September 16, 2006:
Unbuilding the midsection of the truss
Here is the worksite - Grace's tower, Chris's 7550 crane in the launching
position and Robbie, Lewis and Carlos ready to start phase II.
Lewis (left in his blue shirt - he must have 7, one for each day; Carlos
and Robbie) ready to attach the cables for Chris
Robbie starting his acrobat warmup
The cables to the left and the acrobats to the right
Chris moves the cable into position
Lewis attaching the cable
A closer look at Lewis and his blue shirt(s)
Wrapping the cable around the cross brace
Carlos demonstrating the spread-eagle acrobat position while lewis hands the
cable around the back of the beam
Robbie here is just chillin' a bit
The cable is now looped around the far vertical beam
and placed just under the cross braces
What Chris sees from below
All 4 cables in place
and Robbie moves into position for some burning
Burning through the vertical beam
Carlos burning
A closer look
sort of an after-burner
Robbie burning
Cutting a cross brace
Carlos working on another section
Chris and his 7550 support the structure while
Robbie makes an inspection
and a look at from Chris's perspective
Carlos burning through the splice plate
and Robbie backing him up (literally)
The final burn
Coming down
and Chris lifts up
Grace is free
Gently lifting - what a balancing act
From below
Gently
and turning
a bit more
up, up and away
and slowly down
down
down
down
the landing spot is in sight
down
down
down
down
Gentlemen, Grace has landed