Why do they park cranes with Jibs in the air?

Two possible answers here...

1) If they have 'a lot' of cranes to store in a limited space, the cranes take up less ground space with the booms elevated, thus making room to park more equipment in a smaller space.

2) I have noticed that some businesses that rent cranes and lifts frequently park the equipment with the booms up just as advertisement for their business... A parking lot full of cranes with their booms raised draws more attention from passing motorists than the same lot with all the equipment at ground level.

One of the biggest problems encountered by Cranes is wind. Wind pressure can almost render a Crane useless because it will be uncontrollable.

Parking a Crane with the jib up affords it a free movement(slew), in windy conditions without the possibility of crashing into surrounding objects.

I can think of a few reasons. If you were to start a crane with the jib down and it was to take off in anydirection there would be a lot more chance of injury. You cant see someone close to a jib if it is down. You also do not want to have any cable slack on the drum. If you cross the cable and then lift something, you will break the cable. If the jib is down you could easily put slack in the cable.

i don't know what went wrong, but the manufactures recommends using only 15 pounds to counterweight the 12 foot tommy jib. you may have assembled the works improperly. i don't understand why you would be using a motor head, you should set up your shots head-on and use the supplied arm to keep the camera level or on shot. put marks on the floor for the talent if you have too so they can stay in the shot. i have used 10 foot jibs with the Panasonic WV-D5000 which would be at least as heavy as the XL H1 and not used any counterweights, just lockdown the tripod.

I assume the jib is the hook hanging off the arm of the crane.

I've always thought that they raise them in the air to keep people from stealing equipment. I almost always see some smaller equipment hanging on the ends of the cranes, well above where anyone could reach.

They won't fall on people even if they are in that restricted area . OSHA is very serious about crane safety.

Lightning doesn't damage them.