A METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE ORIENTATION OF A LOAD SUSPENDED FROM A BEARING WIRE ABOUT SAID BEARING WIRE AND A WINCH ARRANGEMENT

Controlling the orientation of a load suspended from a bearing wire employs one master winch, one slave winch and a winch control. Each of the winches has a motor and a bi-directional rotational spool with a tagline. The winches are on the ground, the crane or the load. Each tagline is attached to the load for applying a controlled torque to the load about the bearing wire. The control system comprises tagline tension sensors and spool rotation sensors. The control system is connected to each winch motor for simultaneously rotating the winch spools, until preset tagline tensions are sensed during horizontal and/or vertical movement of the load. If necessary, the spools are rotated with rotation speeds for maintaining a desired orientation of the load, based on the determined tagline tensions. After relieving tagline tensions, the taglines are disconnected from the load.