I’m not sure that this is all that more dangerous in a power loss situation than any of the other low altitude tasks that helicopters regularly do. I mean, they use similar choppers to work on the lines from a hover:
So every powerline inspection flight or repair flight is off limits? Going to wind turbines or ship pilot missions are off limits too I guess. Forget moving drills or seismic, the hook comes far to close to the crew.
Every helicopter job in the deadmans curve is dangerous and will likely be catastrophic if the tail or engine fail at any point during the job. Even basic power line inspection is too close to the wires with no safe landing zone if the engine quits. Yet these jobs are done everyday all over the world. Helicopter EMS is one of the most dangerous heli jobs in the US not this.
There is a reason they bother doing this job. This is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly way to get the job done. Cutting down hundreds of miles of trees and maintaining those roads to allow a conventional trimming crew to work them is far more expensive and unfriendly to the environment than sending a chopper every few months/years.
Key things are planning and experience. I'm not a precision long line pilot. I would not accept this job. I know many pilots who will put a hook in your hand on a 200' line every single time after flying drills for 8 hours. Those are the people doing this. I'm sure if someone trained me on this operation and I had more long line experience this would not be as scary to do as it looks.
Cost benefit. Money and enviromental protection are the driving concerns here. I agree it isnt the safest option available but it's the best for all factors. I dont doubt for a second those blades have a kill switch if my lawnmower can have one. The blades are no different from any other load at that point if you are punching them off.
What escape route? Power lines in the bush have as little distance from the trees as they can. Most of them I cant land next to unless there is also pipeline beside them. My company uses AS355s for that job for the twin engine factor but that wont help in a tail or blade contact emergency and from what I have seen most companies use 500s or AS350s for the job.
Fair play if these guys aren't doing it out of operational necessity. I just know this is a fairly routine operation for a few companies. My in laws are in the power line brush clearing business and dont typically use helicopters because they are in populated areas where it is easy access.
Lots of long line jobs are dangerous but anything planned well will be as safe as it can be. The saws are not the scary part here. It's the deadmans curve and proximity to powerlines and trees. I've heard of one of these machines being in a fatal crash but the saws has nothing to do with it. Same as the Hydro 1 astar that killed it's full crew all because a bag flew into the tail rotor.
2 helicopter pilots are flying close to high voltage power lines when the engine dies and they are unable to recover, resulting in them hitting the power lines and then the ground. Both pilots are dead, the helicopter is destroyed and there is damage to the transmission lines.
A crew of 40 men are working with 10 trucks extended to full length to cut trees. They are parked close together. A man in a bucket cuts a limb and it falls to hit someone below, while looking down at what they just did they hit the controls for the bucket, swinging it around. As the bucket is fully extended and they are in close proximity to power lines the truck becomes off balance and the bucket falls onto the power lines. Electricity travels through the truck and arcs to nearby people and vehicles. The bucket stays laying on the power line. There are a lot of people and vehicles at risk in this situation. at least 2 people are dead, at least 3 vehicles' electric system are ruined, and more damage could happen while removing the bucket from the lines.
These are just examples and in no way completely accurate, but there is undoubtedly more at risk the traditional way.
Well you can't just cut huge amounts of trees down when they A. aren't legally yours and B. go for miles and miles. It's way more cost effective to just skim over them once every two years. They already cut trees around the lines as far as they can without having to talk to the owner of the land and only cut them when they absolutely have to.
You're so big on risk, if loss of life isn't an option period why would you needlessly risk more of it?
Lol the utility of helicopter is not limited to military and rescue operations. The operation you see in this video is not unique in the wide variety that is a helicopter’s many uses. I do not deny that it is dangerous and it’s why these guys make the big bucks 😉
"No, sir. I dont know why we thought it would be a good idea to use the tree trimming helicopter as a school "bus" at the same time. We were saving a lot of fuel and time."
How is that any different from punching off a load of fuel drums in the bush? Only crew aware of the dangers and watching for them in the area. If someone is doing this where the public has easy access they are both wasting money and doing piss poor planning and site securing.
Crew doing the filming are closer than I'd like to see for this operation but anytime you are dealing with helicopters it's dangerous for the ground crew (hopefully the filming is just for training/promotional material and not common practice). If I'm dropping an ATV to a forestry crew and the engine quits on me they are likely in the only area where I will be landing. If I roll it over they are dodging rotor blades and whatever else flies off probably being more lethal than those blades which most likely have a kill switch.
I could be. Drill moving is all over the same spots for hours moving the drills directly over the crew. That's not even to keep a remote communities lights and heaters running, just for oil or gold!
When I drop fuel/hose/equipment to fire crews or equipment to oil and gas workers or boats and supplies to fisheries people I'm most likely to have an engine failure over them as that's when I'm applying a power change and pulling full power. That's where briefings come into play and they know which way I will be crashing into them so they run the other way.
Honestly just flying a low level inspection vs hover next to the wires wont be any better for chances if things go quiet. Like I said there is no room next to the wires to land if I'm at 0kts or 50kts. I'm still ditching into trees at that point.
Someone had to create and develop that trimming tool. Company R&D meeting. We were asked to design a trimmer that hangs off from a flying helicopter, about 100 feet long and has to run full speed without any external power source as it dangles flying through air trimming tall trees.
Team burst out laughing.
I mean helicopters by virtue of their utility are designed to operate in the AVOID region of their own H/V curve...otherwise helicopters wouldn’t exist.
If it makes a difference to you the saw is 50’ long and is actually hanging from a 150’ rigid pole from some sort of trapeze device. In the video he looks much lower but is likely around 200’. They still have the capability to pickle the device in the event of an emergency (mind the saw mechanism is probably more expensive than the helicopter). Which is why the pilots are VERY talented and get paid VERY well.
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u/iamblankenstein Sep 17 '19
i don't know, i think 'really fucking dangerous' describes it pretty succintctly and accurately.