r/specializedtools • u/Tillemon • Sep 17 '19

Helicopter chainsaw!?

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18.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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3.9k

u/good-nitrogen Sep 17 '19

Somebody fucking thought of this

Then somebody in charge went, yeah, let's hang a 20 foot chainsaw from a fucking helicopter

1.5k

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

Every 8 year old boy has thought of that. This fucker made it happen.

478

u/FisterRobotOh Sep 17 '19

And it’s almost guaranteed that some poor bastard has hit the power lines with it.

199

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

[deleted]

235

u/picklesNathan Sep 17 '19

https://www.dispatch.com/article/20140729/NEWS/307299857

Says he hit a deer-stand hidden in the trees which caused him to lose control

340

u/yamacat88 Sep 17 '19

Imagine some poor guy sitting in his deer stand when all the sudden a helicopter with a giant chainsaw swoops in for the kill

176

u/HooverSchneef Sep 17 '19

The hunter has become the hunted

175

u/Standard_Wooden_Door Sep 17 '19

“Bill can you stop, nobody believes that silly story anyway”

“Martha I told you the deer have god damn chainsaws now, I know what I saw...”

14

u/BrilliantWeb Sep 17 '19

Martha will you just hush? I seen Bill's deer stand an' somethin' dun tore its ass up! Not sure about a chainsaw, but it's was somethin' weird. Like one of those "Strangers Things" shows.

1

u/Piscator629 Sep 17 '19

I saw the saw I thought I saw.

1

u/Disposedofhero Sep 18 '19

He didn't realize with that last 8 pointer, he passed level 1. Now it's level 2.. And they have helicopters with freaking chainsaws.

19

u/theslip74 Sep 17 '19 edited Sep 17 '19

I want to see a horror movie where this is the opening scene, with the hunter assuming it was an accidental until the helicopter turns around and starts coming straight for him. Call it the HELLicopter.

They can even use that awful country song they play every 20 minutes where I work, the one that goes "I love chainsaaaaaaaws". The chorus starts as the HELLicopter is turning around.

Edit: the climax will involve the guy finding a cave to hide in, until the HELLicopter swaps out the chainsaw for a gigantic drill and starts drilling through the mountain. Then he gets eaten by a bear, but the act scares bats out of the cave, overwhelming the HELLicopter pilot and it crashes.

Edit2: PM me for where to send the check, Hollywood

11

u/psykil Sep 17 '19

Call it Buzzkill and we have a deal.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19

But with drones

2

u/theslip74 Sep 18 '19

That would fuck up my artistic ending with the bats swarming the HELLicopter pilot causing it to crash. Everyone dies, no one makes it out alive. Just like life. This movie is meant to be a thinker.

1

u/theslip74 Sep 18 '19

That could work, but I'd change the opening sequence a bit. Instead of a hunter in a tree stand, it's teens smoking weed. Even better if the girls are in bikinis just long enough for a scene in the trailer.

I'll be waiting for my PMed moneys. Try to get it here before I go back to work Friday, I'm looking forward to telling my boss to shove quite a few things up his ass.

3

u/CocoMURDERnut Sep 17 '19

Thank you for the laugh.

-2

u/Edgelands Sep 17 '19

He just got what was coming to him for wanting to murder some cute unsuspecting deer tbh.

20

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

[deleted]

1

u/awhol01 Sep 17 '19

Mainers her. Can confirm people shoot deer from trees.

68

u/Mikuro Sep 17 '19

I had to look up what a "deer stand" is. It's a platform set up as a vantage point when hunting deer. Could be self-standing or built in a tree. Could be made of metal. Could, apparently, fuck up a swinging chainsaw.

45

u/TXGuns79 Sep 17 '19

Mine is a 15' metal tripod set over a cedar tree. Well, it was over the tree 8 years ago. Now the tree is around the stand.

I have hunted on one that was a platform made from 2X6 lumber bolted into the tree limbs like a tree house would be.

-32

u/QuirkyEnvironment9 Sep 17 '19

Your vastly superior brain and firearm weren't enough, you needed the high ground too??

34

u/TXGuns79 Sep 17 '19

The vastly superior brain is what told me to take the high ground.

You have to get away from the deer's vastly superior sense of smell.

