This is the standard method in which yarders are used and actually where they are used the best and most efficient. In this configuration the yarder is setup on a landing above the unit where the logs are to be yarded from. The skyline is run down the hill to a lift tree, this is where the cable runs through a block (a pulley) that is hung high in a tree and then down to the ground where it is attached to a stump or a large tree and tied off very securely. How is this huge skyline pulled down the hill thousands of feet you ask? Well first there are two smaller lines commonly called haywire and tag line are pulled all the way to the tail hold by hand. The haywire is usually 100-foot sections that can be easily connected/disconnected and is used for many things other than what is explained here. The tag line is one long solid cable a little bit bigger than the haywire. Once these two lines are dragged to the tail hold they are then hooked together through a block, then the yarder engineer pulls on the haywire side and brings the tag line back up to the yarder to form a loop. Then the tag line drags the haulback down the hill through the block and up to the yarder again, and then the haulback is finally hooked to the skyline and drags it to the tail hold. Sound complicated? Well it is not to bad after you get the tag and haywire pulled out, but the process of pulling these 2 little tiny lines down a cliff over neck deep slash and unstable logs for thousands of feet really sucks! As they say "don't try this at home kiddies"

     OK, now we have our skyline all hooked up and raised, the next thing to look at is your deflection of the skyline. The deflection is the amount of sag you have between the yarder and the tail hold. One rule of thumb is the more deflection you have the better, period! I have just learned recently what the formula for figuring you deflection is from a yarder expert I have met online, this is what he said-ON A MORE GENERAL NOTE, IF YOU DON'T HAVE DEFLECTION, YOU DON'T HAVE A SKYLINE SHOW. THE DEFINITION OF DEFLECTION IS THE DISTANCE FROM THE LOADED SKYLINE AT MIDSPAN TO THE GROUND. THIS VERTICAL DISTANCE IS DIVIDED BY THE HORIZONTAL DISTANCE FROM THE HEAD TREE TO THE TAILHOLD. IT IS EXPRESSED AS A PERCENT. FOR EXAMPLE: (200 FEET VERTICAL DIST FROM LOADED SKYLINE TO THE GROUND AT MIDSPAN) DIVIDED BY (THE HORIZONTAL SPAN OF 2000 FEET) = 10% DEFLECTION. THE RULE OF THUMB IS THAT YOU NEED A MINIMUM OF 5 TO 7 % DEFLECTION TO MAKE IT.

     After you have set your skyline deflection by simply pulling in or paying out some line, you are ready to send the carriage down the hill to see if it will make it all the way to the back. If you are on steep ground and the tail hold is well below you, it will go just fine, if you are on relatively flat ground you might have to run a haulback line (refer to the downhill yarding page on this)

     If all these things are working correctly, you are ready to start yarding...so here you are standing in the pouring down rain freezing to dead on a landing with a yarder that's warmed up and ready to go, what do you do? Well the first thing is take a deep breathe and walk over the edge down to your logs and wait for the carriage to come down the hill at you, but wait! The engineer can't see you, so how can you tell him what you want to machine to do? That is where those annoying whistle's come from. Each man in the brush has a talkie tooter which is a radio device that signal's a horn on the yarder when you push a button. In the yarding systems I will be focusing on here there is another tooter used to control the motorized carriage. When the carriage comes down the hill the rigging slinger gives the yarder a single toot, this tells the engineer to stop then main line and hold the carriage in one spot, then the rigging slinger toots the carriage once to activate the skyline clamp, after the carriage is holding itself to the skyline, the rigging slinger toots the yarder once again to have him put the mainline drum in free spool, after the rigging slinger sees that the mainline has become slack he gives the carriage a series of toots to activate the slack pulling feature, if I recall correctly the series was 2 fast toots followed by a short pause and another fast toot. The carriage feeds out enough slack to get the drop line hook to your chokers, he again gives the carriage another toot to stop the slack pulling and put the carriage it's self in free spool, after getting safely out of the way, preferably sideways and a little uphill from the log to be yarded, he toots the yarder 3 times to tell the engineer to slowly pull the log up to the carriage, when it is in position the rigging slinger toots the yarder once to stop and hold the log against the carriage. He then toots the carriage to release the skyline clamp and then 2 more toots to the yarder to have the engineer pull it up the hill at high speed. While the carriage is up the hill on the landing, the slinger and choker setter's are getting the next turn of logs ready to go,