Re: pic: Tower Mishap
 

It happened at CT Regional as well. It landed on their own alliance pole, so no penalties incurred. As stated above, you can't remove the pole because of the wires going down through, plus the poles are locked in. The ladder supplied by FIRST isn't tall enough for someone to climb up & remove over the top. We just sliced it off.

Re: pic: Tower Mishap
 

The wires can be disconnected from the base, and the poles can be removed. It just takes a few minutes to unscrew the covering at the base and get to them, disconnect the wires going up to the top of the tower, lift the pole, and then put everything back together. Easily done by two people in five minutes or less.

Re: pic: Tower Mishap
 

I'm well aware of how it comes apart. I built the CT field. It's easier to just cut it & save about 5 minutes.

Re: pic: Tower Mishap
 

That was Adam. He's generally pretty skilled (he was 254's human player in 2009 as well, and was deadly). I'm just surprised it only happened once- in practice they had to take that first tower down because he was breaking it so often until he improved.

Since that double red card he's been rethinking his technique, which is good for all people involved in the lab. At least now if he's practicing and he hits you accidentally you don't get bruises the next day. We were very impressed that in 254's first match at San Diego he threw a tube across the field and landed it on their claw. People from GRT were asking me if he had practiced that.....

Re: pic: Tower Mishap
 

Twice at KC, the green light was hit by a tube and flew halfway across the field. :p They had to get out the dance music and a ladder to put it back, and it wasn't working afterwards at first.

Re: pic: Tower Mishap
 

I've put together 2 fields and helped break down 2 fields as well. As a field supervisor you don't want to waste a full round's worth of time to break down a tower and put it back together. That's IF the anchors all cooperate around the tower base and everything goes smoothly. You also take the chance that something won't be connected correctly (or at all) when putting the tower back together...which would put you even further behind on the schedule. If the field can't be dissembled and reassembled in under 2 minutes, you should just be cutting the tube off the base of the tower. Now if the tube is up top, get the ladder out as soon as it happens so you're ready to go when the match is over. :)

Re: pic: Tower Mishap
 

This also happened at GSR.