Originally Posted by
hookes_joint
Powerline Construction and Maintenance is very different from your basic picking up a pole and setting it somewhere else.
There have been a lot of incidents accidents due to both aircraft failures and pilot / line crew failures in the industry.
The mentality that’s involved in setting a 10,000lbs pole in the mountains is very different than that of a logging or fire mentality.
Could not agree more.... I can only talk for what I teach and work---but yes, we discuss that a 10,000 hour logging pilot may be useless in the powerline industry initially---totally different mindset and skill set.
Originally Posted by
hookes_joint
As a community we don’t seem to qualify our candidates correctly to work in the environment. Most utilities now have an audit similar to PGE that you need to hold a dummy 6 off the ground in a 10 foot circle and touch different elevated cones with the dummy and a certain hour requirement. Then your good to go…..
now that pilots goes off to his first job hanging marker balls at 1000feet AGL over moving water or snow or anything mid span and can’t figure out why he can’t do it and the linemen send him down the road.
At that early stage he/she would probably be fine for moving men and materials to/ from the towers over solid terrain.
Agreed, PGE has some pretty strict requirements now, (2,500 HOURS pic, approved training etc just to fly patrols), and in most cases there is a mentorship side to it also where it takes 6 months of working with an experienced line pilot in the other seat on long line work before you are let loose by yourself.
Originally Posted by
hookes_joint
I agree CRM for every worker is extremely important especially with Helicopter companies that fly external linemen or observers ie work for the contractors, where you work with different individuals every day. There’s nothing worse than showing up to an LZ and having to show your lineman how to put his fly harness on.
You and I are on the same page, safety is paramount and this is not work for new people right out of the gate. I suspect we have met at the power line symposiums or at UPAC meetings.... The main point I was making was that in many accidents/incidents would not have been prevented by having twin engines, but "may" have been prevented by having two persons in the front seats.