Fly Training

Fly Training is massively important and probably one of the most dangerous parts of theatre as it can cause serious events to happen if it is not correctly used for either you or other workers/bystanders.

We were taught on hemp lines the old rep being the only theatre in Birmingham that uses hemp lines for flying, The old rep being called a 'Hemp House' this means it is a lot harder to use and nothing is counterweighted so you have to take the complete weight of whatever you are flying.

Hemp lines are initially 3 ropes on a pulley system overhead in the grid and attached to a scaffolding bar. Then you would put what you like on the bar just not exceeding the working load whether this is scenery or LX on the bar.

There are three separate ropes used in a New Athenaeum a “hemp set”. The SHORT (nearest the fly floor), MID (center stage), and LONG (furthest from the fly floor).

As per the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, all lifting equipment must have a clearly marked Safe Working Load (SWL).

How To Fly

Firstly when flying hemp lines you can not wear gloves for doing this as it is not safe to do so,

You would find the line you want to fly down and ensure first that you can take the weight sometimes it would need multiple people on it as it could be too heavy.

Then you would take the coiled rope and throw it on the floor and untie the rope and make sure you're holding the weight, then you would call "Heads on (CS, DS, US) Bar coming in" then someone should reply "Thank You" and you can slowly lower the bar one hand over the other, down until someone calls "Thank you" Or "Stop there"

Then once it's at the height for working on you would tie off by doing figure of eights and finish tieing off by doing a backward loop and then pulling down. The ropes should be wound round the cleat in a figure of eight at least twice and a half hitch put on the top horn to lock off the cleat.

Once they have finished working on the bar they will shout "Your Bar" and you would respond with "Thank you" and then when you are ready call again "Heads on (CS, DS, US) Bar going out"

And again pull it up one hand over the other until you have reached the desired height they will call this and usually tell you "Slowly"

Once you have finished you can then tie of and coil the rope afterward and hook it on.