Is this guy on the forum?
Can't say I would try that. Lol.
https://www.facebook.com/MeanwhileInMT/videos/807046689395099/
I think his reaction at the end shows how unlikely it was that both buildings were going to escape unscathed.
Risky is not one of the words I would have used. Probably better I don't use any of them. I am glad it worked out as well as it did but I will be the first to say I would not try it or want to be anywhere near anyone else trying that. I did not even see a good escape route in case things did go wrong.
I have seen that before, those guys are plain foolhardy. I wouldn't try it and sure would not be the bystander.
I remember working for a guy that was a really good tree feller. He told me a story where someone called him up to cut down a few trees in a neighboring town. He said there were a couple of buildings close by and things were pretty close. But, he figured out how he could lay the trees down. He started his saw, and the owner told him he had to climb the trees and limb them before he cut the trees. The feller told him he ain't climbing any trees. He cut the first tree, and the top brushed the roof edge of one of the buildings. The owner asked if he could do all the trees like that, and the feller told him he could. He finished the job. He also didn't use wedges.
Point is that guys that fell for a living depend on accuracy. I have to believe the guy in the video does it for a living.
This clip has been posted before.
My comment at the time was that I know 'how" to do that, but wouldn't because of the risk if I got it wrong.
Putting a nice straight tree like that where you want it, with the right cuts and careful use of some wedges is pretty straight forward. A good game is to estimate the height of a tree with a stick, your arm and a 45° angle. This leaves you standing where the top of the tree should land. Then plant the stick in the ground and use it as your aiming point. Fell the tree and see how close you can get.
If you can put the top of the tree within 3 ft of the stick, that's pretty accurate. Means the lower part of the tree might only be 6" off target.
But, I wouldn't do it. Knowing my luck the tree would fall on target, and randomly bounce 6ft to the right. :D
I dropped a big tree in the direction of some power lines one day. I correctly estimated that the tree wouldn't hit the lines on the way down. What I didn't foresee was that the tree would bounce back up with forward momentum. It hit the power lines from the bottom and broke them. :o The guys from the power company said that they don't charge for repairs if the tree is dead. One guy said to the other "it looks dead to me". 8)
I have a dead pine next to a unused power line. I plan to ask the power company to de-energize the line before I take it down. I also try to guide all my yard trees with a cable and winch. I offered the tree to a logger who was working on the adjacent property to take it down with his log cutter machine. He declined, stating he did not the trust the reliability of the his machine's hydraulics to work around power lines and houses.
at least he was honest :)