The TV programme ‘Don’t try this at home’ is self descriptive. The programme allows individuals to live out their ambitious dreams with the help of experts. In this particular case, somebody was going to be given the opportunity to travel across the River Thames in London hanging from a strop on a pulley running along a wire. The victim did not know beforehand what their ‘dare’ was going to be.

The high point where the victim was taken to was the top of the Shell Building on the south bank of the Thames. The destination was a grass bank opposite the Shell Building on the north side of the Thames. The two main issues for this project were the technical aspects in consideration of the weight, span, load and elevation factors as well as the more critical point that the cargo was to be a human being.

The travel distance across the Thames was 600 metres with a drop of 100 metres. The amount of space available on the north bank of the Thames for attachment of the destination fixing point was limited. Unusual designed, built and installed a trolley mechanism, which was used to adjust the friction on the wire, thus ensuring that the victim arrived at the destination point at a controlled speed. The landing point was a pontoon on the north shore of the Thames, where two brakemen were positioned to catch the victim.

Tests were carried out with weights, followed by one of our own riggers prior to the successful run for the TV cameras.