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Serious question, did anyone ever tell you to check your boom angle by looking at the shadow?
I was setting up on a site in Phoenix last month, bright sun, and I kept getting a small drift on my lifts. My spotter finally yelled up, 'Your shadow says you're five degrees off!' I'd been trusting the digital readout over my own eyes for years. Now I always do a quick shadow check on sunny days before the first pick. Anyone else have a simple trick like that they learned on the job?
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anderson.gavin2mo ago
Can't beat the old-school shadow trick.
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Digital readouts are great til they're not. I had a board computer go haywire on me last summer and the shadow check was the only reason I caught it before the boom hit a power line. I do it every time now even when the readout looks perfect. The trick works best when the sun is low in the sky because the shadow gets longer and more obvious that way. Also helps to have your spotter call it out from the ground since the angle looks different from up in the cab. Never skip the basics just because you got fancy gear.
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