Medford, New Jersey USA
IBEW Local 94
The best part of the job is just the thrill of it
…just being up on the helicopter and realizing what you're doing.
Our transmission system is kind of unique. It runs between 2 major cities, Philadelphia & New York
…and the lines are so overloaded, we just can't take them out of service to maintain them.
Lineman: We do a lot of research and development, and develop design our own platform system
Pilot: Well, here we go, here comes the structure!
Instead of using a crane, instead of using a bucket to get a guy up to where he's got to go
…where he's got to go, we're using a helicopter.
Pilot: We're over the wire.
My job is to get him close enough to these things so he can see them
…and potentially work on them.
We cover a lot more territory a lot faster
If there is a problem, we can slow down and get really good visual contact
…of what it is, where we are, what we need to do
…we can easily get him to the top of the structure
…as soon as we see a problem.
Lineman: The stuff that we work on is like the real hard core stuff.
Pilot: The closest we get to the line it's all of 3 feet away from me.
Some portions of the helicopter are even closer… up to 1 foot.
My main goal is keeping calm and keeping the aircraft steady.
"Hey David, if it's okay with you, you want to go middle phase, middle conductor."
Lineman: "Middle phase, middle conductor, you got that."
We've actually become part of the circuit and the whole helicopter and yourself is energized.
It's almost like when you see a bird landing on a wire, it becomes part of the circuit.
…as long as you're floating there, on the wire.
Lineman: It's pretty exciting, you don't know what to expect.
Lineman: There's certainly danger here.
Everything we do is calculated, everything we do planned
…we know what we're doing, and we minimize all the risks.
Lineman: A lot of things could go wrong, but we try to take as much
of the "could go wrong" out of the equation.
Lineman: I need electricity, you need electricity, everybody needs electricity
…you can't live without it, and somebody's got to do it, and I'm privileged to do it.
Pilot: We'll be doing a 180 and come back on the line the other way.
Lineman: It's a cool job, a very cool job.
©2011 IBEW, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO/CLC