Alex, I'll take jobs I won't do for $10 million please

[jemhouston]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPNK7bc ... =MattBrink



Spacer Installation on 765,000 volt line

[warshipadmin]

I thought you never lashed a flying helicopter to a structure. I was wrong. Absolutely terrifying.

[Rocket J Squrriel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPNK7bc ... =MattBrink



Spacer Installation on 765,000 volt line

Could be worse! Could be one of the guys that climbs out of the helicopter to walk the wires with a bag of tools.
https://youtu.be/6_NEAEGeFIw?feature=shared

Or work in the top of the antenna that is on the John Hancock Building in Chicago.
https://youtu.be/RpXL_QaK17E?feature=shared

[Johnnie Lyle]

Falling is one of those situations where you really get time to contemplate on how you done fucked up before it kills you.

[Pdf27]

I thought you never lashed a flying helicopter to a structure. I was wrong. Absolutely terrifying.

That's very unlikely to be actually lashed on - it's just a grounding wire so it's probably in a pull-out plug. TBH the sketchiest bit of flying there was the selection of a take-off and landing site - the rest is OK given the very benign conditions needed for the job.

[Straker]

I wonder what effect the bonding on and off the line repeatedly has on the helicopters electronics?

Wonder if they prefer older models with analogue instruments etc. to reduce the potential failures.

[jemhouston]

I wonder what effect the bonding on and off the line repeatedly has on the helicopters electronics?

Wonder if they prefer older models with analogue instruments etc. to reduce the potential failures.

Another question is who came up with this? "I have a great idea on how to do it. We can hang off the side of helicopter to do it."

[gral]

Yup, it takes a... certain sort of person to work at power line(or as we call them here, "linha viva" - 'live line') maintenance.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

I'm reminded of the Scandinavian helo pilots who routinely sanitise wonky rock-faces with a wrecking ball.

These are cliffs that even daring young alpinists fear to abseil, and for good reason.

Next down the 'WTF ??' ladder may be the 'circular saw' wielding helos used to cut back branches and tree-tops encroaching on long power-lines.

IIRC, such tech was made famous by a James Bond movie, albeit set vertical rather than horizontal...

[Nightwatch2]

I’m pretty sure those lines weren’t “hot”

The probe he was using looked like it was static electricity being discharged from the helo. I don’t think that was a live wire discharge.

One would have to ask- why work on a live wire? That’s a fast way to get killed for no reason.

(Sad) case in point. A contract crew was doing some work near one of our power plants. Completely unrelated to power lines but they were under one. Their crane came into contact with one of the power lines overhead. Killed two and fused their truck into a pile of slag. A third guy was blown clear with massive burns but lived. It was a 10k volt line.

I was the Chairman of the Board at the time. Very sad and unnecessary accident.

No reason to work on live circuits.

[kdahm]

Those were live lines. Working on them was perfectly safe, as long as the equipment is grounded to the potential of the lines themselves and there are no paths to ground. It's done all the time with helicopters and with insulated boom trucks.

The probe that's extended takes the ground of the helicopter and makes that equal to the voltage of the lines. Since the battery and alternator of the helicopter provide a 12v or 24v DC over the ground of the helicopter, it's not affected by changing the level of the ground. The long probe simply allows that equilibration to take place far away from the helicopter body.

To make an analogy, the ISS is moving at around 27,000 kph relative to the Earth's surface. A capsule approaching the ISS is also moving at 27,000 kph relative to the same Earth's surface. That's entirely irrelevant, because the capsule is moving at 1 meter/second relative to the ISS, and needs to come to 0 meter/s when it is at the capture port.

[Belushi TD]

Intellectually, I understand that its "safe" when appropriate precautions are taken.

Emotionally, I'm more like "HOLYF&CKINGSH!TCHR!STINACUISINART WHAT IN THE EVERLOVING F&CK ARE THEY DOING?"

Belushi TD

[kdahm]

Intellectually, I understand that its "safe" when appropriate precautions are taken.

Emotionally, I'm more like "HOLYF&CKINGSH!TCHR!STINACUISINART WHAT IN THE EVERLOVING F&CK ARE THEY DOING?"

Belushi TD

Strangely enough, that's a lot of people's responses to the videos of miners riding those tiny elevators a couple of thousand feet down, then working next to those mine face removal machines to excavate a gallery. Or pulling a 5000 ft string in 40 ft increments.

I could go on......

[jemhouston]

All those people have one thing in common, the ability to keep 100% concertation 100% of the time while on the job.

[brovane]

Did anyone ever watch the Nat Geo series World's Toughest fixes?

It had Sean Riley who was a rigger by trade doing some extreme jobs like High Voltage power line repair from a Helicopter and working on a 2000 foot TV antenna.

[Belushi TD]

Intellectually, I understand that its "safe" when appropriate precautions are taken.

Emotionally, I'm more like "HOLYF&CKINGSH!TCHR!STINACUISINART WHAT IN THE EVERLOVING F&CK ARE THEY DOING?"

Belushi TD

Strangely enough, that's a lot of people's responses to the videos of miners riding those tiny elevators a couple of thousand feet down, then working next to those mine face removal machines to excavate a gallery. Or pulling a 5000 ft string in 40 ft increments.

I could go on......

Yep. And the mining stuff doesn't bother me. Geologist by profession, it sort of can't! As far as I can tell, its sort of like phobias. Lots of people with phobias intellectually understand that the risk is extremely low, but emotionally, they can't take that risk. Case in point: My wife has a major phobia of grates in sidewalks. She will NOT walk on them and will go FAR out of her way to avoid them. She knows, intellectually, that the odds of them opening while she's walking across them and her plummeting ??? feet to her doom? are miniscule, but emotionally, she can't walk on them.

Belushi TD