It actually works best with 2 guys in the basket. One holds onto the tree while the other cuts. That goes real easy. They point me where they want to be, I put them there, and you can make pretty short work of it, if you can let the pieces fall.
If there's only one guy in the basket (because they don't have enough guys- I always recommend two), I'll usually just run him up against the tree so he won't spin as bad, and tying a line off helps. But it still spins a little, and just like truckman says, every time you step or move, or push the saw, the basket moves a little. Ride it out like a ship, and let the saw do the work.
I had a chance this spring to buy a boom head basket, but I passed on it. I've got too many different cranes, and didn't want to build adapters for all of them. I thought about just setting up one or two of the cranes, but I guess I just didn't want to mess with it.
Once you get onto it, and cut out of the basket, it really isn't too bad. I probably drop a dozen or two dozen trees a year, with a couple different tree outfits. Usually when they can't access the yard with their bucket trucks. Or the tree is so tall they can't reach it. Probably 1/2 the jobs they climb and rig the pieces and I fly them out, 1/2 the jobs they end up in a basket. I've done both on the same job, some of the tree from the basket, and some of it climb and rig.
I've also been the guy in the basket, and I guess I didn't really mind it, but its been a while, maybe I've forgotten. I guess I'd rather ride up the basket as climb, but I'm lazy like that.
It all comes down to what a guy is used to doing I guess, maybe the tree guys do nothing but complain about me afterwards. I know the telephone conversations about a tree job usually start out "I'm not sure about this job, you have time to go look?" Usually great big dead trees on the other side of a house. If it was easy, they would have already had the tree down.