In a past life the company that I worked for had the contract to make the saw blades used in this process as well as the ground machines with bladed reach arms used to trim along lines that could be accessed by wheeled or crawler vehicles. No way would I want to pilot the chopper doing that trimming.
Years back in rural Virginia where I lived, early fall I saw one of these heading over the mountain where the high tension lines ran. Donno why I thought it, but guessing what this thing was, I said to my mom inside, the power is about to go out. About twenty seconds later POOF. A day and a half or so later we had our power back.
Seems to me that there could be some chance of the blades getting jammed by limbs. Maybe it has an emergency release? Flying along and realizing your helicopter is stuck on a tree limb wouldn’t be fun.
I saw one of those rigs operating when I lived in Ohio and was a County engineer. The chopper landed at the county airport and got a close up look. If there were much wind, I would not want to be in that chopper.
Saw the same thing here at the little airport across the bay. Looks like a pretty high risk operation going on there. The pilot probably makes more in two weeks than I do in two years.
So Cederk, I was talking about income, but yeah, a brass pair are what might be needed to do that job. I did some sketchy flights in the Toulumne canyon back in the day, and have a lot of respect for that form of travel. Exit helo on one skid on a boulder in the middle of the river. Front of skids on steep sand bar with rotors about 4 feet from steep stream bank. I was on my first flight ever in a helo, Hughes 500 Turbo, sitting next to the pilot, and he did a barrel roll into the canyon. I saw the attitude ball roll all the way around. And we had the doors off too! It was a fun summer job. And some of the best trout fishing to be had out in the middle of nowhere for the several days at a time we got dumped. Work, eat, fish, sleep, rinse repeat!
In a past life the company that I worked for had the contract to make the saw blades used in this process as well as the ground machines with bladed reach arms used to trim along lines that could be accessed by wheeled or crawler vehicles. No way would I want to pilot the chopper doing that trimming.
ReplyDeleteYears back in rural Virginia where I lived, early fall I saw one of these heading over the mountain where the high tension lines ran. Donno why I thought it, but guessing what this thing was, I said to my mom inside, the power is about to go out. About twenty seconds later POOF. A day and a half or so later we had our power back.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that there could be some chance of the blades getting jammed by limbs. Maybe it has an emergency release? Flying along and realizing your helicopter is stuck on a tree limb wouldn’t be fun.
ReplyDeleteWHOAH!!
ReplyDeleteI saw one of those rigs operating when I lived in Ohio and was a County engineer. The chopper landed at the county airport and got a close up look. If there were much wind, I would not want to be in that chopper.
ReplyDeleteSaw the same thing here at the little airport across the bay. Looks like a pretty high risk operation going on there. The pilot probably makes more in two weeks than I do in two years.
ReplyDeleteSo Sarthurk, you say the pilot takes Brasso in with him to shower?
ReplyDeletePaul Bunyan would turn green with envy. All he had was an axe!
ReplyDeleteSo Cederk,
ReplyDeleteI was talking about income, but yeah, a brass pair are what might be needed to do that job.
I did some sketchy flights in the Toulumne canyon back in the day, and have a lot of respect for that form of travel. Exit helo on one skid on a boulder in the middle of the river. Front of skids on steep sand bar with rotors about 4 feet from steep stream bank. I was on my first flight ever in a helo, Hughes 500 Turbo, sitting next to the pilot, and he did a barrel roll into the canyon. I saw the attitude ball roll all the way around. And we had the doors off too! It was a fun summer job. And some of the best trout fishing to be had out in the middle of nowhere for the several days at a time we got dumped. Work, eat, fish, sleep, rinse repeat!