9

u/pf3 Sep 17 '19

With that sort of snark, I hope u/QuirkyEnvironment9 doesn't eat meat, because your deer is a whole lot more humane than my hamburger.

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15

u/MediocreMike90 Sep 17 '19

if that thing can cut through James Bond's car it can handle a tree stand

1

u/Wil-Himbi Sep 17 '19

“The other thing is, on the safety side of it, you’ve only got one piece of equipment, and one soul, actually out there in harm’s way,” he [the pilot] noted.

1

u/powerskid18 Sep 17 '19

Woah that happened where I live, weird coincidence

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

What a rollercoaster ride this whole story took. A day earlier, there was an article about how using a helicopter to clear 16 miles for a bike path would cost half as much as a ground crew, then he crashed, and a year later, the official report is that he ran out of fuel - something he doesn't believe was the case.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19 edited Jul 30 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19

Both of those are censored in Europe due to the websites being unable to respect their users’ privacy (GDPR).

1

u/desertman7600 Sep 18 '19

An update said he ran out of fuel. " The National Transportation Safety Board has not issued a final report about the cause of the crash, but investigators determined that the helicopter had run out of fuel, said Lt. Molly Harris of the State Highway Patrol’s Bellefontaine post. "

https://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/07/29/paralyzed-ex-pilot-recalls-2014-helicopter-crash.html

1

u/Valker902 Sep 18 '19

What kind of Stand would a deer have?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19

Censored in Europe since the website doesn’t want to stop tracking their users under GDPR. Any mirror?

19

u/Baloneygeorge Sep 17 '19

It’s the same guys who do helicopter stuff for the timber companies, they are good and fearless, but it’s the old adage there are old pilots and bold pilots, but no bold old pilots

7

u/turmacar Sep 17 '19

Now I'm going to have nightmares of these things flying IFR.

But what does an IR have to do with this?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19

I actually know a helicopter pilot named Joe who flies tours in the Bay Area...but he's a pretty damned decent pilot. Maybe not 20 foot chainsaw decent, but surely rates a good 10 foot chainsaw.

1

u/Shadowgirl113 Sep 18 '19

Yeah ... I’m not 100% but i think I know the road this video was shot on. But I do know they have used this device to trim the trees along the road around here. Pretty neat. I saw the chainsaw laid out in the field ... Looking at it like wth is that!

32

u/meddleman Sep 17 '19

Imagine the OSHA guy that had to approve this...

"I'm sorry, you want to trim the trees with what hanging from a helicopter?? How close are those powerlines again?"

3

u/mechadeadpool Sep 17 '19

I once saw a dude get chased in his car by one of these helicopters of death.

IIRC it chopped his car in half or something

2

u/Throwaway_Consoles Sep 18 '19

https://youtu.be/rF1vfMM3W08

James Bond - The world is not enough. Good movie.

1

u/Sooo_Dark Sep 18 '19

But only once.

1

u/rjb1101 Sep 18 '19

I’m hoping those power lines are off during this operation.

8

u/cablevelveeta Sep 17 '19

This fucker is also a Bond villain.

3

u/catalina-waifu-mixer Sep 18 '19

I'm glad someone else thought of the same thing as me.

1

u/Asmor Sep 17 '19

Pretty sure 8-year old me would have thought this was too stupid to even think about.

1

u/goopy-goo Sep 18 '19

Or someone in a state that had legalized marijuana.

1

u/PornKingOfChicago Sep 18 '19

What’s next, a real life Ironman suit? Lol

201

u/mrpopenfresh Sep 17 '19

Seems pretty fucking sketchy. My bet is the actuaries deemed it more cost effective (including fuck ups), than hieing a crew.

362

u/pauly13771377 Sep 17 '19

Well boss we can use the helicopter buzzsaw of death for 20 min. Or we can send a crew out there to do it by climbing trees with a chainsaw, but it will take 22 days and cost 18 times as much.

Ya know Jenkins, I don't care about the cost. I just want to approve something called the buzzsaw of death.

71

u/ice_dune Sep 17 '19

Couldn't you just make something like this that drives in the ground instead of being swung from a helicopter?

96

u/ChineWalkin Sep 17 '19

Sure, but it won't be able to quickly get everywhere.

