Comments on: I've only been afraid of three things: Electricity, heights, and women

I've only been afraid of three things: Electricity, heights, and women

gwint — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:39:05 -0800

By: Ohdemah

Ohdemah — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:46:08 -0800

Well, that made my barely begun day. Thanks!

By: DU

DU — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:49:50 -0800

Wow. This is probably more incredible in IMAX (as what isn't), but when the guy is crawling along and then someone goes by the other way....it's like a science fiction movie about people living on a system of ropes above the trees.

By: phaedon

phaedon — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:51:14 -0800

Previously

By: DieHipsterDie

DieHipsterDie — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:53:09 -0800

No f'ing way.

By: notsnot

notsnot — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:55:40 -0800

Sweet merciful Christ.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:56:32 -0800

Wow.

By: milestogo

milestogo — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:59:35 -0800

very cool.

By: Uther Bentrazor

Uther Bentrazor — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:03:03 -0800

I say this with the utmost respect for these guys and this video: Fuck every single thing about this *curls up on the floor under my desk*

By: peeedro

peeedro — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:08:47 -0800

Amazing.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:14:08 -0800

You probably can only do that job for so many years until one night you wake up at 3AM screaming after all that repressed vertigo hits you all at once. Then you get a desk job.

By: Brockles

Brockles — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:17:37 -0800

Then you get a desk job. In a mine. Awesome bit of flying too. When he is transferring to the cable, for the most part the hover is rock steady. INpressive as hell.

By: Brockles

Brockles — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:18:23 -0800

Or even 'Impressive'. (note to self: Must stop typing with forehead)

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:27:39 -0800

*gasp Stomach roils. omg! Amazing. Kind of like those guys on skyscraper girders, 50 storeys up. But with Tesla coil zaps thrown in. yikes! Kept cringing as the helicopter blades got near the cables. Hope they get serious bucks for their work.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:28:24 -0800

It's like Metafilter is in a Faraday cage and it's protected from old blog entries.

By: taliaferro

taliaferro — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:31:32 -0800

Egads!

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:31:33 -0800

Hopefully they won't find one of these.

By: kc8nod

kc8nod — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:33:56 -0800

It's impressive how nimbly they can crawl along the wires, especially since they must have testicles the size of softballs.

By: taliaferro

taliaferro — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:34:31 -0800

Holy balls!@!

By: cascando

cascando — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:35:01 -0800

After watching that video this morning, its going to be _very_ hard to complain at work today. Thank you.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:36:12 -0800

Incredible. It amazes me to learn that such a job even exists. Who knew?

By: docpops

docpops — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:38:59 -0800

That was beautiful. Thanks.

By: ninjew

ninjew — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:45:12 -0800

I'm lucky enough to be able to enjoy free IMAX viewings here at work. I think I probably walked over to see this one about 5 or 6 times. You know how there's always that one scene in the IMAX movie where you've got the aerial shot, flying low and fast along some sort of water/mountain range? That's what this whole movie was like. And yeah, I was totally amazed by this guy.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:48:03 -0800

The helicopter is flying close to treetops, towers and wires, all the things that helicopters usually crash into. Not to mention the other dangers, but that is probably the most dangerous part of it - equipment failure, gust of wind, not much room for error.

By: The Ultimate Olympian

The Ultimate Olympian — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:50:18 -0800

High Voltage Cable Inspection.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:52:28 -0800

Shocking!

By: Skorgu

Skorgu — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:54:22 -0800

Helicopters are reasonably safe if you're high enough or fast enough to autogyro from an engine failure. When you're not inside that "envelope" of safe speeds/altitudes, an engine failure means you're hitting the ground like a rock, no matter how good you are. Hovering that precisely takes skill, flying that low and slow for so long takes an eighteen wheeler full of chutzpah.

By: dreamsign

dreamsign — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:57:40 -0800

Pure joy. And I was pretty bummed out today, too. Thanks for this! Have to say, also, that person telling the tale really makes it. Love his demeanor.

By: Sk4n

Sk4n — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:03:20 -0800

Thank you for reviving my vertigo with that post. I have to lie down now. As for the Faraday cage. Who volunteered to test that out?

