Georgia Power had the great foresight to schedule this kind of line testing
during the 2004 G8 Summit held at Sea Island Georgia last year.

All the alphabet Soup guys that talked into their cuffs had a big time with
reports of low-flying rotor-craft in the area.

I watched them test the lines running in front of our house; next to US 17
South; about 8 miles from the causeway connecting the mainland to St. Simons
island; and ultimately Sea Island.

I finally found out it was a line leakage test from one of the crew,
overheard at a local resturant/coffee shop.


"Mr Rogers" wrote in message
news:1120069164.f070788e17bbae60d8086a92fe361b17@t eranews...
Did anyone happen to catch the documentary on the history channel about
using helicopters to check HV lines.

Fascinating stuff, very wild to see the heli some inches from a 300KV line
with a handler hanging out the side with a grounding line to the heli. At
some points you could see the arc jump to the ground line 2~3 feet.

As a couch pilot I thought the flying was unbelievable, particularly when
you watch the PIC maneuver the cyclic 15 degrees in all directions
constantly - he never stopped moving it. What surprised me is how stable
the
platform was for the linesman hanging out the door with a wrench
tightening
a bolt 150' in the air, it was as if he was on a ladder.

If you get a chance try and see the show.