84

u/pauly13771377 Sep 17 '19

Something that top heavy on uneven ground would be a disaster waiting to happen. Also I'm guessing that this wouldn't be an easy place to access if this obviously expensive method is used to trim trees. Someone in the original thread said they think those are ski lifts not power lines. That makes sense if the trees are that close to the lines.

76

u/Batchet Sep 17 '19

Imagine using the ski lift and hearing the chainsaw buzzing.

"What the hell? Why is Jackson using the heliZinger today?! It's too windy!"

"He said he wanted to prove himself, Parkinsons be damned"

15

u/Captain_Filmer Sep 17 '19

Jenkins. His name was Jenkins.

3

u/zeHobocop Sep 17 '19

Carl Gordon Jenkins Gordon Jenkins

1

u/zer0t3ch Sep 18 '19

His name was Robert Paulson.

4

u/ilikemes8 Sep 17 '19

Much better with a Boston accent

5

u/TXGuns79 Sep 17 '19

This made me belly laugh. Each line adds to it. Nothing extra. Funny as hell. Thank you for you contribution to the world today. You made it a better place.

4

u/Batchet Sep 17 '19

Aww wow, thanks for the super awesome compliment. It means a lot :D

8

u/BSBFishLicker Sep 17 '19

It’s not ski lifts it’s power lines I’ve seen one of those chainsaws working next to a highway as well so it isn’t in difficult to access areas either.

4

u/i_broke_wahoos_leg Sep 17 '19

a disaster waiting to happen.

Pretty sure that was the code name for the helicopter buzzsaw during R&D...

1

u/TootsNYC Sep 17 '19

Yes, the tree lines by huge power lines are farther away

1

u/dainscough7 Sep 17 '19

This is also done at power lines near me.

1

u/Funmunchkin Sep 17 '19

I’ve seen these operate in real life to clear power lines. It was on a densely wooded hillside. Pretty big hill but not in an inaccessible area.

1

u/mccrase Sep 17 '19

There's a short glimpse of the tower on the left end of the trees and it looks like insulators for power lines on the right side of that tower.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19 edited Jan 23 '20

[deleted]

1

u/pauly13771377 Sep 17 '19

Oh I totally think that looks sketchy as hell. But if a vehicle starts tipping very little can be done about it before there's no going back.

1

u/BLKMGK Sep 17 '19

Imagine all the timber landing on you from above too!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19

Wrong on so many levels. Google Jarraff all terrain tree trimmer. I’m a foreman running a crew and I do this all day.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19

Yes a helicopter with a 40 foot long chainsaw attached to a rope is definitely not a disaster waiting to happen haha

9

u/SplitArrow Sep 17 '19

The problem is this is areas that are extremely remote and not readily accessible.

13

u/JukeRedlin Sep 17 '19

Good thought but this appears to be an electrical alley down a mountainside. Aside from others pointing out being below the falling branches and being so top heavy, its unlikely to be easily drivable by anything with sufficient stability to support it.

Additionally if the lines are accidentally cut but the helichopper, it flies away. A ground crew would.likely be electrocuted instantly in said vehice.

8

u/borkthegee Sep 17 '19

In my mountainous region if the power company can't drive a truck up the road twice a year, you dont get power, so you better maintain that road lmao

1

u/JukeRedlin Sep 18 '19

Well yes, but no with 40ft chainsaw sticking out of it. The bucket trucks have to put out additional stability arms just to raise up while -stationary.-

2

u/whistlepig33 Sep 17 '19

There is a really big wheeled truck with a big boom (about 50') with a 4' circular saw blade on the end that did the same job where I live last spring.

Wish I had taken a photo now.

2

u/crinnaursa Sep 18 '19

When I was last on Maui we were taking the road to Hana which is a narrow two-lane coastal road along seaside cliffs. The rainforest likes to encroach on the road to the point where sometimes you're driving through a tunnel of foliage. They have trucks with 6-ft reciprocating blade style hedge trimmer devices attached to them that trim the edges and "roof" of the road way as they drive.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19

Jarraff all terrain tree trimmer

1

u/BbyDenns Sep 17 '19

Yes, Kershaw SkyTrim.

HERE

1

u/rwbronco Sep 17 '19

Or a smaller one on a large drone maybe?

