But that one big client let you focus. stella307 had to scramble for five clients, that sounds like a headache.

Hearing that pop at 40 feet up would have made my blood run cold. I can't believe you saw the single wire sticking out like that, a clean break before the whole thing went. @johnh82 is right about that death rattle, it's the only warning you get. I saw a cable on a truck crane fail once, but it just gave a weird groan and went slack. No pop, nothing. You got lucky it gave you that one wire signal so you could stop everything. Lowering with the aux must have felt like forever.

Yeah, my gadgets lie to me all the time too.

It's wild how much a bad connection can mess with your head. I once spent an hour trying to figure out why a sensor was giving random numbers, only to find a tiny bit of corrosion on the pin. The whole time I was convinced I'd fried something expensive. Makes you question every reading after that.

Always thought shuttles were a waste but that sounds worth it.