Longline comms tower construction. Hardest thing I've ever done. Any clues?
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I agree with what Remote Hook says. I just spent the last three days and 30hrs flight time on the end of a 150ft line in a B2 Astar building diamond drills. You think a 205 is a hard longline platform yeah right! Its all about length of line, and being comfortable with it. In Canada all we do is longline, if I;m slinging fuel, groceries anything, I use a 100ft -150ft line, and make sure all my loads hit the spot, same with the empty hook always work at putting it in the rigger/groundcrews hand. Practice and experience so when it come to the towers, hydro pylons, drills etc it should be easy. Try doing it over frozen lakes in the winter with no refernce, with alot of practice and experience it becomes doable. Its like anything, the more you do it the better you get. I actually find towers etc a pretty fun thing. Just have to be comfortable with it.
Get to know the riggers/ground crew, if they see you are confident with the job they will be alot more comfortable with being around the load, cuts down on the swearing and cursing. Get everything down on the approach, postion of all the riggers etc then when at the target spot all you have to do is work on placing load. Don;t come in hot, nice and slow on short final to tower. Don;t fixate on the guys on tower, or ground, look at the big picture, makes it easier to hold a stable hover. Don;t white knuckle it, relax, let the guys move the load around and follow them through, watch the guys see where they are looking, it will tell you alot about position of load. Jusst my two cents worth I have to go pin a tower this afternoon, there will be swearing and cursing, but not from the riggers, it;ll be me cursing all these mosquitos and black flies
Get to know the riggers/ground crew, if they see you are confident with the job they will be alot more comfortable with being around the load, cuts down on the swearing and cursing. Get everything down on the approach, postion of all the riggers etc then when at the target spot all you have to do is work on placing load. Don;t come in hot, nice and slow on short final to tower. Don;t fixate on the guys on tower, or ground, look at the big picture, makes it easier to hold a stable hover. Don;t white knuckle it, relax, let the guys move the load around and follow them through, watch the guys see where they are looking, it will tell you alot about position of load. Jusst my two cents worth I have to go pin a tower this afternoon, there will be swearing and cursing, but not from the riggers, it;ll be me cursing all these mosquitos and black flies
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Hey BladeBanger - some questions re your PNG Puma work-
Did you fly the rig components out to site then hover there whilst they were bolted together? Didn't they have Petticrew(?) cranes on site to take over? What kind of distances were involved? Did you ever run short of fuel on the return if they had battled to get a stubborn bolt in place?
Did you fly the rig components out to site then hover there whilst they were bolted together? Didn't they have Petticrew(?) cranes on site to take over? What kind of distances were involved? Did you ever run short of fuel on the return if they had battled to get a stubborn bolt in place?
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If there's anyone on here with any real utility category experience who claims to have never been put in that position, I call bull-****
Hmm - the Northern Mountain longline course....
"There's a helicopter. There's a longline. I'm sure you'll enjoy it!"
Phil
Hmm - the Northern Mountain longline course....
"There's a helicopter. There's a longline. I'm sure you'll enjoy it!"
Phil
LLD is no clown. He has previously posted one of the best wire avoidance bits of advice that I have ever read.
Mt Barker was one of many towers involved in the digital roll out project and the lift was conducted by Hevi Lift. Also in the project was Brisbane, Townsville, Adelaide, Dandenongs, and Gore Hill (Syd). Left out of the project was Loxton in SA which was attempted by another company - and after many attempts the helicopter was kicked off the site and the tower was built by the traditional methods.
The project took us more than 12 months to plan and conduct. We used an Aircrane for Gore Hill and the Dandenongs with a specialist construction pilot flown out from the US (he flies from the rear facing seat). This was due to the fact that Hevi Lift had experienced a last minute change of plans from the Russians about using their Kamov in a long standing relationship with Hevi Lift: they demanded that their pilot fly the loads, not ours (Alan Dodds). Three weeks from the planned lift, it was a big and very brave call by Hevi Lift not to expose the lift to the risk of a new pilot, and instead to change aircraft and use the Aircrane (which was also overseen by Hevi Lift in those days).
To solve the problem of the subsequent towers when the Aircrane went onto the fire contract, Hevi Lift employed the NZ Mil8 to which you refer, and put the pilot through a couple of precision trials before the lift. Alan Dodds went on to manage the lift which was invaluable because he worked as a rigger leader building towers in NZ before he became one of the best long line pilots I have seen.
Neither the Mil 8, Kamov, nor the Aircrane are equipped with auto hover for this work - nor "auto kiwi"
. They are hand flown. The "secret" was that we employed speiclists to design and do the job right through to site plans, risk management and work method statements. We employed riggers with extensive helicopter experience and had Alan and Hermann Messerli (another speiclaist long line construction pilot) on staff. This systemic approach enabled the lifts to be designed for the job such as adding specialised pieces to the sections during their original construction, determining maximimum piece weights, ect, etc, etc - as I said a year long project.
