JP Jones and D7 Brian Bicknese setting the new WKBD Repack antenna atop the 1000' tower in Southfield, MI. Thanks ERI and Construction Helicopters Inc. Excellent job flying by our favorite Austrian pilot Daniel!
I did this for 29 years and now I'm old and broken and can't anymore. Watching this makes me both proud that I was special, and sad that for me it's over. I'm broken because of a head on car wreck coming home from work. How ironic that a career ending accident would happen on the ground and off the jobsite. My salute to the next generation of tower workers. A breed apart.
Salute to you, kind sir! Being a tower worker myself I always wonder how we're constantly training to be better, more efficient and safer up there, while driving on the road is actually less predictable and I think more risky than this job - mostly because on the tower there's smaller group of random people able to screw something up and kill me in the process than there is on the road.
What you experienced was life. You haven't had your whole life destroyed and taken from you. All we hear is someone who wants pity and doesn't deserve it.
I'm 68 years old now, when in my late 20s I took a job climbing towers. My first tower was a 2000 footer. I couldn't believe how it swayed, but the view was amazing, But when I got down, I quit. To this day, I can't believe I did that. Now I hate just cleaning the gutters. So much kooto's to the guys who do that everyday. Thank you guys.
With no shoes but socks on ?? - because if you had socks on then you should be paid at least what these guys are getting for sheer audacity and daring! Well done 'ole mate!
What amazes me is that they link their safety harness to a foot peg those last 10 feet, where it could literally just slip right off. The only way you'd get me up 3 stories was if I was unconscious...
I do love watching skilled heli pilots at work. I know this video kind of focuses on the guys (with huge balls) dangling off the corner of that tower but big props to the chopper pilot Daniel. The skills and deft touch required to translate the instructions from the guys into placing that antenna right where it's needed. Amazing, no wonder he's their favourite pilot. Whether it be the heavy lifters like this or powerline repair, logging, rescue, air ambulance / medivac or dropping troops into a hot l/zone, I don't think these heli pilots (and crew) get the recognition they deserve for their skill.
@@beekeeper8474 Billboards here too and when the wind started blowing and the structure started boucing and swaying I couldn't help but picture in my head about falling..now I hate heights.. these guys are awesome !
I climbed a 270' TV tower to do an antennae install in Salem, Oregon as part of my job working for a communication co. Once up there I was able to make the connections but did not think I could get down. Going up is a lot easier just concentrating on the next rung. Going down way worse, I started shaking. The boss wanted me to do it again and I refused said, fire me I'm NOT going again. They were mad and paid an outside climber. Cannot believe some of those guys just go up there and dance around!
Add me to that. I climbed a 500 ft tower in Oman with the riggers for a safety inspection. It took me over an hour to climb up but two hours to come down. As you say, looking at the next rung going up is straightforward but as you come down, the natural instinct is to look down and that's when it all kicks in. Rigers are not paid enough.
As you watch these tower videos, wander away in your mind for a minute and marvel at the strength of steel. It's almost unimaginable that something this tall and heavy can look so delicate and still stand up to the loads and forces put on it. Now back to the action. Props to the people who build and climb these structures for a living. I've climbed tall difficult rocks that would curl your hair but tower work looks scary as hell to me. (Edit)) But, I did almost get into tower work when I was younger. Scary is not necessarily bad.
I climbed towers and I’m still working, don’t climb towers anymore but your not retiring early unless you fall off the tower and live. James C is spot on with his comment!
Uh..."flying skills" not really involved here. A computer - or several - is flying the chopper. Probably monitoring a few thousand inputs per second. No human could handfly with this degree of accuracy...
Yep I'm sure your right Leon. The computer that controls the anti torque rotor can calibrate the bolt hole alignment to with that finer degree. Damn good gps ! ultimately the final control of the cyclic and collective will still come down to the judgement of the pilot.
@@kymtaylor5433 I've spent a lot of years in the Four Peaks wilderness area east of Phoenix. Back in the 80's McDonnell Douglas would flight test Apache gunships out there. There was this one particular chopper that would do hover tests up against the side of side of a hill about a mile away. Every afternoon when the wind kicked up. It would hang there for an hour and more. In exactly the same spot. So one morning I hiked over there with my 10.X 50's and my Nikon F with a long lens. I positioned myself a couple hundred above. Maybe 300 feet distant. Right on schedule he shows up. Did three or four rolls of film. What amazed me is that the pilot was reading a magazine the entire time. Totally hands off. The breeze was gusting coming up off the desert floor. Kicking up pretty good. The Apache was like a rock. This was over 30 years ago. Before Windows 95. The PC was still 386. No pictures. No video. Now we're looking at AI-assisted flight controls. In the near future the flight crew of a large commercial airliner will be a pilot and a Doberman Pinscher. The pilot will monitor the instruments and the dog will bite him if he touches anything.
I literally imagined what would happen if they dropped one of the nuts. I'm sure they must go up with extras. But can you imagine being the guy told to go down to find it?
Did this years back. Super underappreciated job that comes with extremely long hours, long and dangerous drives, high stress environment, and very very little family time.
