power company woes

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you set up a zipline over the primaries, and then when asked to come down by the Utility representative you rode the zipline down?

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Ya, that would go down as a do what i say not what i do time in my life if i was writing a book hahaha. But i do have to say even the power guy thought it was one of the cooler things he had seen in a long time. Lets keep in mind the power line was only a singal phase, you would probly be real hard pressed to see me do that over more then one.
 
I stayed tied into the tree with my VT hitch, snaped a biener onto the zipline and lowered myself down. And before it is said no my line did not touch the primary. I set up a rope guide at the tie in point to keep that from happening.
 
I wasn't going to suggest that your climbline came in contact with the wire...

but mentioning that, how did you attach the zipline in the tree? after your conversation with the lineman, did you have to climb back up and retrieve your gear and untie knots? How did you get the zipline rope unrigged without it coming in contact with the wire?
It's an interesting worksite you've described, you don't by any chance have any pics, do you?
 
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Lets keep in mind the power line was only a singal phase, you would probly be real hard pressed to see me do that over more then one.

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What's the difference between a single phase and 3 phase??? There's still enough electricity to kill a person a hundred times over.

You may have had the best rigging scenario of your life set up over this single phase and your utility experience may qualify you to take trees down near primaries but do you even consider the consequences?
Climbing and rigging is dangerous enough but dis-regarding safety for the sake of removing a tree near a line? The utility seems good about helping you out by shutting the power off or even getting someone in there to remove it to a safe level.

Would you use a backhoe to dig a hole near a gas line and say "it was just a gas line"?

Remember, we all have to deal with the consequences of our actions.
 
You can watch Shockwave or any other reality show of how things can go wrong. There's a ton of issues here, and it doesn't take a full on contact to cause an electrocution. 4K is killer. single phase just makes the jump to ground and you will always be grounded by something.

He really was trying to do you a favor.
 
Bostonbull im with you on the question of why this "story is fake". Im sure in some of you'r heads I had a cable lanyard, no helmet, no glasses,and was drinking. Even worse is that this is not the first time this has been done and im sure someone that is reading this has eather done it or has done "in a safty line of thinking" done worse. Spee, have you ever worked over or near service lines going into a building?. Im guessing you have plenty of work under you'r belt, so im sure you have. What would be the diffrence? None is what I hope you are saying, still will kill you just the same and burn the building down. So what have I done that is so much diffrent then you in all reality? No matter if you are doing a zipline or just lowering near any powerline (primary, secondary, service) you are still working near power that has the ability to kill you. So where is the line that you are saying was crossed by my actions. Keep in mind the man said get down and I did get down with no arguments, even got a hand shake from him. Just so noone gets the wrong idea, I have no problem being called out on things that are not the best way or the normal pracice of everyone. I would hope it does get people to think about there day to day work methods.
 
I don't know, Mr Fairfield. I shouldn't have made that accusation without more facts, but something just doesn't seem right with your story.
 
was this job being done by an insured company for profit, or under the table for love?

Is it standard policy to notify the Utility in your area of tree care operations that happen in proximity to high voltage wires? If so, why would you choose not to comply?

Please describe how you set up the zipline... did you use a lowering line/haulback, or did the pieces just slide under their own weight? What kind of angle was the zipline set at? How far was the pole/wire from the tree? How tall was the tree and how high up did you attach the zipline?

How many people did you have working on the ground? Were they compensated? What was their experience level?

Also, in my experience, I would treat a bare, pole mounted, primary conductor with much more caution than I would a self-supporting service drop with insulated conductors.

Thanks for indulging my curiosity. -Craig
 
Great questions, The job was done for no profit, it's my wife's uncle's tree. Is it standard policy to notify the power co. I would gather to say yes, although I dont know for sure her uncle did make multiple calls to the power co and talked to them about having the tree cleared enough for work to be "safely" done. By safely I mean for the tree to be enough distance that the power company was ok for work to be done in it. Asplundh came out at which time we were under the impression that the tree would be cleared to there standered to be worked in. They got done a few weeks later we started and we know how this ends. I wanted to bring up that to the power guy that came out but seeing how he was telling me to get down I was under the impression that he did not know.

The zipline was set up as follows: On the ground level at the tree side I had set up the dumb end. Track line was tensionless hitched to another tree with a soft anchor (two prusiks to capture rope tension. I then had the track line ran into the high point in the tree (leader not being cut. The track line was placed thru a large beiner that was anchored by a wrape three pull two. From there the track line was moved over to the area in which was being cut and ran thru another beiner straped below ach cut. Doing so made for easyer movement of the track line after each cut. There was a second leader hat had to be cut down about 15ft, the way I tackeled this was by placeing a capture pull back in a rear side leader so that the angles of the track line before getting to the cuts would not be to great. The track line after leaving the tree ran down to a F-250 (I think). I had placed a Port-a-wrap to the hitch from that I built the 3:1 onto and placed another progress capture (yes, along with two wraps on the port-a-wrap). The branches being lowered down was controlled by a second line on a rescue 8.

The zip line was used til the top of the leads over the wire was at a point that I was able to tie high on them and pull them back to the rear leads. Taking away the flip over befor the drop back. This also was in order to not be lowering on a zip line that would have enough sag to contack the line below. If I was to estamate the angle from leader being cut to the ground I would gather it was 110 degree. No place in the system did the rope make any less then a 100 degree angle. Less friction on the pull was in mind and less forces on the track line.

The guys I had working on the ground to help me out (two guys) are both high angle/low angle rescue technitions (think I spelled that right). We all have been working highlines/ ziplines for a considerable amount of time. Every year we have a Rescue team that goes down to Virgina for a rescue compation.

The guys working did get paid.... with food and water durring the job and a round was on me later that night. Im not sure if I said it was an open phase, if I did that is my mistake it was a coated line. By no means does that make it any better in my mind. Lots of stuff sorry if it was a bit long.
 
On the point of the differences between primary, secondary and service drops; the higher the voltage the greater the potential for arcing over between a grounded path and the uninsulated line. Air is the medium used as "insulation" for primary conductors and that's why the lines are set higher on poles and further apart from one another as the voltage of the line increases.

While secondary/service voltage can kill you, proximity to the lines doesn't lend itself easily to electrocution compared to primaries.
 
Fairfield, thank you for the reply. I still cannot picture at all what the worksite must've looked like.

To have twenty feet of clearance over a primary wire 30' in the air would mean that your zipline was 50 feet up in the air at the point it passed over the wire...

It sounds like a very ambitious job to do for free.

Thanks for your efforts at clarifying all the same. -C
 
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