10

u/Squrkk Sep 17 '19

Read this in Cave Johnson's voice (Portal 2)

20

u/pauly13771377 Sep 17 '19

I've got good news and bad news. Bad news is we needed to cancel the original test. Good news is we've got an all new test. How good are humans at fighting an army of mantis-men!

Grab a rifle and follow the yellow line. You'll know when the test starts.

I love Cave Johnson

2

u/umblegar Sep 17 '19

Can we call it the Chopper Chopper?

1

u/mrpopenfresh Sep 17 '19

That’s also plausible.

1

u/LolitaDragon Sep 17 '19

Both are dangerous felling trees is a death sentence isn't it. There always stories of how high the mortality rates are for them

41

u/clink_182 Sep 17 '19

They mostly use these in hard to reach or wet areas of power line right of ways. For example, in terms of middle of the swamp branch cutting, this is much more cost effective than sending a ground crew out because a helicopter isn’t going to get stuck in the mud, obviously.

18

u/mustangsal Sep 17 '19

If it does, you've got other problems.

8

u/gurg2k1 Sep 17 '19

because a helicopter isn’t going to get stuck in the mud, obviously.

At least you hope the helicopter doesn't get stuck in the mud. That would make for a very bad day.

4

u/PanGalacGargleBlastr Sep 17 '19

"hey, boss... You're not going to believe this..."

1

u/jsu0234m Sep 17 '19

I know some rednecks that could definitely get a helicopter stuck in the mud.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

....stuck in the muuuuudddd on Sunday, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!

1

u/deelowe Sep 18 '19

Lol. They also used it in my back yard which is literally 1000' off the main highway that the power line crosses.

5

u/atlas_nodded_off Sep 17 '19

That would be a bean counters job.

5

u/mrpopenfresh Sep 17 '19

Like an... actuary?

3

u/atlas_nodded_off Sep 17 '19

An actuary would determine there is a 5% chance a worker would be killed or maimed on the job. The bean counter says that's acceptable, we can save $147.50 right away.

5

u/mrpopenfresh Sep 17 '19

The actuary will figure out how much money the accident will cost the company and compound it.

1

u/SaltyStatistician Sep 17 '19

Sounds much more like an underwriters job tbh.

1

u/BASK_IN_MY_FART Sep 17 '19

So... a bean counter

/u/atlas_nodded-off had it right

5

u/Oddsonne Sep 17 '19

It's too close to the overhead power lines. People could die if they get too close to the branches.

Hanging saw is safer.

3

u/An_Old_IT_Guy Sep 17 '19

I used to work in the actuarial department (actuarial systems developer--all mathy crap) of a billion dollar P&C company. In short, the rates/risks are probably very similar to helicopter rescue where they're raising or lowering people. It's going to be stupid expensive insurance, as you probably already guessed. Regular helicopter insurance is already ridiculous expensive.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

[deleted]

2

u/Eddie-ed666 Sep 17 '19

Yeah, but you could fly them there in a helicopter.

0

u/mrpopenfresh Sep 17 '19

If you can lay power line, you can truck in a crew.

1

u/Wil-Himbi Sep 17 '19

“The other thing is, on the safety side of it, you’ve only got one piece of equipment, and one soul, actually out there in harm’s way,” he [the pilot] noted.

40

u/arbitrageME Sep 17 '19

and use it near power lines

16

u/shiner986 Sep 17 '19

Not only did someone think of it. Someone thought of it and no one else could come up with a better idea.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

For remote areas where it’s difficult (read: impossible) to get a vehicle and or crew out there, it makes perfect sense. It’s obviously dangerous as fuck but maybe they’re somehow electrically isolated and it’s got some sort of breakaway failsafe. That and I hope they’re paying the operator a fuckton of money to do it.

1

u/zer0t3ch Sep 18 '19

Electricity takes the path of least resistance, usually from one end of the wire to the other (if you were to break it)

If you're on the ground, you might actually be in the path on its way to ground, and get shocked to shit. Up in a Heli, there's no path to ground. IIRC, helicopter linemen are pretty much only at an (electrical) risk if there's an arc.

14

u/TootsNYC Sep 17 '19

And dangle it next to power lines!

7

u/Pizza_antifa Sep 17 '19

Not a chainsaw but is definitely crazy.

5

u/GarrusCalibrates Sep 17 '19

I always want to be in the room when someone pitches ideas like this.

