As350 Hydro Grounding Kit?

[ame206350]

Hi all,

 

Just curious of anyone has ever seen a "GROUNDING KIT" for the AS350/355?

 

I'm referring to a kit for doing tower landings for power line work. Usually some kind of antenna system that hangs a little lower than the skids and allows the helicopter to be grounded to the tower and prevents all sorts of crazy arcing and burning from happening.

 

We have an approved system for our 206 but so far S.O.L. on the 350.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[Blackmac]

I tried to find the Chief Pilot Ontario Hydro without success who operate AS 350's.

 

I could be totally wrong about this, but as you know birds land on power lines all the time and if you were in a helicopter and touched one there is no problem. The reason is you are not grounded.

 

In other words the power lines are insulated from the tower itself by insulators, no power is in the tower itself except induction, which is minimal. Should the person exiting the helicopter attempt to touch any power line from the structure(which is grounded),HE will be instantly killed and if he is attached to the helicopter in any way, May God Bless the crew.

 

Contact BC Hydro for further information, don't under any circumstances accept any info provided by this medium. Contact the source.

 

Why do people that have a problem, not go to the source. The only thing you are going to get from this site is "Well in my day, we used to do it this way"

 

Written on most Tombstones.

 

Don

 

PS: GO TO THE SOURCE/MANUFACTURER

[TwistedSpar]

I'll talk to a guy in the building tommorrow who works for Ontario Hydro if I see him tommorrow, and get a contact for you to call. Hopefully they can help you if your BC Hydro guys don't have an answer.

 

Blackmac for the most part is right except there can be a potential difference between the helicopter and the tower prior to touching (caused by aircraft static electicity charge), so I understand what your looking for as far as a tool to minimise this potential difference.

 

the second picture you can see the worker is ready with a pole to make the first contact. This is likely what you're looking to do.

 

[ame206350]

I'll talk to a guy in the building tommorrow who works for Ontario Hydro if I see him tommorrow, and get a contact for you to call. Hopefully they can help you if your BC Hydro guys don't have an answer.

 

Blackmac for the most part is right except there can be a potential difference between the helicopter and the tower prior to touching (caused by aircraft static electicity charge), so I understand what your looking for as far as a tool to minimise this potential difference.

 

the second picture you can see the worker is ready with a pole to make the first contact. This is likely what you're looking to do.

 

Yeah....what you said. Thanks for the explanation that makes sense.

 

The kit for our 206's just has a couple of CB antenna's hanging down from a beam bolted across the aft skid and then some extra bonding braids for a decent airframe ground.

 

Thanks for the input guys. Please let me know if anyone has anything going for this type of equipment. :punk:

 

[ame206350]

I'll talk to a guy in the building tommorrow who works for Ontario Hydro if I see him tommorrow, and get a contact for you to call. Hopefully they can help you if your BC Hydro guys don't have an answer.

 

Blackmac for the most part is right except there can be a potential difference between the helicopter and the tower prior to touching (caused by aircraft static electicity charge), so I understand what your looking for as far as a tool to minimise this potential difference.

 

the second picture you can see the worker is ready with a pole to make the first contact. This is likely what you're looking to do.

 

Oh yeah. It seems like not much use of AS350's here for Hydro work in past years. Mostly 206....up until a recent accident. So the BC Hydro guys aren't sure about it either yet.....or so goes my (possibly erroneous) understanding.

[Gary Watson]

GSH operates a 500 for powerline insulator washing and went through an extensive setup and testing in Alberta prior to getting upclose and personal.

One other item is required to prevent the smell/sound of sizzling things--it is known as a Farady Cage in the electronics world and is a special suit both pilot and line-worker wear.

Check with the transmission line company you will be working for and better yet, check with the HAC Utilities and Operations Committee that was formed this year as they are developing safety guidelines for hydro transmission line work. They will have all the contact names for the Hydro operators dealing with helicopters

 

 

GW

[ame206350]

I tried to find the Chief Pilot Ontario Hydro without success who operate AS 350's.

 

I could be totally wrong about this, but as you know birds land on power lines all the time and if you were in a helicopter and touched one there is no problem. The reason is you are not grounded.

 

In other words the power lines are insulated from the tower itself by insulators, no power is in the tower itself except induction, which is minimal. Should the person exiting the helicopter attempt to touch any power line from the structure(which is grounded),HE will be instantly killed and if he is attached to the helicopter in any way, May God Bless the crew.

 

Contact BC Hydro for further information, don't under any circumstances accept any info provided by this medium. Contact the source.

 

Why do people that have a problem, not go to the source. The only thing you are going to get from this site is "Well in my day, we used to do it this way"

 

Written on most Tombstones.

 

Don

 

PS: GO TO THE SOURCE/MANUFACTURER

 

 

Blackmac I see that you have the habit of underestimating everyone you come across. All your "contact the source", "don't trust this medium" stuff....thanks but it's all good. I never come just to this forum for info. I always have a variety of sources - of which this happens to be only one. You don't think Hydro was my first call? I also checked with Transport to find out that the only approved kits are for the 500 and 206.

 

Check your PS. What "source"? What "manufacturer"? I think you missed the point of why I ended up here asking for information....because elsewhere there appears to be almost NIL.

Call Hydro? No doubt. Thanks for stating the obvious.

[Over-Talk]

Hi AME,

Have you called Canadian Helicopters in Terrace??

They (Okanagan) have been working on Alcan's Kemano-Kitimat power-line since it was built in the '50s.

I know they used 206s for landing on the suspended catenary platform.

What I don't know is if they did tower landings with the A-stars.

 

Landing an Astar on a tower might get interesting......as you know they sometimes like to enter a ground resonance if the skid springs aren't loaded.

 

I know that BC Hydro is only using twin-engine ships at this time. That may change as they form a policy for the future after last month's tragedy.

[ame206350]

Hi AME,

Have you called Canadian Helicopters in Terrace??

They (Okanagan) have been working on Alcan's Kemano-Kitimat power-line since it was built in the '50s.

I know they used 206s for landing on the suspended catenary platform.

What I don't know is if they did tower landings with the A-stars.

 

Landing an Astar on a tower might get interesting......as you know they sometimes like to enter a ground resonance if the skid springs aren't loaded.

 

I know that BC Hydro is only using twin-engine ships at this time. That may change as they form a policy for the future after last month's tragedy.

 

Thanks for the head up. I will give them a shout. :up:

 

I think they'll be keeping pretty light with their "landings" but like you I wonder how it'll go as well.

We operate a couple of twins....I think we're going to find out.

 

[autorevs]

Was involved with a lot of power line work years ago and they requested a machine to be tested for live line work. They wanted to park a machine on a rubber mat and then start it up and run it hooked up to 50,000 volts. When we we talked to Bell and told them about it they informed us not to even think about it.

They tested a Hughes 500 and I know the pilot that did the testing and they had to perform a lot of modifications to ensure blade bolts and stuff were all grounded. He said that when they ran them up a night you could see the halo of arcing across the blade bolts.