Back in my younger days I did a little tower climbing to around 300-350ft. but these dudes are way way above that. As a young guy I sort of got a thrill out of doing it but now just watching these guys makes me a bit nervous. They earn every dollar they make which I can assure you isn't enough. Good on you guys!!!
I remember quite a few years back driving through the U.P. in Michigan when my friend says looking at a 1000' radio tower in the distance, "I've changed the strobe bulbs on the top of that". Turns out when he was young that was his job, a radio tower maintenance guy. Hanging off the bottom of a chopper in a sling replacing strobe bulbs. Balls of steel.
I have worked on 🇬🇧 UK TV Broadcast masts and swopped out AWL’s on numerous occasions and never have I heard of a helicopter being used with a man sitting in a sling 🤦🏻♂️😂 I would defo question your mates integrity 🤥 Charlie
@@16thdave You are so wrong its not even close to correct. Maybe some of the senior guys make that much, but I doubt it. I worked on cell tower equipment on the ground, and talked to climbers and they don't make that much. The company itself charges a crazy amount to have the people to climb, but the insurance they have to carry is incredibly high.
This is so crazy... I remember seeing the helicopter over the tower after school one afternoon, then this got randomly recommended to me and I got to see it from this perspective! super cool
These are clearly consummate professionals. I'd love to hear short voice-over on one of these videos of the protocol that they adhere to so the job goes smooth.Thank you for posting!
what a sweet video - this is poetry in motion guys! even placing the fasteners sounds like beethoven (to these ears)! Great work by the pilot(s) but more importantly ----this is a guyed wire installation. every force on the structure must be balanced precisely by an opposing force on opposite side, within limits. the fact that the other two masts (at 0 and 120 degree) had been placed leaves very little room for any error by the helicopter or the crew at the top of the platform. RU-vid antenna tower failures just to see how easy it is to get 'out of spec' - great work and thank you for posting this wonderful video!
Id love to do this. As broadcast engineers we aren't allowed to climb the towers anymore. I remember my first job as an engineer my Chief mentioned our STL was off angle. I wanted to make a good impression so I climbed the 150 feet or so and repointed the dish which was a side mount line of sight. The next day he commented how it amazingly cured itself over night. I told him I climbed the tower and fixed it after the work day. He said he wasnt sure if he should be mad at me for taking the risk or happy that I took the initiative. That was almost 30 years ago, and Im still in radio, Lol.
We had a tower engineer who worked under contract with most of the radio & TV stations in my city. When he worked, we'd all power off our transmitters and because there wasn't really an interlock, anyone who wanted to collect easy overtime would guard the remote control panel in master control, and wait for a call from the antenna engineer. That was the wild thing: there were phones on the antenna masts, so we'd get a call and hear "this is Frank calling from the west tower..." One time Frank was making his ascent and a radio station turned their transmitter back on when he was right by their antenna. He made it off the mast by himself after someone realized the mistake, but after hearing his story, I lost all interest in seeing the masts up close.
@@SJ_999 I don't know. I lost touch with Frank, but heard that he had taken early retirement after developing cancer. It's not exactly a smoking gun, but the fact that he developed cancer shortly after being irradiated up close and personal by 5 kW or RF energy does seem to suggest that there's a cause and effect present. I can only guess that he was asked to indemnify the radio station against damages in order to get insurance after that.
We live today in a connected world and it wouldn't be there if it weren't for us. Salute to us. You might be the only one in your harness but it took a lot of people to get you there. The communication industry is filled with some of the finest and smartest people on earth. At least until they leave the field and put on a suit and tie.
Es increible ¡¡¡¡ Que valor, habilidad y precisión del personal técnico y del piloto en el helicóptero para lograr la proeza de instalar la antena, Felicitaciones a todos ellos ¡¡¡¡ Gracias a su pericia contribuyen para comunicarnos como nunca. Saludos a todos
they have to climb up it anyway to grab all the rigging. I believe that chopper detaches the load itself but there's still straps and rigging to grab off it. That's what the pegs are for. I do this for a living but havent had any chopper jobs yet. Another fun fact -- to climb those antennas you have no safe tie off point, you can tie off to the pegs but they aren't rated for a fall load, just for resting.
Phil Schultz Even if all of the Rigging were self detaching, someone is going to have to change the Bulbs in the Navigation Lamps atop the Antenna at some point anyways and s/he can grab the Camera on their way past.
@@daviddavidson2111 Did a quick google. It's around $56k Median so the upper levels get paid nicely. They probably either work contract by the hour or wages in a company. Either way, not terrible. The heli crew probably get even more
I was an Antenna Specialist in the USAF. I never got to work on this tall of an antenna. 400 feet was the tallest. We built two 400 feet Loran C antennas in the middle of winter in S.Korea in January and February 1980.
Watching this video made my stomach turn and my palms sweat. I have such an acrophobia that I am scared of my own height. I wish my eyes and brain were located in my midriff area. That gain of about 3 feet would have been a huge help.
