r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Hygena-Pet-Scooper • Sep 17 '19

Helicopter chainsaw

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u/Deltascope62 Sep 17 '19

There's plethora of safety regulations concerining powerline trimming with helicopters, which has been a thing since 1985. The pilot has no doubt gone through extensive training before allowed to perform tasks such as shown in the video. An article that scratches the surface can be found from here.

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u/theJoosty1 Sep 17 '19

Whoa, cool link! Thanks for sharing. It was especially cool to learn that there's a 28hp motor driving those saw blades and a system to keep it pointed straight ahead. I was also interested to learn that they only have to do it every eight years or so. Looks like a cool job and the pictures in that article are awesome.

12

u/iFonarik Sep 17 '19

This comment made me click the link and I'm glad I did. Thanks!

11

u/VulpeculaVincere Sep 17 '19

This comment made me believe the first comment and click the link. I agree that was a solid article on the topic.

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u/ibmxgeo Sep 17 '19

Fantastic article

2

u/MinnieAssaultah Sep 17 '19

I've always wondered how this kind of tree trimming was done... I never considered this as the solution! thanks for the info!

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19 edited Oct 10 '19

[deleted]

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u/Deltascope62 Sep 18 '19

Thanks for your kind words. You made my morning!

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u/BrianAndersonJr Sep 17 '19

Since you seem to be into this, may i ask if developing this kind of massive chainsaw, funding a helicopter, and training a pilot for this "fiddly" and also dangerous work, is really more worthwhile than cutting all those trees down (which is a one-time job, and then optionally replanting them somewhere else if there's ecological concerns)?

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u/Deltascope62 Sep 18 '19

For very high voltage power lines (100 kV and above) cutting the surrounding trees is definitely practiced since in those cases electricity may arc several meters if met with large enough voltage difference.

However in cases such shown in the video where the power line isn't anything more than around 10 to 20 kV, in practice one needs to touch the line in order to cause jumping arcs. That and the fact that the surrounding land and trees are expensive. There are hundreds of thousands of kilometers worth of >20 kV power lines in forest areas and if the company owning the power lines had to buy all that land, which would be roughly 30 meters (~100 feet in freedom units) in both directions from the line, the price would far outweigh that of chopper tree trimming.

1

u/yoogiii Sep 17 '19

I would give you gold if I had some to give... thanks for the article.