At 09:23 PM 4/26/2007, Art Boyars wrote:
>Sorry to be reviving a two-week-old thread, but I just looked at the
>TT web archives for the first time in six months (used to read it
>daily). Skimming down the list I saw that N0RQ posted this link to
>an amazing video:
><http://www.glumbert.com/media/highpower>http://www.glumbert.com/media/highpower
>
>Not even W6RMK, the resident expert on special effects, questioned
>the credibility of the video. Am I the only one who doubts that
>this is real? Power line experts AD3F and VE6YC imply that things
>like this happen, but can anybody say that people actually do
>this? Even flying the helo that close to the lines seems nuts, and
>the video of the worker sitting on the lines, shot from slightly
>below, seems unreal.
This is normal operating practice.. they've been doing it for
decades. Costs a heap of money to shut down a 3 GW power line (say,
$0.05/kWhr, so $50,000/GWhr.) At $150k/hr so it's worth fixing it
live.. Helos run a couple kilobucks an hour and you know the lineman
isn't getting paid all that much.
I don't know when they started doing it first or where.
I like the whole grounding rod thing to neutralize the charge.
And, it goes without saying that this is a "you'd better believe in
Gauss's law and Faraday cages" sort of thing.
I'm a beliver in the HV aspect, but you won't catch me in a
helicopter that close to the wires. They're just a collection of
parts all trying to separate from each other. I *am* impressed at the
skill of the helo driver. Takes a steady hand to hold the helo like
that and you can bet they don't do it on a windy day.
>73, Art K3KU
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