Rule of One-Fifth: Free-falling pieces so they land flat...

I'm generally terrible at estimating the 1/5th stem height, but sometimes I get it.
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From Chapter 17 of The Fundamentals of General Tree Work by Gerald Beranek, "Free-Falling the Wood, Ratio Factors", "One thing to notice about falling vertical lengths of wood off the top of the pole is that, when they tip off the cut, they don't stop turning. They will continue to tumble as long as they have room to fall. There's not much you can do to prevent this from happening, so the best thing to do is to take advantage of it. The amount of turns a length of wood will take before it reaches the ground is directly associated with the ratio of its length and its height above the ground... if you keep the face approximately 25 to 30 degrees and don't leave a beefy hinge to break, then these tumbling ratios will work for you... Finally, at a length of approximately .18, the sections will land flat on their back with the top facing the trunk. They will take a 270-degree turn and approach to the ground... Remember, the opening of the face cut and amount of hinge to break is a major variable.
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Check out The Fundamentals of General Tree Work 25th Anniversary Edition here:
https://amzn.to/3oOU67q

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