During the lift, it was important that we had our speiclist rigger/loadmaster up the tower doing the radio comms with the construction pilot. Embarassingly his name escapes me this morning, but he was a key factor in the ability to do the job - not just the pilot. He was famous at Hevi Lift for remaining completely calm over the radio to the pilot during the extremely complex lift phases and he was also a very experienced tower construction rigger that had worked with Doddsy. Once, on a precision lift years beforehand when he got his fingers caught between the tower and load he calmly asked the pilot to "come up 5 please mate..." No histerics, cries, or even a detecable bit of raised voice or stress!
So the answer: Specialist team! Prep of the pieces well beforehand, prep and design the coupling mechanisms, throrough site prep, only lift in good wind/wx, dont be afaid to delay by a day (or say no), specilaist pilot, and above all, a speicialist rigger with exensive helicopter experience.
All towers were completed without a single missed lift or injury. The helicopter achieved five months of manual construction in every two days of lifting. The Mil8 really impressed: it flew from NZ to Brisbane, Townsville, Perth and Adelaide did all those tower lifts, then back to NZ with no missed days due to unserviceabilities.
Mt Barker was one of many towers involved in the digital roll out project and the lift was conducted by Hevi Lift. Also in the project was Brisbane, Townsville, Adelaide, Dandenongs, and Gore Hill (Syd). Left out of the project was Loxton in SA which was attempted by another company - and after many attempts the helicopter was kicked off the site and the tower was built by the traditional methods.
The project took us more than 12 months to plan and conduct. We used an Aircrane for Gore Hill and the Dandenongs with a specialist construction pilot flown out from the US (he flies from the rear facing seat). This was due to the fact that Hevi Lift had experienced a last minute change of plans from the Russians about using their Kamov in a long standing relationship with Hevi Lift: they demanded that their pilot fly the loads, not ours (Alan Dodds). Three weeks from the planned lift, it was a big and very brave call by Hevi Lift not to expose the lift to the risk of a new pilot, and instead to change aircraft and use the Aircrane (which was also overseen by Hevi Lift in those days).
To solve the problem of the subsequent towers when the Aircrane went onto the fire contract, Hevi Lift employed the NZ Mil8 to which you refer, and put the pilot through a couple of precision trials before the lift. Alan Dodds went on to manage the lift which was invaluable because he worked as a rigger leader building towers in NZ before he became one of the best long line pilots I have seen.
Neither the Mil 8, Kamov, nor the Aircrane are equipped with auto hover for this work - nor "auto kiwi"
. They are hand flown. The "secret" was that we employed speiclists to design and do the job right through to site plans, risk management and work method statements. We employed riggers with extensive helicopter experience and had Alan and Hermann Messerli (another speiclaist long line construction pilot) on staff. This systemic approach enabled the lifts to be designed for the job such as adding specialised pieces to the sections during their original construction, determining maximimum piece weights, ect, etc, etc - as I said a year long project. During the lift, it was important that we had our speiclist rigger/loadmaster up the tower doing the radio comms with the construction pilot. Embarassingly his name escapes me this morning, but he was a key factor in the ability to do the job - not just the pilot. He was famous at Hevi Lift for remaining completely calm over the radio to the pilot during the extremely complex lift phases and he was also a very experienced tower construction rigger that had worked with Doddsy. Once, on a precision lift years beforehand when he got his fingers caught between the tower and load he calmly asked the pilot to "come up 5 please mate..." No histerics, cries, or even a detecable bit of raised voice or stress!
So the answer: Specialist team! Prep of the pieces well beforehand, prep and design the coupling mechanisms, throrough site prep, only lift in good wind/wx, dont be afaid to delay by a day (or say no), specilaist pilot, and above all, a speicialist rigger with exensive helicopter experience.
All towers were completed without a single missed lift or injury. The helicopter achieved five months of manual construction in every two days of lifting. The Mil8 really impressed: it flew from NZ to Brisbane, Townsville, Perth and Adelaide did all those tower lifts, then back to NZ with no missed days due to unserviceabilities.
Join Date: Nov 2004
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I can assure you the rigger LLD is talking about is very experienced in both tower building and helicopter work. I have spent over 150 hrs building towers with him.
The only way you would get him rattled is if he does not know you well enough.
In saying that, I have never attempted to do any kind of lifting in a 204 nor will I in the future.
I think newfieboy hit the nail on the head. Practise makes perfect.....or atleast close to perfect.
Cheers
TMY
The only way you would get him rattled is if he does not know you well enough.
In saying that, I have never attempted to do any kind of lifting in a 204 nor will I in the future.
I think newfieboy hit the nail on the head. Practise makes perfect.....or atleast close to perfect.
Cheers
TMY
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HeviLift Exp Adv Rigger Lookin for work
Gday guys sorry for barging in here but I just completed a contract and am curious to know if any of you know of any work available for Riggers with exp in this field. Sincere Regards. Oh, Im in Australia but willing to travel.
