Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/12/file-under-aw-hell-no.html
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Looks ify to me.
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“Ify” as in “ify you fall, you gonna die.”
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The helicopter teams are amazing to watch. There’s this whole sequence they go through involving fiberglass poles that connect the helicopter to the lines so workers can safely move over. Apparently the current flows over the helicopter during this process (like a high voltage skin effect) and the workers and pilot can feel it. Wild stuff. Not to mention the pilot skill required to get within a few feet of moving lines without touching them.
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Bullseye!
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That was on bOINGbOING a while back…here:
I recall a video of linemen putting spacers in between live high voltage lines to keep them from touching during high winds, while sitting in a berth attached to a helicopter. Insane.
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Actually the current will follow the path of least resistance and continue down the wire, never passing through the body of the person or the helicopter. It will only pass through you if it has a path to ground or to a different potential. The act of connecting on is to get the worker and the helicopter to the same potential as the wire. After that they can climb the wires safely. You can feel it but it is not the current you feel, but the high magnetic fields (corona). In the east where voltages are lower the men may not wear Faraday suits on the wires, but out west, on higher voltage lines, they do.
Remember that the coating on the wires outside is actually just a weatherproofing, not an insulator. Squirrels can run along a 2300V line because they are at the same potential. The problem is when they span two wires, or somewhere there is a path to ground. Squirrels longer than the insulators have a surprise coming.
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I once had a grizzled old construction manager tell me that his policy was “You fall, you’re fired. When you hit the ground you were unemployed.”
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“It’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the sudden stop!”
I’m not afraid of heights and used to working around high voltage/amperage electricity, but my response to working the way these folks operate is fuck no. It’s especially freaky to watch the fellow cutting 2 of the 3 wires keeping him from falling a substantial portion of a kilometre and swinging from the remaining wire.
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Thank you for mansplaining electricity to me. I was just trying to share something neat.
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Man, if you accidentally drop your tools, it looks to be a couple of hours retrieval time.
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Like a bird on a wire
Or a drunken midnight choir
Well, ok the first one, anyway.
Also, very cool info about the magnetic corona. Thanks.
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…with some shovel work at the midpoint.
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I guess I’d make a great worker on those lines. At those heights, my butt would clench so tight on that wire that there would be no way I could fall.
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And if you ever have a problem up there. Just call 911.
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If Lisa Randell tries to explain spin to me I would not consider consider it womansplaining,
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I can’t be sure, but I feel that I would be more relaxed standing on a high wire with a safety line than I would on a free-standing ladder 10ft up. I don’t even really like standing on chairs to change light bulbs.
Conversely, I have a friend who isn’t bothered by ladders but is terrified of even being on a balcony more than a couple of floors up. But she has a real type-A personality whereas I’m very passive.
I think it is about control. If you’re on a ladder, you’re in charge of leaping to safety if if slips, and that’s very stressful to me. But if I’m relying on a plane / building / electrical pylon to stop me falling, it’s out of my hands, so there’s nothing to worry about. But other people worry because they’ve surrendered that control.
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Another video, showing folks transferring onto live lines from a copter.
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Posted because…my hometown, and I was always fascinated by the high power lines in the area near my home.
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