Slinging a pylon to site

[Flyting]

Can anyone advise me on what is the best way to sling a pylon (8m pieces) to a site which is about 1.5hr away from any where...

It will be using a B3 and a 170' LL.

I was thinking either horozontal or only attaching the sling to the one end???
Any experiences you've had would be appreciated :ok:

[Gordy]

Never had to take stuff that far.... Only a couple of miles. Took some beams for a foot bridge once---similar to poles, but lighter--just attached to one end and flew them vertical with a jetranger. That worked for me, I typically prefer a "vertical" vs a "horizontal" load---less chance of it becoming "aerodynamic"... Newfie would be a good one to ask, he does lots of drill moves.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/helokat/DSCN4968.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/helokat/DSCN4991.jpg

[paco]

Vertical would be simpler with a choke lanyard (slip knot, so its own weight keeps it closed) - however, it also depends what you're flying over for 1.5 hours! What are these pylons made of? Or is it just one?

Phil

[Nubian]

Same questions as above.
What type of pylons?
How many and what is the weight of them?
Metal, Wood or other??

When slinging powerline-poles of wood, we allways fly them with one roundsling with a double choke at the top of the pole, secured by a bolt or some 4-5 inch nails on top of the sling, to prevent it from slipping (really not a problem unless you're encountering turbulence) Having had poles up to 15 meters weighing up to 1300 kgs, nice and stable cruise. That would not happen if you're flying it horizontal.
Same thing flying metal beams, that does not need to be mounted right away.
Bundles of rods horizontally, regardless how many, tend to swing back and forth and might be very tiresome, for 1,5 hour flight.

Being 1,5 hour from anywhere, I curious to where this might be?? There must be roads much closer to any point in the UK, unless you're going serious over water with them.

[Steve76]

Gordy's on the money there. Choke it up and sling vertically.
If it is a collection of drill rod (similar dowel shape as in photo) and you can stack and lift them together, then choke both ends equally to one nice fat 'D' shackle. From there onto the remote hook and make sure you have a swivel somewhere in mix. They are happy to spin for the whole 1.5hrs but without a swivel it will be dramatic.

Now, this one time at band camp I slung a 16ft alloy boat and holy $#it does that ever make for a fun story for the kids!

[SASless]

Done Horiziontally.....secure a small drag chute.....like the extractor chute on a sky diving rig....using a swivel.....on one end of the beam and they fly quite nice too. If the swivel binds up.....it will get a bit bothersome as noted by the others.

[Flyting]

Thanks for the replies so far...
It is a metal frame pylon broken in 2, each weighing about 350-400 kgs. It will over unpopulated areas (never sling over people :=) - jungle and mountain.

I will do them seperately, and initially it is not for construction, just placement at site. The sling has a swivel but if it gets out of hand I'll touch it down to stop it - but I'd like to try and avoid that, the spin that is.

I was innitially thinking of slinging it like Gordy did the poles, so that the drag would wind sock it...either that or horizontally and hope it sits either straight or square on, but would like some advice from someone who's done it.



Now, this one time at band camp thanks for the morning laugh Steve

[Brilliant Stuff]

170' who is on here is another you can ask who has lots of slinging experience.

[paco]

I'll get him to look at the thread....

Phil

[newfieboy]

Yep, vertically would be the best way.Moved many drill towers, pylons over distance that way. It shouldn't spin if it does with a swivel shouldn't be a drama.As for aluminum boats, did one over 80nm in the Artic two weeks ago. 2xstraps off the blunt end oh ok stern for all you nautical types and voila 55kts no problem flies straight doesn't spin, but didn't like anything faster and kept one eye in the mirror, but again no drama....

[paco]

Argos are fun, especially when they're covered in dirt. Couldn't get more than 40 knots out of the old girl.

phil

[newfieboy]

Phil
Never had a problem with Argos, would normally bimble on at 80kts.One of the funniest was a couple months ago on a drill camp. There was a new camp guy, first time on a remote drill camp and he was how would you say, a tad religious or bit of a bible basher, harmless enough though.He had not really been around heli ops especially longline ops, so every time we were slinging off camp he would be out with his camera.On this particular day I was tasked to longline a load of rather large trees the boys had felled and trimmed for drill pads.All was going well but as I lifted the load off the ground one of the trees slipped in the chocker and was now 90 degrees off the rest of the load and formed the perfect cross.As I went by camp I couldn't figure why all the guys were rolling around holding there sides.Upon landing back at camp I asked WTF.....apparently this God fearing dude figured the cross was a sign from the big guy upstairs, totally made his day and after that he treated me as some kinda miracle worker ha ha ha......

[paco]

LOL!!

