I think I know who you mean, first chairer (deathbarrell) pretty quick, had a fair bit to do last summer in Perisher?
Sorry I was talking post incident. I’m not qualified to discuss operational maintenance. But I do accept Force Majeure
His title is GM, but he IS an engineer. For good reason. Very reassuring to know he was on the ground on the day. I presume the grip and chair etc were also in the workshop. FWIW, engineers are rarely titled "Engineer". It's a contentious issue. Historically steam train drivers and steel fabricators were/are called engineers. Cableway installs are not an everyday occurrence so it makes sense to not be geared up for that and bring in the skills as required.
HE WASN'T IT WASN'T You do know there is 30mins between Jindy and thredbo don't you? The workshop is in Jindy.
Agreed. I've had to debate FM incidents. But howling strong winds in the mountains, including willy willys, is a very forseeable event. There was a ripper down near yarrangobilly village a few years back.
There is no uncertainty. Chair strikes tower puts bending force on detachclamp from 3m away. That's lots of bending force and it's enough to overcome clamp. Anyone that's used a crow bar will know you can break shit with a 3m bar. Circumstances which made this happen include poorly loaded chair which increased chance of chair striking the tower.
Thredbo has a position titled ENGINEERING GROUP MANAGER. Responsibilities include maintenance of all on mountain infrastructure and vehicles, along with sewerage plant and maintenance of Thredbo property within the village (reason I know, I considered applying for the job in 2014) Requirements included tertiary engineering qualifications.
Been a qualified engineer for over 20 years and worked pretty continuously in engineer roles. Only three jobs have had engineer in the title.
Only another 25 pages or so to go, unless it gets too unruly and shouty, then it will be closed instead.
Swapping out the grips for something more modern would require the top and bottom stations to be completely re-engineered. I expect the cost of that would get up there close to the cost of replacing the stations entirely. Not impossible of course, and the ropeway companies offer that service, but it might make more sense to replace the chair.
W We haven't even started on the incipient spin characteristics of a chair in full flight. @skinavy You may commence...
Most of my aerospace stuff is either in accident investigation, Airworthiness regs or guided weapons (I know wierd combo). However I don't think a chair (laden or unladen)has much in the way of lifting or control surfaces. Probably too difficult to work out what conditions it would spin at. Stall speed would be probably 0kt IAS.
We surely have. It's just that only 3 days ago I was listening to the stall warning alarm go off in a very small aircraft at 1200ft and....never mind.... i've digressed
Mmm, steep glide path I'd imagine. Most of my aeropsace stuff is in how carrots become projectiles after too long spent pre flight at the coopers alehouse I have a coupla mates with similar cv's to yourself. Weaponry and ballistics certainly puts an interesting slant on fluid dynamics. More interesting than sewage systems at least!
Depends on the problem with the grips. If there is a design flaw, then yeah a redesign would be necessary and a new lift wouldn't be a bad idea. If the problem is simply age reducing the ability of the grips to stay closed after force is applied/poor maintenance and not a design flaw, then a new grip design wouldn't be necessary; only new grips of the same design.
Another rumour; The chair swung over just before the pylon. With the forward (uphill) travel of the chair wedging or jamming it against the pylon, rotating the chair and disengaging the grip.
Funny that, given most grips have a (potential) 3m (or longer) lever attached to them most of the time.
A fair speculation. Either the spring and grip was forced open or the grip, under full clamp force was somehow ripped fair off the cable
Doppelmayr-Garaventa brand grips for detachable chairs have changed quite a bit since detachable chairs were invented almost 40 years ago. Mt Buller had the 3rd and 4th detachable chairlifts in the world. Gunbarrel probably has the second generation 'DS series' grip. It's been almost trouble free, especially when compared with the third generation DT series grip which dates from 1995. That DT grip has actually been banned in a few countries, but it seems that the older DS grips haven't got themselves into much trouble, although they're pretty ancient by now. Doppelmayr DS Grip
Damage to jaw? I can understand the jaw being ripped off given its relatively small sectional area (in any dimension), but I'm perplexed as to how the spring could be activated to release the jaw.
Note there was a service bulletin issued about 10 years ago for faulty grip dimensions. I know Aus is out of the loop with all things alpine, but surely we got the memo??
Given it carries people, I would think that service bulletins would be treated similar to those for aircraft and distributed to all operators. I'm pretty sure the actual regulatory environment is the same as for amusement park rides (unsure if good or bad in light of Dreamworld and would need to confirm)
Tough to make any conclusions from that pic on the exact impact spot, as it could easily have moved post impact.
Grip failed at last pylon with roller chattering combined with the stress of that last pylons angle change with approach to bullwheel. Tensile spring in grip was both fatigued with age and incorrectly tensioned after summer mtn bike operation. I’m putting two pineapples down on this being the findings when all is said and down. But prolly won’t ever know.
I'm guessing it's more to do with a fatigued grip failing under the stress of a heavy chair spinning after colliding with the tower. The collision was caused by the freak gust of wind. I dont think that mtb had anything to do with it as Gunbarrel wasn't used in 2016 when the first incident occurred
