Drill Move

[Guest Angry Egg Driver]

I still remember one of my first drill moves.Was in the mtns in some very tall trees.One way in and one way out.Had a 150' line on and things looked pretty small way down there.Everything was going good until they hooked me up to the head.It came off clean but i was a little fat on fuel.So instead of getting a little height i thought i would depart straight off the edge of the pad which was about 10 ft away.I didnt realize that the mixing tank had a frame too it and yup,nailed it hard.The head bounces of the corner of it and luckily didnt hook on it.Off i go to the new pad and set the head on the edge of the deck.I get a call back from one of the drillers that the oil filter is gone and i have screwed the head up.Luckily they had a spare head in camp,we had 8 drills working in the valley,so lots of spare parts.Like Jet b said.Get familiar with things and what they look like when they are all set up.if you can,go out to the drill and check things out.And if possible watch a move before you do one.It will make much more sense when you are lookig down on things from above.

 

Good luck....

[Prime]

Absolutely fantastic stuff, thanks a lot guys. I really appreciate everyones comments and suggestions. I'm looking forward to utilizing the advice the seasoned pro's have offered and hopefully everything goes well. I'll try to get some pics up on here when I'm done.

 

Thanks again

 

Prime

 

[T tail]

what sort of machine you using prime ??

 

TT

[Prime]

Using an Astar B2

[T tail]

:punk:

[Guest Angry Egg Driver]

Hope you have lots of Longline time cause if not you might want the drillers to bring their sleeping bags. :punk:

[6ftsnipe]

I remember one nightmare of a drill move. The outfit was a shady drilling operation and didn't have a fly drill. Instead, we had to use his truck mounted drill, and careful longlining was needed. It was a pain in the *** as it wasn't built for that purpose, and the potential for personal injury was pretty high.

Some guys had close calls while attaching/detaching the drill from the truck. It would've been a lot worse if the pilot wasn't a seasoned pro.

[maxtorqe]

I would start off by borrowing an engineers cordless drill, attach it to the long line and fly around the back forty. Then when you get to camp and the drillers get to the "so you ever moved a drill before" question you dont have to lie. Simply tell them a couple times

[Slinger]

here is an advise that kept me safe and efficent, it's difficult to have the exact weight. Even if the driller try to be honest. So to make sure that you are within the aircraft limits, if by the time you reach the beginning of the yellow arc on your torque or temp and you are not off the ground, then you are to heavy. And stick to your decision because it's your *** up there and the drillers below!

 

Mike

[Blackmac]

Slinger; Your post just reiterated what Cap and I stated about how can you tell when your machine is within limits with out weighing everything "YOUR POWER SETTINGS".

 

Another one is the placard I'm going to have made to stick on the instrument consul "95% of all accidents are caused by the pilot or the machine trying to exceed their capabilities"

 

That is an actual fact and has nothing to do with high or low time.

 

Don