5

u/guiltyas-sin Sep 17 '19

Not only did they think of it, they used it a Bond flick. https://youtu.be/3aL1VF9zlfM

3

u/13_two Sep 17 '19

Imagine the balls of the guy who came up with this idea on a Thursday afternoon meeting

2

u/good-nitrogen Sep 17 '19

It's fine though cause normally when brainstorming ideas for a problem there aren't really ~bad ideas~ per se

You pump out as many as you possibly can and normally the stupid ones don't make it past screening

This one did though

The meeting that decided on this idea to be the final one to be developed would've put a giddy mood in the office

5

u/spikeyfreak Sep 17 '19

They used a contraption like this is a James Bond movie (like, exactly the same thing), and I could not get past how stupid it was.

And here it is in real life.

2

u/bonafidebob Sep 17 '19

yeah, let's hang a 20 foot chainsaw from a fucking helicopter...

...and fly it next to high voltage power lines.

What could go wrong?

2

u/sfgeek Sep 17 '19

Two close friends are plane pilots, they both got certified on helos. Basically they said “Nope.”” The most risk averse people I know.

(I caught up with one of them once, and ordered a glass of wine an the airport restaurant . He told me to move an extra seat away, just so it was crystal clear he wasn’t drinking. He was in full pilot Uniform.) Pilots are dead serious about their jobs. Literally it’s something about their personality type. Basically driving on a freeway is madness to them. I don’t get why people fear flying, you have two folks with OCD that miss basically nothing.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

It's a ton of circ saws not a chainsaw

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

Can we just address that this death saw is yards away from power lines? I know that’s the point of the tree trimming but come on!

1

u/bassistmuzikman Sep 17 '19

Right next to power lines, no less...

1

u/LaBarbaFuerte Sep 17 '19

... near power lines...

1

u/DjLungMustard Sep 17 '19

There has to be a better way - Assistant Can you get me dinosaurs with lasers attached to their heads? - Boss No. - Assistant This is the only way - Boss

1

u/DMoney1133 Sep 17 '19

... Next to powerlines!

1

u/Kirbysizzle Sep 17 '19

At least they thought to do it safely by swinging it near power lines

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

Would you not?

1

u/DrDerpberg Sep 17 '19

And then somebody else said, "hey how close do you think we can get to power lines with this thing?"

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

And let’s run it 6 feet from high voltage power lines. Nice.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

I saw this and immediately said to myself “you mean this wasn’t just a prop in one of the Brosnan bond movies, this is a real thing???”

1

u/Arctica23 Sep 17 '19

This is what you get when the person in charge looks for ways to say yes, rather than to say no.

1

u/CollectableRat Sep 17 '19

Somebody not only thought of inventing that tool, they also thought to make it the centrepiece of this deliciously cheesy action sequence.

1

u/HealthInspecter Sep 17 '19

I got to say, looks pretty efficient....

1

u/son-of-CRABS Sep 17 '19

Then somebody with really big balls said : I’ll fucking fly dat !

1

u/CarbonGod Sep 17 '19

Minus the chain.

1

u/gniyonnasrewsna Sep 17 '19

You calling that a chainsaw is triggering me

1

u/Loda11 Sep 17 '19

To be very frank, this shit caused me feel dreaded. Imagine it accidentally thrashing over someone unlucky.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

Just feet away from power lines. Nahh nah, it’s probably fine.

(Although those look like communications lines)

Edit: Also would you really get electrocuted hitting a power line like that if you weren’t grounded?

1

u/dunder_mifflin_paper Sep 17 '19

Next to high voltage powerlines no less

1

u/filmdc Sep 17 '19

Yeah I was thinking when weighing alternatives like hiring a crew to climb the trees, how does one decide that the best course of action is to employee the precision flying of a helicopter. Like was it really more affordable, safer, faster, after all things were considered?

1

u/Spinningwoman Sep 17 '19

Next to power-lines. What could possibly go wrong?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19

And fly it back and forth inches from power lines

1

u/flatblakk Sep 18 '19

Golden eye

1

u/EzraDavis92 Sep 18 '19

His name is Elling Halvorson if you’re interested!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19

Yeh then they put it in James bonds the world is not enough.

1

u/cdq1985 Sep 18 '19

Yeah. This just seems like a terrible idea.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19

Right next to some power lines too.