale you can fit two 737's side by side below the truss with room for a couple of busses between, check the size of the guy on the cherry picker compared to the gusset plates.

cw007

here KeF sure you aint living in a split timeframe.


Thats dated 2000.

Prestwick, yeah is usually covered in tumbleweed. Its that windy. less than half a mile from the coast. Kef that caravan park across from it St Andrews, we had a caravan there. could see the pilots and majority of passangers as plane was only about 150 feet above us when it was in the air.

KEF

hey, give me a break i'm only an engineer, i need some kind of personal IT monkey to help me out with the digital camera, I was there for 5 hours and still failed to fathom the digital zoom.

took my trusty old canon as well it's completely idiot (engineer) proof, plus it's got a real zoom lens (notice how I managed to fit two zoom's into my thread??)

renegade_si

wow looks nice. Perhaps a little parky in winter though ?
well done!

:D :D :D