b) I know you’ll say I’m nuts, but I’ve always wanted to know the answer to this. On a powerline tower behind my house I once saw men dressed in silver suits climbing one of those high-tension powerline structures. What the heck was I seeing? Could that suit be protective, or maybe they were simply getting ready to prime the tower for painting? The base of the tower was hidden in a gully, so i could not see if they had gotten a truck to the base (via a nearby access road to the right-of-way), or what.
It’s certainly for real. This looks like a clip from an IMAX movie about helicopters. The arcing is to bring the helicopter to the same electrical potential as the line, I believe, so that no current flows through the man when he is touching both. He is doing some sort of routine maintenance. The clip itself tells you about the suit.
There was a thread on this same clip a while back, but I can’t seem to come up with it at the moment.
I know its real… but how did they get that one camera angle starting at 1:38? Its completely still… not to mention below the angle of where a camera would have to be to be on the other line.
What kind of maintenance were they doing anyway? Maybe just looking for damage?
I can´t see how damage big enough to compromise those big cables could be fixed by Monkey Man, Electric Boogaloo.*
I’ve been in a lab setting that operated under similar conditions.
Live-line maintenance has been around for over 30 years. It follows the same principles that keep birds from getting roasted while sitting on a power line. The idea is to equalize the worker and his working platform with the conductor. That way the line stays in service and the maintenance can be performed. The maintenance could be anything from inspections to washing or support/insulator repair.
In the lab I attended I had to put on a Faraday suit, climb a 25 foot ladder, use a fiberglass pole to “hook” my suits “tail” onto the conductor and then touch the conductor. I was charged to the equivalent of a 345 Kvolt line which is roughly 200KV between conductor an ground.
The Farady suit didn’t cover my feet, hands, or face and the corona discharge from those areas of my body made it feel like I was in a 70MPH wind.
While the guy doing the electrical work is impressive, i’m actually more amazed by how steady the helicopter pilot can keep the aircraft. It’s amazing. They must only be able to do that job on the most calm days.
