Your Performance Partners: If you work with rigging regularly but you’re not an installer, you may not know exactly what the fleet angle is, or why it’s important.
It’s a good piece of information to have in your back pocket when you are adjusting or inspecting your rigging, or if you have the opportunity to buy a new rigging system. If you notice an excessive fleet angle, it could be a clue that something is wrong with your mounting or machinery.
2 comments:
Fleet angles are a pretty cool idea in rigging, I honestly would have never thought rubbing against aircraft cable would be so bad until this information came to light. Knowing fleet angles is also super useful for whenever you're setting up your own rig. I would say it is the most limiting factor in rigging when it comes to install, because if you have to start at one point and end up elsewhere in the same horizontal plane, 2 degrees maximum is only going to get you so far. I would say fleet angle is completely integral information to theatre technicians because it also insures the longevity of your cable and rope lifespan. Managing the longevity of those is extremely important because they are expensive to purchase and reinstall. Before this article, I had also never heard of a zero fleet angle hoist, and I think it’s a pretty innovative idea for the setup of a rigging system. I’m not quite sure of its limitations, but from the general idea the article gives, it seems beneficial to the rigging process.
I remember learning about fleet angle in rigging during freshman stagecraft, but didn’t really remember the details of it. It’s a cool concept, and something that might seem very trivial but can actually have catastrophic repercussions if neglected. I think there was an article last year about a rigging failure occurring due to a fleet angle issue. Over time, the cable frayed because the angle was too great, and someone being flown fell. I wish that the article had more imagery to go along with it to illustrate the concepts though. The image there isn’t super clear, and it doesn’t address it at all, so it’s pretty worthless. I can picture the loft blocks and head blocks because I’ve seen them before, but I actually haven’t seen much motorized rigging before, so the stuff about zero fleet angle hoists didn’t mean much to me. I’m interested in it, but I wish the article explained it in a clearer way.
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