Being a Line Mechanic myself, I was just wondering, if there are any other people at ECN, that work on High Voltage Lines.
If you do(or used to) this sort of work, give us a yell!.

Hello Trumpy,
Since you work on high voltage lines, I am interested in becoming a high voltage technician, however, i am only interested in the position that the chopper takes the technician close to the power lines then the person climbes on to the power lines and inspects the lines.( i have seen this on the Discovery channel) but i can not find any info on it any more.
Do you have any info on this?

Edward

Edward,

Which guy do you want to be?


Bill

http://www.tect.us/courses.php http://images.esmoconference.com/files/108/OutdoorDemoForm.pdf http://www.esci.net/LiveLineTraining.html http://www.hubbellpowersystems.com/powertest/tips_news/pdfs_best/07-2003_saftety.pdf
http://www.electricityforum.com/et/Jan96/esmo.htm




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 04-25-2003).]

Hey Mike,
Don't leave me out of this fight. Class A lineman. Call it a personal choice though, won't do transmission, call it quits at 40kv. Certed to splice up to there too.

Hi Bill,
I am interested in the position that requires you up on the lines.

It is exciting for mr working on live high voltage lines.
Do you guys know what the pay is??

Edward

Edward, I know what you are speaking of... they wear chain-mail suits and have a wand to control the initial arc, then bring themselves to the same potential to work on the lines... Neat stuff, and I'm sure one could retire in just a few years doing it too. Gotta have a chopper pilot you can trust like your own Mom. I wouldn't want to hover in a 3" 'bubble' (space of error) with mega-volt lines within inches of my skids...



But, I too was intrigued by the same TV special you saw.

Anyone know anymore about it?

Edward,

Good Luck to you !
I prefer 2 feet on the ground at all times.


Bill

I watched them inspecting lines from a chopper and then rigging pulleys for a new cable pull, here in The Woodlands,Texas.All this was done next to a main road without a road closure.(maybe 30 feet from the shoulder ) I would hate to pay their liability insurance. It was awesome to watch as well as scary as h**l ! All I could think of was " No way I'm ever gonna do that !!"

Edward,
We have a similar system over here in NZ for washing insulators and also testing the integrity of joints in Live 110 and 220kV transmission lines.
The guys that do this sort of work are of a breed, all thier own.
The system is called a Flying Work-bench and the line mechanic sits out on a platform attached to one of the skids on the chopper.
The line mechanic wears a suit that is bonded to the Line under test.
The helicopter is also bonded to the line,
(this is a specially made chopper that has extensive bonding and isolation as part of its structure, because of the severe Eddy currents, from the Line, which would upset the instruments of a normal machine, not to mention, vibrate it to pieces).
A test jig is then connected to both sides of the joint and the voltage drop across the joint is measured by a guy inside the chopper(not the pilot!), with a lap-top.
Bear in mind, that sometimes the main rotor or the tail rotor of the chopper may be as close as 100mm(4") away from the nearest line or insulator, you would hope that the pilot was not thinking of something else.

Guys,
Here is the closest thing I can find to our method in NZ, it's an Australian company that contracts this type of work out.
Go to www.aeropower.com.au , not much info, but heaps of pictures.

Edward — Never forget there are at least two sides to most stories. Often one is somewhat less glamorous.

Ed:

[QUOTE]Do you guys know what the pay is??[/QUTOE]

Not nearly enough....

Wm.Colt

Any company in the states that does this kind of work?


Edward

Edward,
What sort of work do you do at the moment?.
The reason I ask this, is because nobody starts at the top, in any Trade, especially as a Liney, ask anyone who does any sort of Line-oriented job, they will tell you that it is really hard yakka, because of the fact that the equipment and wires are so large.
You also get used to working really long hours, in the worst of weather and you are normally on-call pretty much most of the time.
I do a lot of Faults work over here in NZ and when it last snowed over here, I worked for 4 days non-stop, putting poles and lines back up, as part of a Line Crew.

Gidday George,
Lineman Class A, eh?, do you do Live Joints?.
I call it quits at 66kV, the Flashover distances are just too small for my liking!.
I had a real hard time learning Live Glove And Barrier work, was out of my time and still couldn't do it properly, and all of a sudden things just clicked, have had no problems since, Hot Stick work was a sinch compared to LGAB, at least you were a fair distance away, if something went wrong, hence the photo by Bjarney!!
I don't work on Transmission either apart from doing the odd "look-see" in a chopper, just to generally inspect the Local DC link and other EHV lines, you wouldn't get me that close to the lines!.
Transpower(they own the Grid over here), have thier own Line crews, for all of the Heavy Duty stuff!(thank God).

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 04-27-2003).]

Trumpy,
I am in the electrical service work. Some remodeling some new construction but mostly service work.
I know i can not statrt at the top it will take me about 5-10 years to get up there and start working it live.

Edward

Mike,
Yup, live joints are part of it. Did lead a long time ago, not much call for lead anymore though.
Rode a line one day, me and another crew could find no fault, someone had taken the collapsible fusing stick off my truck, the other crew had cleared, I decided to throw the fuse with a little 6' fusing stick......saved me the cost of a haircut

Used to lgab pretty well, kinda feel funny working without them, but don't do much of that anymore anyway.

George,
You wouldn't find me doing something like that, it's either the telescopic stick or nothing or I'm going home.
No point in shortening your life.
BTW, where was your helmet at the time?.