User:Hyin28/Fly crew

Fly Crew
A fly crew is a group of people who in charge of maintaining and operating the fly system during theatre production. The member of fly crew will also called flyman. Despite the name flyman, there is no gender restriction in order to work within fly crew. As long as the person possess the necessary skills, women can also work for fly crew just like men.

Working as a member of the fly crew, the ability of paying close attention, having physicals strength and agility are required. During the performance, operating the fly system will often involve with changing the scenery or other stage effects on stage, members of the fly crew will usually spend a lot of of time waiting for the predefined cues for operating the fly system, therefore, It is very important for the fly crew to pay close attention to the signal for operating the fly system. And during tech rehearsals, the fly crew is in charge of inspecting the fly system, maintaining the weight balance, and installing the scenery, lighting and other equipment needed for the show. To maintain the balance of the fly system, the fly crew will need to climb up to the loading gallery on top of the stage. Therefore, the loaders, members of the fly crew who in charge of loading and unloading the weight, must be able to work high above the ground. The entire fly crew will usually be supervised by the head of the flyman during the production of the show.

Language and Verbal cues
Whistling on the backstage is consider as a dangerous action. Before the implication of the tele-communication for theatre production, the fly crew sometimes use whistle as a verbal cue for operating the fly system. So whistling on the backstage will interfere the operations and cause accident on stage. It is the same reason that in modern day theatre, the use of word "go" is not allowed on the backstage because it might trigger certain cues on stage such as lighting, scenery movement and other stage effects.

In order to operating the fly system safely, the fly crew need to mention the number of the batten/pipe that is going down or up. An example is "Pipe number so and so, coming in. Heads up!"

Safety
Working with fly system can be a really challenging and dangerous task due to the large amount of weight and great heights involved. A run-away line, for example, might injure the operator or others in the way of the moving equipment, and a counterweight dropped from the grid could kill or injure a person standing below. Therefore, to ensure the safety of the workers and the performers on stage, certain safety guidelines have been implemented to the fly crew during the operation. Here are some general safety rules that can reduce the amount of accidents happen while working with fly system.


 * Knowing the fly system you working with, for example the capacity of the system.
 * Keep clear communication with others who working on stage.
 * Always wear personal protective equipment while setting up the system.
 * Always shout out warming and run away from stage when things fall on top of the stage.
 * Always inspect the the integrated of the fly system.
 * Always keep the counterweight system on balance.
 * Load your equipment and sets first and then the arbor.