Grapplesaw Helicopter

GrapplesawTrucks

GrapplesawTrucks

Location
USA
Not a crane... but too awesome not to post. Our customer AgMax in Ohio is operating a Mecanil grapplesaw with their helicopters. They designed a hydraulic power pack to run the grapplesaw. After testing for several months they told me everything works awesome and this is a gamechanger for their industry. Check out the video below.

 
Oooooh
Aaaaaah
Arbitrarily raising the cost of energy for consumers by employing tools that cost 10k an hour to operate seems like a fantastic plan for basic infrastructure maintenance protocol.
I’m impressed on so many levels right now. Keep those good ideas coming.

For the next one, perhaps a 48” hot saw dangling from a chinook? Cut trees instead of firewood?


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Jemco said:
I predict the down draft from whirlybird'll cause more shorts than it prevents!

Sorta silly......

Jemco
Click to expand...
Not the first time a helicopter has been used on line clearance. Is that an existing problem? I'm not saying it is not...I honestly do not know.
 
Ever been on a log landing and felt the downdraft from a big bird?

It ain't what I'd call mild.....

Jemco
 
That looks very cost ineffective. Unless they are doing something they didn't show in the video, this seems silly.
 
I worked with helicopters and external lifting in the military. That bird in the video is small and the down wash would be not bad. A larger helicopter lifting large logs could cause problems. But really they will not be flying above or close enough to effect the wires. Why not just have a guy on the ground dump the whole tree then fly it. Take it down in tiny pieces WTF. I think this company is trying to blow smoke up some asses. I am sure they love it, look at the money they are charging.
 
A few more thoughts, they can only get the top half of the tree unless they make the grapple hang lower. This would make getting the grapple on the tree harder. And any wind will make the helicopter move around therefore getting the grapple on the tree harder. I don't see this going anywhere except in very rare applications.
 
They only need to get the top half of the tree...the rest won't be falling on the lines. If it is designed to keep lines safe in areas that are otherwise inaccessible, it will probably have a good (but small) market
 
ATH said:
Yes...but is there a history of this causing blowdowns and subsequent power outages?
Click to expand...

Give em a little time!

Utility power line maintenance, by sheer definition, entails working almost exclusively with secondary and tertiary growth, or weakly attached wood, prone to failure.

A thirty mph downdraft's hardly conducive to a safer jobsite IMO.

Jemco
 
We've worked with helis doing side pruning (or hacking :D ) and no problems on our operations. However, the same pilot working elsewhere did cut some distribution cross lines and have a piece fly after cutting that crossed phases as well. The real problems I've heard of were with tree toppings in remote areas. I guess it's more difficult?
 
I once saw a "How'd They Do That?" TV show that showed the combination of high voltage line worker with a helicopter as a work platform. They were able to work at twenty times the rate of a ground-based crew. That level of production enabled them to charge $50,000.00 per day, if I recall correctly, for the chopper, pilot and electrical worker. The utility company considered it worth the cost. I can see it being especially useful in remote areas that are hard to reach on the ground. I guess it is up to the utility company to do a cost analysis on how they wish to run each part of their operation.

Tim


 
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