Joe, if he fell when he was coming down, no safety belt or harness would have helped him. The last thing I do before I come down from the stand is take off my safety strap, but then I am highly conscious of the fact that it is just me and the tree, and I do tend to hug that tree pretty strongly until I am on the ground......
A lot of the portables do have a bit of play in them, especially if you put weight on one side or the other of the platform. Most are only anchored at or near the top, and the bottom (platform part) typically has some kind of metal edge that bites into the tree. But it is like a pendulum, and placing all of your weight on one side is going to cause most stands to twist in that direction...... One thing that might be helpful when your lads are setting up portables is to have the ladder/tree steps/whatever at ninety degrees to the direction you will be facing, so you go into and out of the stand from the side. And the last step or two should be ABOVE the platform, so you step DOWN onto the platform when you get onto it - that way you can place your weight securely in the middle of the platform, not the side of it.
Doug
A lot of the portables do have a bit of play in them, especially if you put weight on one side or the other of the platform. Most are only anchored at or near the top, and the bottom (platform part) typically has some kind of metal edge that bites into the tree. But it is like a pendulum, and placing all of your weight on one side is going to cause most stands to twist in that direction...... One thing that might be helpful when your lads are setting up portables is to have the ladder/tree steps/whatever at ninety degrees to the direction you will be facing, so you go into and out of the stand from the side. And the last step or two should be ABOVE the platform, so you step DOWN onto the platform when you get onto it - that way you can place your weight securely in the middle of the platform, not the side of it.
Doug
