Thats a pretty rich thing to say, i will clarify what i meant though, i was basically talking about things kids learn growing up on a farm, like not supporting things on a jack, the basics. But i challenge you to find me a training program on recovery of ~30 tonne machinery that is available to an 18 year old CIVILIAN that doesn't cost the end of the earth, as to having time up i think the concentrated practice i had was suffucuent for a 6 week period, considering i did multiple snatches ever day. As a military man i would assume (please disregard if i am wrong) that getting the job done safely in any time frame would be of your highest priority, as a person that works in a business where productivity is important i can tell you we don't have the time to rig up a winch system to pull the header out, and some times it simply wouldn't work, the header would continue to break the surface due to the slow motion, the machinery needed to winch the header would be massive and expensive, a 5000 acre farm doesn't have the budget of a government to invest in such machinery. The practice we use is very safety orientated, my uncle who runs the farm is the most safety focussed person i have ever met, and i was an Air Force Cadet, but left to focus on the HSC and university, the seargents who were military men took more risks, heck on one bivouac they bogged the bloody Hilux they were using and recovered it in a method that i deemed unsafe on the factory recovery points, these guys were trained with all the fancy mamby pamby courses that the military could put them through, i know them, yet everything they did i deemed unsafe from what i've learnt being on the farm with 'real world' experience. Call me what you want, but i have watched safety course on the internet and in 4wd magazines, everything we do complies with that. You may have a skewed perspective of what i am like but i'm not some 'good ole boy' like in the Dukes of Hazzard, i am sophisticated and safety orientated and will only ever do something if it is the best possible method with the available resources, for instance; i recovered 2 people at the beach the other day, 1 person i had to snatch as he was buried well down to his axles and there was not a suitable way for me to stop my Discovery sliding towards his car (i did try) so i could not use the winch to pull him, so i snatched him after i set up his recovery gear properly and showed him what to do, after snatching a 30 tonne header this was the easiest thing i have ever done, his mate had his Patrol embodied on a dune, he too wanted to be snatched, but i would not use the snatch strap in this situation, it is too dangerous, as it was off the beach there were some logs and we chocked the Discovery and winched him down. Sure something could go wrong, it does that in life, with all your military training you probably have just as much risk of killing someone in an accident as i do. If you think i've spoken out of line, call me what you like, but i will stand my ground for what i believe in and i have experienced, i may only be a month of 18 but technically i have no vote in this situation. I am by no means calling training courses pointless, i have done an advanced driver training course which has helped me a lot, especially with my dune buggy and 4wding hobbies, but if every singles person tha moved a finger had to do a course the world would be a bloody boring place, when i join a 4wd club i WILL be doing a recovery and chainsaw training course as i think its important, but just because i haven't had a bald man with a clipboard tick off that i can use a snatch strap doesn't mean that what i've learnt from people who have is wrong, yes i am on my high horse, but i think i needed to. Just as a bit of a question, do all the doomsayers have experience in all these horrible things that can happen??? or is it things you have seen on you-tube by drunk hillbillies that gives you these views, i understand you all have recovery experience, but with snatchstraps? and why do i not have the right to be as experienced as some of you 'experts'.Quote:
Originally Posted by landy
Sorry about the rant haha, but i'm a lot grown up than most adults i know, and have a lot of experience under my belt for being this age, i'm not your average teenager.
Regards
Will
