Truss installation, round #1

So this is how I plan to get the trusses up onto the top plates, now that they've been delivered 30m from the building site (and not to the top plate like I had .. optimistically hoped). It doesn't come through too well in the photo, but the hillside comes up to about half way up the wall frames, so this is a good point from which to launch the trusses.

I plan carefully place each truss on my "skids", then attach three small-to-medium sized rocket motors with cable ties, light the fuses more-or-less simultaneously and watch the truss slide gracefully up onto the top plates.

Yeah, right. Like everything in this build, sweat equity will pay their way to the top.

Ratchet straps, is there anything they're not good for?

(Yes, the careful observer will note that the piccies are not quite in chronological order.. I was in such a rush to get the first truss up onto the frame that I neglected to take a photo of its .. err, flight.)

Here's the first one in position, ready to be swung upright. I was just a little anxious about this one toppling beyond the vertical and actually flying, albeit briefly, so I tethered it to the frame with the ratchet strap so it couldn't over rotate if I messed it up. In hindsight I should have installed the temporary stays (you'll see them in a minute) before I stood this truss up, but hey.. you know what they say about hindsight.

That was easy...

... if not a teeny bit stressful, but slow and steady does it.

Up with number two, then.

Before standing this one up and attaching it to the first, I thought it best to install some semi-permanent bracing for the first truss to keep everything solid. This will be removed once the Hebel panels go up, but they can stay until then. I'll still be diagonally bracing each truss to the frame as I go, so there's zero risk of a collapse.

Oh, and in this pic you can also see my site radio. It's the red boom box with both doors open :)

So that's as far as I got this weekend. Two trusses installed, and a process devised so I should be able to scoot through the rest reasonably quickly, even working single-handedly.