By: jouke

jouke — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:10:13 -0800

Kewl. That's what I'm gonna be when I grow up.

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:11:54 -0800

Heh that was awesome.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:13:04 -0800

As noted at YouTube this high-voltage clip is from the IMAX film about helicopters: "Straight Up." I found this montage of clips [7:32] also at YouTube.

By: Forktine

Forktine — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:18:39 -0800

I watch that, and my first reaction is "I want that job!" Doing it in the rain and cold must really suck, but on a nice day, up in the breeze, sliding along the cables -- I would pay money to be able to do that every day. What sort of qualifications do those guys need, I wonder?

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:29:23 -0800

It's not a job for a hot dog.

By: djeo

djeo — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:33:53 -0800

I finally know what I want to do when I grow up.

By: twine42

twine42 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:46:25 -0800

I've watched them do something similar over here in the UK, except this was with big pylons carrying six or eight clusters of five wires. They came up close with the helicopter and somehow suspended a metal cage from the wires with two or three men in the cage. I don't know who got more respect - those guys or the ones who climbed the pylons themselves to paint them. They didn't have the cages but at least the power was turned off. I assume the arcing we see if the helicopter being brought up to the same potential as the powerlines. What then happens to to this potential? How do the choppers ground them selves before they land...?

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:49:14 -0800

Thanks, ericb, I was just about to ask where it came from or if it was just the world's shortest documentary.

By: Relay

Relay — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:53:52 -0800

I grew up in the lower Columbia River Valley, and about a third of the dads that I knew, worked for the Bonneville Power Administration (or BPA as everyone called it). A good portion of those guys did things like this, or install and maintain generators larger than a suburban house, or "run lines" with enough juice to blow you out of a cherry picker bucket rendering you into a corpse that looked like a large charcoal brickette. It's a dangerous although very well paid job. And if you like being outdoors, the views are tremendous.

By: dov3

dov3 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:54:56 -0800

Awesome! Thanks for the link.

By: aldurtregi

aldurtregi — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:07:27 -0800

Amazing! I wonder if he's from Wichita.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:21:04 -0800

Awesome. I once did a bit of hiking up the side of a hill following an underground gas pipeline, and it ended up crossing some high voltage lines. Both create huge scars on the landscape (in forested areas) but it was cool to actually have that straight line view from the top of the hill. In our fearful society, these are terrorist threats that actually don't get mentioned much. With a lot of planning and coordination but basically no or very little risk of failure, a decent sized group could take out the power grid quite nicely. There's no practical way to secure thousands and thousands of miles of cable in the middle of the wilderness. What keeps us safe, as I've said before, is that terrorism isn't really that much of a threat and when it is they want spectacles rather than actually crippling the country.

By: dreamsign

dreamsign — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:26:48 -0800

What then happens to to this potential? I note that the lineman reaches out with his pole to the helicopter departing and more current passes between. While I can't figure out why this would result in the helicopter releasing potential back in the direction of the grid, I can't think of another reason for this action. Somebody with more info??

By: fiercecupcake

fiercecupcake — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:10:54 -0800

This is beautiful. Thanks.

By: quin

quin — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:04:02 -0800

Holy fuck, Science! scares the hell out of me sometimes. I mean, I fully understand the idea of why he's not dead, but it's still insane to me. Mainly because while he is completely safe, it would only take such a very small mistake to have him end several different kinds of badly. Still, awesome job to talk about at the bar: Guy 1: I'm a lawyer, I handle stressful situations everyday. Guy 2: I'm a firefighter, I put myself in harms way every day. Guy 3: I'm a high voltage cable inspector. Guys 1 and 2: Woah! Lemme buy you a drink, man!

By: cenoxo

cenoxo — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:12:43 -0800

What's it like to repair a live powerline from a helicopter? Well, you start by putting on a wearable Faraday cage:

The lineman and pilot put on hot suits with hoods... A hot suit looks very much like a burlap sack fashioned into a flight suit. Spider explained, "These are to take and distribute the flow of electricity over them as if they were working in a steel cage. This was a theory developed in the late 1880's by Michael Faraday. He theorized that if you could suspend a man in mid air inside of a steel cage electricity wouldn't bother him." What Spider takes for granted after years of working around energized lines is the distinct sensation of pins and needles that one feels while wearing the hot suit. The electricity is literally buzzing all around you.

