We love to keep up to date with new practices, courses, assessment news and much more in the arboriculture industry. Over the years that Scott Fraser Training, we have been documenting activities that have been taking place daily. Have a read through some of our blog posts below and let us know what you think; we'd love to hear from you.
Lockdown Diary Part 1 - Woodland Enterprise Centre Flimwell – Timber Extraction
Prior to the lockdown on March, 23rd Coronovirus seemed a distant problem and we were carrying on with our training programme, albeit with appropriate adjustments – indeed these adjustments were a discussion point during our City & Guilds Assessment Centre Audit.
Repairing a Husqvarna 545 air filter & vibration mount - Brushcutter Blues
The air filter on this machine was heavily contaminated with dirt and oil. It’s normally a paper element that can be cleaned and maintained a number of times by lightly brushing away larger debris, or cleared via compressed air.
Part 2 - Felling Trees up to 380mm City & Guilds Unit 203, Building chainsaw accuracy
This second article will develop a range of methods we typically use to help students achieve better tree felling accuracy not all of them will work for everyone. The basic cuts required to fell a tree are a directional sink and a back cut.
Felling Trees up to 380mm City & Guilds Unit 203
Our small tree felling courses (under 380mm) are carefully structured to build confidence, add knowledge progressively and set students up to work safely in forestry or arboricultural circumstances. This blog series has been written to give a more comprehensive insight into what is actually in a tree felling course.
Work at Heights Regulations in Action
The W@H Regulations 2005 have been around for a long time, it’s coming up for 15 years, however, there is often confusion as to how they apply and what they mean. This is partly due to the overlap of all the H&S regulations and the treatment of the regulations in the City & Guilds units in two separate sections.
Lantra Awards Technical Award in Stationary Rope Work Positioning and Rescue (SRWP)
Single Rope Technique has been a component of my commercial arb work since the early 2000s and has undergone various evolutions (see earlier blog post) from initial discrete access only systems, to the current access and positioning techniques.
Valtra 6400 Tractor – New Clutch
We looked at a range of options including Mohida from Osbourne Forestry but ended up selecting a Valtra Tractor 6400 and Botex 5060 Timber Trailer for Wilson Machinery and had a memorable trip to Dalbeattie including test drive up the road.
Chainsaw Maintenance:- Fuel and oil filters - Unlocking City & Guilds Schedules
City & Guilds chainsaw maintenance assessment 201 includes schedule questions around the fuel and oil filters. Whilst they are often seen as relatively minor components, a wider discussion on fuel oils, re-filling and cap cleanliness can evolve.
Rope access or SRT work positioning - are they the same or different?
This summers Arboricultural Association newsletter contains an update on the widely anticipated Technical Guides. These refresh the existing guidance (Guide to Good Climbing Practice & MEWPS) that many will be familiar with and expand into new areas, this includes Tree Rigging and Cranes.
BWSC Kent Renewable Power Station Sandwich Discovery Business Park
In 2018, the BWSC power plant in Sandwich came online utilizing both Roundwood and chip from the South East region to produce heat and power. We were asked to deliver some tree surgery training for their operatives who need to use chainsaws as a part of their role in sampling incoming Roundwood.