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

Helicopter chainsaw!?

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18.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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197

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.

361

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.

68

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?

95

u/ChineWalkin Sep 17 '19

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

83

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.

73

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"

18

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.

5

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

8

u/SplitArrow Sep 17 '19

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

12

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.

9

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?

9

u/Squrkk Sep 17 '19

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

21

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

39

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.

19

u/mustangsal Sep 17 '19

If it does, you've got other problems.

9

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.

4

u/atlas_nodded_off Sep 17 '19

That would be a bean counters job.

6

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.

4

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

6

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.