Every once in a blue moon we do something genuinely useful. Today was one of those days. In our defense we did use one of our other silly props in the process- this is the very same pneumatic launcher we use for launching paper tube rockets (among other things). In this case it has a tethered soft PVC tube and rubber dog toy for ballast. I find this combination launches very well and isn’t likely to kill anybody or damage property. Also, coincidentally the overall height seems to approximately correspond to PSI, so that’s a nice perk. The downside is there is no automatic wind up of the spent cord, so you have to kind of lay it out in front of you strategically and not miss often. This is in contrast to the crossbow version that I use for airborne vehicle (typically drone) recovery waaaay up in the treetops. In today’s example, we take down a big dead branch from this giant tree in my front yard. Other similar branches have left some pretty big craters out there- would hate to see that impact anything other than lawn. Because the crossbow version needs to go higher, I use a lightweight braided line like this. This pneumatic version uses braided vectran line, in either case look for a teflon or other coating to help manage tangles and reduce friction.
This is the usual device I use not only for tree trimming, and flying thing recovery, but also for hanging things like the Jumping harness and super swing(s).