NoWingsAttached
11-11-2008, 12:26 PM
My dad sent me this. It is a helicopter doing routine maintenance with a linesman doing stuff you won't believe from the 'copter. Nice helo, too. Great video shots.
http://www.glumbert.com/media/highpower
BTW, a little background: My grandaddy was a linesman (he even climbed poles during a strike by the Detroit Edison IBEW union when he was well into his 60's!), my daddy was a linesman, (until he finally worked his way through college, climbing poles full time, with 4 of us kids at home) and I was a linesman. (Just one summer, working for dad in Nova Scotia, blasting holes in bedrock and stuff like that).
When grand dad was climbing, 1 out of every 2 linesmen died on the job. THings got a lot better with the unions forcing safety improvements. Dad is now 82. I still recall the look on his face sitting across from him at the dinner table when a man "turned upside down" in his safety belt that day. That meant he died. These men both held cops in disdain, said they were pussies, boo-hooin about how one in hundreds might loose his life in the line of duty serving the general public, while electrical workers got killed almost every day across the country without so much as a blip on the news - also serving the public.
I fell in love with the scent of creosote, which is what he smelled like when he came home. We have all been electrocuted. I got electrocuted setting a pole in the rain, by 14,400v at 600amps. That is enough juice to power 400 homes with all their lights, microwaves, stoves, heaters and A/C units running all at the same time. The only reason I still have my legs and my life is that I was so wet that I made a great conductor to ground.
http://www.glumbert.com/media/highpower
BTW, a little background: My grandaddy was a linesman (he even climbed poles during a strike by the Detroit Edison IBEW union when he was well into his 60's!), my daddy was a linesman, (until he finally worked his way through college, climbing poles full time, with 4 of us kids at home) and I was a linesman. (Just one summer, working for dad in Nova Scotia, blasting holes in bedrock and stuff like that).
When grand dad was climbing, 1 out of every 2 linesmen died on the job. THings got a lot better with the unions forcing safety improvements. Dad is now 82. I still recall the look on his face sitting across from him at the dinner table when a man "turned upside down" in his safety belt that day. That meant he died. These men both held cops in disdain, said they were pussies, boo-hooin about how one in hundreds might loose his life in the line of duty serving the general public, while electrical workers got killed almost every day across the country without so much as a blip on the news - also serving the public.
I fell in love with the scent of creosote, which is what he smelled like when he came home. We have all been electrocuted. I got electrocuted setting a pole in the rain, by 14,400v at 600amps. That is enough juice to power 400 homes with all their lights, microwaves, stoves, heaters and A/C units running all at the same time. The only reason I still have my legs and my life is that I was so wet that I made a great conductor to ground.