Now that is cool! Did you ever take any pics?

I never operated a crane, but I worked as a millwright for several years doing construction on grain elevators and feed and flour mills. We worked with crane operators all over Texas and SE New Mexico. There were good ones and there were some who were dangerous to work around. The best operator I ever worked with was a young Hispanic man from Dutcher Phipps Crane Service in Monahans. I can't remember his name, but he was the smoothest and safest operator I ever saw. When you're on top of a framework watching someone swinging large steel up to you, it's good to know you have an operator who is watching our for your safety.

I never operated a crane, but I worked as a millwright for several years doing construction on grain elevators and feed and flour mills. We worked with crane operators all over Texas and SE New Mexico. There were good ones and there were some who were dangerous to work around. The best operator I ever worked with was a young Hispanic man from Dutcher Phipps Crane Service in Monahans. I can't remember his name, but he was the smoothest and safest operator I ever saw. When you're on top of a framework watching someone swinging large steel up to you, it's good to know you have an operator who is watching our for your safety.

I never operated a crane, but I worked as a millwright for several years doing construction on grain elevators and feed and flour mills. We worked with crane operators all over Texas and SE New Mexico. There were good ones and there were some who were dangerous to work around. The best operator I ever worked with was a young Hispanic man from Dutcher Phipps Crane Service in Monahans. I can't remember his name, but he was the smoothest and safest operator I ever saw. When you're on top of a framework watching someone swinging large steel up to you, it's good to know you have an operator who is watching our for your safety.

Eugene Bates doesn't ring a bell. This was around 1985 or 86 when we were using Dutcher Phipps. They were doing a lot of gas well blow-outs around Mentone with the Red Adair & Boots & Coots crews. They told some pretty hairy stories about pulling those burned out rigs out.

Eugene Bates was an operator for Dutcher Phipps in Monahans, He came to work in Odessa at Rexene Chemicals Later it was Huntsman and then Flint Hills. He worked there till they shut it down in 2009. I worked there from 1985 till then. Gene was as good a crane operator as I have ever worked with. Last I heard he was working in Alaska. On a side note when they built the LLDPE plant they had a crane that they brought in that was big enough that it had to be assembled. It took 3 weeks to assemble it. When they were using it the operator would fly in each day in his personal helicopter, land on site work a 10-12 hr day then fly home where ever that was.

I worked around beg cranes since I was 19 and have seen several turned over. The crane operator can do all the math correctly, but if they forget to tell him that they didn't drain all of the water out of the item being lifted, all bets are off.
l saw the 150 Ton American Lattice Crane pick up the heat exchanger that didn't get drained and the crane tipped over onto the building and luckily set the exchanger right back on the roof. We had to being the 300 Ton Manitowoc track crane over to get the job done.
When the crane boom hit the building it bent several tubes, but being it happened just about the same time the load came to rest on the roof, the boom didn't collapse. That section had to have several tubes replaced.