The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Helicopters. Heights. and....

http://www.flixxy.com/helicopter-cable-inspector.htm

Finally! He found a place he could land!

http://www.flixxy.com/bo105-helicopter-aerobatics.htm

What and I scared of? Landing at George's place without asking him first.

As for the helicopter stuff I would given the opportunity do it all. Though I have to admit hovering next to a cable might give me the creeps for a moment or two. One thought that always will send chills down my spin is thinking about hovering next to sky scrappers like the World Trade Center Towers or the Empire State Building. I've got about 2000 hours flying all around them which is fine as long as we don't have to get right up next to them. Just something about that.

The only thing better than a high speed "Nap Of the Earth Flight" in a helicopter is maybe doing it in a formation with 3 or 4 helicopters. Of course those Vietnam Vets that did this for real either in the front or the back have a completely different perspective that I can not comprehend.

Icing, thunderstorms, and fog. Not much else in flying bothers me.

Just watching that helicopter fly toward the power lines made my skin crawl.

At the Prudhoe Bay oilfield above the Arctic Circle in northern Alaska, in the winter, there are sometimes high winds that pick up dry river silt from cut banks along the river and blow it up into the air and into power lines that run thru the oilfield. This silt sticks to the below-zero temperature power lines and insulators and they begin to arc around the insulators to ground wasting power and damaging the insulators. As soon as the winds die down, a helicopter crew comes up with a water blaster and a 20' long spray wand. The helicopter hovers next to the insulators and the operator holds the spray wand to wash off the insulators. They do this as long as there is useable light, all day long. It is unbelievable to watch and they never have had an accident, so far. I hope they get paid VERY well.

Down in the lower 48, it's buzzard poop that creates havoc on the insulators. I can't imagine spraying a water-jet onto that power line and not getting the hair on the back of your neck to stand up .

George-
I asked the same question. What the powerline spray operators told me was the high pressure spray pump has an intermitter that pumps short bursts of water, not a steady stream, that breaks the circuit and does a better job cleaning with water pulses. So the helicopter does not need to come up to the same potential as the powerlines like the inspectors in the video. The spray wand operators are still protected like the inspector guys because every once in a while, the spray wand DOES touch something hot.

I remember quite a few years ago seeing on the news a video of a H-500 near San Diego, attaching "balls" to a High-Tension line. The guy was hanging out the side, the 500 would slide up to the wire, then the operator would attach the ball.

In the video, the 500 hits the wire, and goes down. terrible to see.

hilltop170 wrote:.... The helicopter hovers next to the insulators and the operator holds the spray wand to wash off the insulators. They do this as long as there is useable light, all day long. It is unbelievable to watch and they never have had an accident, so far. I hope they get paid VERY well.

They weren't so lucky last October...

NTSB Identification: ANC08LA004.
The docket is stored in the Docket Management System (DMS). Please contact Records Management Division
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Saturday, October 20, 2007 in Prudhoe Bay, AK
Probable Cause Approval Date: 5/28/2008
Aircraft: Bell 206B, registration: N345TV
Injuries: 1 Serious, 1 Minor.
The commercial pilot was cleaning electrical power line insulators using a cleaning apparatus mounted on the helicopter. While cleaning, the pilot said the helicopter was hovering about 60 feet above the ground when the engine lost power. He turned away from the power lines, and the helicopter descended rapidly, impacting the ground, and sustaining substantial damage to the fuselage and rotor system. The helicopter had a 30-foot articulated spray boom mounted on its right side, a 50-gallon water tank inside, and a pressure pump on the left side. The equipment was operated by an onboard boom operator. An examination of the helicopter disclosed that both electric fuel boost pump intakes were clogged with a fibrous material. The electric fuel boost pumps serve as conduits for the engine-driven fuel pump, and if they are clogged, no fuel will reach the engine. Similar fibrous material was found in the airframe fuel filter. At a test facility, the engine was started and run without problems. During a re-examination of the airframe, the fuel tank was cut open, and a triangular-shaped 4" piece of an absorbent pad was found. The contract fueler had routinely been shoving the fuel nozzle through a hole in the plastic packaging of a bundle of absorbent pads, into the edges of the pads, to keep fuel from dripping on the tundra. The fueling process was repeated every 7-8 minutes. Samples of the material taken from the fuel pumps, the piece found in the fuel tank, and an exemplar pad provided by the fuel contractor, were sent to a laboratory for testing. The tests revealed that all the samples were essentially identical. The contamination of the fuel pumps most likely occurred when the fuel nozzle tip cut/captured portions of the absorbent pads when it was placed in the pad bundles, and the cut portions were then pumped into the fuel tanks.


The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:

Fuel starvation due to the blockage of fuel inlet screens, and improper service procedures by ground personnel.

EPA/environmental overkill strikes again! The fuelers are so intimidated by the threat of spilling one drop of fuel that the safety of the aircraft crew is compromised.