Sorry for the late reply, I missed this thread somehow.
G'day Treebarber, any mates of Jeff must be cool.
When I spur up the trunk of a tree or palm I tie a running bowline on my lifeline and leave it a little slack. I flip this up along with the flip line. If you gaff out or something it'll grab and hold you.
If you get to a branch etc, just untie the running bowline, chuck it over the branch, and retie it to your centre D's for the flip line drop and change over.
Once that limb has been passed and if the next one is ages away I retie to a choked bowline and start flipping the two together again.
If I'm blocking down the trunk I'll cinch off my prussik real tight up against this set up.
Now, if you are going to have a figure 8 in the system you need to back it up with a prussik of some types.
I hope this helps.
Oh, I have gaffed out of a few palms and got a gut graze and the set up held.