This particular Argo was the victim of the sales department - they had apparently told the customer that the 206L could lift 1200 lbs - well, it could, with only 200 lbs of fuel with the ski basket off, but the ops manual said we couldn't go below 140, so the stage length was rather limited - except that it was 30 miles away! The customer also neglected to take the 4 car batteries out of the boot..... Who said life was easy! :)

Phil

[newfieboy]

Phil
Ahhh, sales dept,don't even get me started on that, seems there are Imperial weights/metric weights and driller/sales dept weights.
Here's another little longline funny.Few years ago was moving a drill with a B2.Again all was going good,about half way through had just set the engine and was pulling up to do a 180 back for the next load.Luckily I had my head down in the longline window,as I pulled I noticed the driller kinda moving with me,Mmmm....strange thinks I so lower the pole a tad and driller goes down with hook,so I pulls again a foot or so and driller goes up.Turns out that as the guy unhooked the load he turned around and the remote hook had somehow got hooked to his dungeree style coveralls.Anyways was one of those times that the remote wasn't working so I couldn't release it myself, by this time the driller and his helper are flapping big time thinking I hadn't notice and was about to depart avec said driller attached.Mmmm too good of an opportunity to miss thinks I, had a bit of fun for a minute or so with him.In the end they couldn't figure the remote hook so he ends up stripping down to his underwear to get rid of coveralls and me, who by now was in tears I was laughing so hard at the sight of him waving me off in just his shreddies standing on the drill pad. Bearing in mind it was about -25 at the time I didn't have the heart to leave him there as was, so landed pulled the coveralls off and threw them back to him.....his helper was by now aware that I had it all under control from the start and was helpless with laughter rolling around on the pad,at the end of the shift back at camp I got the word drillers wanted to see me in their living quarters.Off I goes fearing the worst,instead was invited in to help drink their beer stash for giving them such a laugh........sure there are many longline funnies out there, let's here a few guys.....
Newfie

[paco]

Have you seen the Transport Canada ground crew safety movie? Apart from a lot of famous faces, there's a French Canadian coastguard observer describing how he got hooked up and ended up flying past the captain.......

Phil

[170']

Without a full description, it's hard to offer any further advice than you've already received from various posters. But if it's a bunch of pre-welded pylon sections I'd definitely fly it vertically ... but if it's pipe type (similar to drill rod)I'd consider flying it horizontally with 2 x double basket wrapped chokers and a drag device due to the distance involved. We routinely fly pipes and tubes with a single or double wrapped choker over short distances, but for a long haul I'd prefer the security of the DWBH. Even cheap steel pipe has a huge value added component when you start talking flying it around in a helo...Better to keep the client happy (sometimes impossible I know :)

Just my 2 cents...

170'

ps...let us know how it goes eh?

[Flyting]

Did the bottom half today and all went well (330kg and about 10m long). Hooked up a 4 legged sling and a metal cable sling just incase one broke, at the end of a 180' sling, about a third of the way from the narrow end hoping it would weathercock... But it never. Stayed quite square on and from about 70-80kts started to swing left/right. No spinning at all..... Was like flying a huge survey ring - pulled the nose right down to a 300kt attitude. Once I put it down and flew to refuel, felt like I was looking at the sky and had to keep pushing the cyclic forward...
Took me all of 1:45 to get it there.

Thanks for all the advice...

[krypton_john]

I had no idea there was anywhere left in the world that far away from a road!

[Nubian]

Krypton_john,

Try Greenland, Alaska or northern Canada to name a few and you might have a few fuel-depot's to stop by on a single trip. My personal ''record'', is 3,5 hour one way, with 2 fuelstops enroute.... abit of a diffrence if you're used to call 5 min turnaround with a load ''long time''......

[Flyting]

...and central Africa. There is road access but that means a 5-10 day, long way around to get there if you are lucky...

P.S. 170': the frame is made with angle iron bolted together. 4 legged with diagonal cross pieces for strengthening. I will post a pic of the next sling.

Top piece, I will try attaching the sling at the top point and see how that goes... Let you all know next week.

[fijdor]

Lots of places with no roads up in the High Canadian Arctic. Longest distance for a sling load (4 trips with longline) was 650 statute miles for me (round trip). I had the longrange fuel tanks installed and we had to do 1 fuel stop on the way back. 1 trip a day and we never knew if the weather would be still good enough to come back to camp.

Then the next 4 loads were about a little bit more than 520 statute miles, Had a chance to read some good books doing that. Of course the loads were built to fly properly. Lasted for a month, flying and substracting roughly 80 to 100 miles every 4 loads.

JD

[Flyting]

Top half of the pylon was slung yesterday by our other pilot. He hooked it up at the top and got it up to about 80kts. Said it flew nicely and just hung there with very little spinning...

Thanks for all the advice...