More about helicopter live-line work at Transmission & Distribution World. Without these guys, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation.

By: OverlappingElvis

OverlappingElvis — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:32:13 -0800

That last line is the icing on the cake of an awesome video.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:55:39 -0800

Wouldn't his giant steel balls conduct electricity?

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:11:32 -0800

My cousin used to do this. Before that he was a recon Marine. The guy just has no bottom when it comes to stress. Seen him in arguments and the disparity is amazing. You know how incrementally people get louder when trying to make a point or gesture or something? Nope. Not my cousin. Even keel the whole way. And it's not like he's just holding back this tremendous rage, it's just not there. He doesn't get upset at all. Rolls off like water off a duck's back. Really it's infuriating. Doesn't surprise me he did this for so long. Personally high tension wires scare the crap out of me. "...they want spectacles rather than actually crippling the country." - posted by TheOnlyCoolTim Sure. There's a difference between sabotage and terrorism.

By: cenoxo

cenoxo — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:14:03 -0800

Props to the pilots: in this less dramatic Agrotors Helicopter Power Line Maintenance YT video (shot in Pennslyvania), they're not working as high, but note the wind buffeting and how close — exaggerated by the camera's POV — the blades are to the lines. In France, EDF Services et Travaux Héliportés does live-line maintenance with a twin-engine helicopter, two pilots, and a lineman in a suspended bucket.

By: bshort

bshort — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:16:34 -0800

"Straight Up" is pretty good, but this is, by far, the best part of the movie. It's available on Netflix, btw.

By: bshort

bshort — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:19:08 -0800

Also, what I want to know, but what isn't made clear in the video, is what kind of maintenance is he actually doing? Is he replacing some part? Is he tightening some bolt?

By: FelliniBlank

FelliniBlank — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:48:59 -0800

A friend and I once decided that possibly the most awful way to die would be driving off a very high bridge into a glacial lake in a car full of enormous spiders, but now I'm thinking that for real horror, helicopters and electrocution would have to figure into it somehow.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:55:41 -0800

I assume the arcing we see if the helicopter being brought up to the same potential as the powerlines. What then happens to to this potential? How do the choppers ground them selves before they land...? There is no 'bringing up to potential' with an AC power line, since the instantaneous voltage can be anything between +/- 1.414 x V_line. Also, it looks as if there is an ongoing current between the line and the helicopter, not just a spark when they are first brought together.. The arcs you see don't represent much current - I'm not sure how to judge, but much less than an amp, I guess. Also, once an arc starts, air becomes ionized, and even relatively small voltage differential will sustain it. Helicopters can generate a great deal of static electricity. It must be the static generating ability which is sustaining the current. Of course it isn't 'static' anymore, but the result of rubbing a large surface area (blades) against a lot of air molecules is still happening, and I guess that is providing a small leakage path to ground..

By: twine42

twine42 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:14:15 -0800

There is no 'bringing up to potential' with an AC power line That is a damned good point...

By: Tube

Tube — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:49:56 -0800

I suspect one of the not-obvious hazards of this job may be ozone inhalation. I remember reading a statistic in an Isaac Asimov book (and I hope my memory is correct) that ozone has 300 times greater affinity for hemoglobin than does carbon monoxide. By any account, it's poisonous stuff. Those large sparks you see and hear generate a great deal of ozone, which, contrary to what some believe, does not smell like the fresh air of a thunderstorm. Ozone smells like Kinkos.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:27:35 -0800

I actually toyed with the idea of applying for this job. I figure there can't be much competition for it, it must pay outrageously well, and it would certainly challenge hell out of my twin fears of heights and high voltage electricity.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:44:57 -0800

I note that the lineman reaches out with his pole to the helicopter departing and more current passes between. While I can't figure out why this would result in the helicopter releasing potential back in the direction of the grid, I can't think of another reason for this action. Somebody with more info?? I think this is so that any current surges through the stick rather than the nearest limb to the helicopter. I don't know that there would be enough current to weld the surface of the hot suit, but why risk it.