You can easily reach the outer tips of branches for prunign and reduction cuts, allowing you the mobility to make many smaller cuts, far away from the main stem, where the tree can easily compartmentalize, and where there is no chance of decay moving into the main stem, and where the smallest amount of damage to the tree (loss of green leaves) gives the most relief structuarally due to leverage.
Fatigue factors are huge..
allows climber to rig larger pieces increasing productivity with sinificantly reduced concerns for the increased laoding's potential to cuase the tree to fail, or even shake him out of the hooks.
Often easier to postion properly for better body position relative to the cut, and thus less chance that climber will one hand a saw, or over reach in critical situation. Though when the bucket is just short of the cut, that can cause a tendency to over reach.
CON: operator is more inclined to one hand a saw to remove limbs rather than lower them, which he would otherwise be foreced to do if climbing. Note: this can be rememdied by carrying a sharp handsaw, which allows a bucket operator to either make an entire cut with the handsaw or start a cut with the chainsaw and finish with the handsaw, when handling the piece with his free hand.
Blocking down a spar is in particularly safer and faster, as the climber is forced to repostion his tie in point with every cut, leving him in a situation where he is vulberable should his gafs kcik out when repositioning the line.
Also, after making the cut and setting the rigging for negative blocking a spar, the operator can reposition the bucket to the top of the piece, and push a piece off the spar by hand, rather than having to install a pull line or cut a deep notch, or use other hand tools to lift the piece off the cut. This makes less work for the ground crew, and puts them in less risk of getting a pry bar dropped on their heads.
Con: when cabling, if the bucket cannot reach the proper height to set the cable, there is a large tendency to take the path of least reisitance and just set the cable as high as the bucket will reach.
Greater chance of poking oneself in the eye, or getting scratched up in the bucket as it is far easier to lose sense of one's position relative branches and obstacle limbs, when moving the bucket.
I think there is also a greater risk for struck by on the ground. when running a bucket, as there is a tendency to cut far many more pieces and bomb them from a bucket, whereas they would be roped down by a climber. With the tendency to cut and chuck more, comes greater danger to the ground crew, as the chances of pieces taking a bad bounce increase.
Improper maintencance can casue catastrophic failure and kill a bucket operator through no fault of his own.