When they climb all the way down and call it a day, there must be a sense of relief from the stress of working at such incredible heights as well as a sense of satisfaction for a job well done.
Boss: Earl, where is the drill? Earl: Drill? what drill? It was in top of your tool box by the wall of the building. I though you took it, Boss: Damm you. go back down and get it. Earl: I don't think so. If I go down I'm not coming back up. You can fired me if you want
He says “sure thing boss I will hurry“ They watch him climb all the way down and when he reaches the ground he walks directly to his pickup; from there he drove to the unemployment office.
Dude have you watched the video of the guy climbing the highest radio tower on earth? I about died and I wasn't even there. I actually had the opportunity to change a lightbulb in one, well attempt. I got just past half way up as noped the hell out. The climb up takes forever better pack a lunch!! Hats off to you guys, freaking mad Men, true badassery at its finest 👏 👌 🙌
We shared a warehouse/office with a company that installed, maintained, and removed communication towers. The crews they used were 90% ex-rangers and seals, and the remaining few were the extreme sports types, especially mountain climbers. They make a lot of money, at least these guys did, and they were beyond crazy, seriously. It was always interesting when a crew was loading trucks for a big job.
These fellas have nerves of steel watching the ground crane getting smaller as they went higher I was getting chest shivers my God that was high well done to these guys.
“Hey honey....how was your day?” “Well you know what ? You wouldn’t believe me! The cat got stuck up in the tree so I had to climb up 3 meters to get it. What about you?” .....
35 years in the Merchant Navy and I learned that with vertically bolted flanges, the bolts go down - head uppermost, nut on the bottom - always. The reason? - water flows downwards - if the nut is on the bottom, the threads stay dry - if the nut is on the top, water will work its way into the threads and rot them -and your nut and bolt becomes useless.
I was seriously wondering if these guys carried parachutes! (BTW, love your name and picture. I love the whole 100 series. I have read When Thunder Rolled by Ed Rasimus who flew Thuds in Vietnam. A great book!)
Nothing like working 1000 feet off the ground, I've done tree removal work and 125 feet but this takes it to a different level. Has to be an adrenaline rush.
I hear ya. I rappelled into underground caverns some 200ft straight down, and gone ziplining for 1/2 mile 200+ft. off the ground. The adrenaline cancels out our fear. Only afterwards does it hit you: "HOLY CRAP! I just did that!"
I was in Texas when a tower went down it killed seven it was 1700 ft. tall I believe that was in 79-80 I was a helicopter crew chief and we flew around these tall towers often. Later after the service I worked in the cable industry we had a tower that was 450 ft and I climbed it for maintenance issues a few times. The worst part was you had to climb it no elevator or cable to lift you up and with your safety belt and tools it wasn't easy definitely a young man's game these guys it probably takes them a few hours to get up to where they are working so yeah the double burrito at taco bell isn't a good idea the day before you climb!!
@KILLING⚡HEROS BenQ 1080p. It's a model from about 7-8 years ago that i got on sale a couple years back for 470 bucks. a similar model is hard to for new for under 700 bucks now. if you are shopping for a projector the best brands for the money are Benq and Optoma. my projector is semi short throw and creates my 165 inch screen at 15 foot distance. bulb on ECO mode is 6500 hours which means i got to replace a 75 dollar bulb every two years. my bulb is at 4900 hrs which means i got to replace it in about 6 months from using the projector on average for 8-10 hours a day. i think the 1080p projector looks better than my cheap 4k tv because the color accuracy is way higher. if you got a big flat wall a projector is the way to go. 3D movies are better with DLP link at home than they were at the movie theaters because the tech works better.
Worked for Andrew systems back during the boom of the microwave long distance days. Set and pathed some horns and dishes. Ran miles and miles of waveguide. Got a few chopper lifts under my belt. All during the glory days of my youth. Nice work gentlemen.
Having to do a number two immediately might be a bad option for you. It could be seriously worse for someone stood below looking up admiringly at the antenna!
Well done all. The support, the team, the skill, the bravery, they all deserve the big pay day. In a second these guys could be easily killed or severely injured. Take care guys.
Jim Hoppy Whenever Falling from a great height remember to kick off against the wall with your Right Leg. It won't do anything to Stop your Fall, but it will Turn you Around, so that you can enjoy the great view on your way down.
IThere isn't enough money in the world that would get me up there with a helicopter above me . If the engine quits all of a sudden, the entire tower comes down. Insane job, simply insane
I build industrial scaffolds for a living in oil refineries, and Chemical plants and have been up over 200’. This however, is a whole different monster. Hats off!!!!!
I'm a private pilot and don't have any problem flying, obviously but, just watching this makes my balls ache, literally LOL. OH MAN it's hard to watch!
Same with the workers who have to climb these antenna towers to do maintenance. Free climbing with minimal safety gear. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tgO4Gd4RhvM.html
@@marcse7en Yep. I climb and hang off of wind turbines. Regularly climb 600ft met towers. After the first time its no big deal. Business as usual. Haven't notices my balls getting any bigger in all these years climbing.
