I am the first to admit, you couldn't give me all the money in the world. I've raced offshore boats, motorcycles, put myself in many a dangerous spot & even married my wife but I would never, EVER be able to do this. It's just a video of a worker climbing up a 1768 ft. radio tower It starts simply enough while he in in the cage on a ladder. Then, the cage ends & he is climbing on open hand holds. Then those end....... Pluck dat! http://www.liveleak.com/mp53/player...layer_config.php?token=07b_1284580365&embed=1
I couldn´t watch it when he was outside of the mast... When I was in the militaries we climbed a 300 meter (1000 feet) mast, but about half way up I stopped and it took me about three hours to get down again. It is scary even today when I think about it, like watching this video. I wonder why, I have also raced offshore boats and been flying myself, but in that mast I couldn´t look down at all. Just slowly, step by step move back to the ground...
If a brand new Lurssen, titled in my name, was the prize waiting at the base of that tower... I couldn't do it! Whatever pilot coined the term... "altitude is your friend", never stood at the top of that antenna. It might make a good base jump for the Adrenalina inclined, but I'll watch from the ground and take a Bayliner as my consolation prize.
Back in 2000 I did a stint managing a crew building radomes in some fairly remote locations. The crane operators were there just to get the panels to the tower bases, from there it was up to the helos. My toes were curling and my knees were knocking where other veterans of the industry were just starting to enjoy themselves. It takes a special kind...
I have a friend that travels the country doing that. I can't imagine why he wants to go back to the fire department...
Hi, I thought I saw a bit when he was at the top where he was not holding on at all while he got the smaller hooked line ready. This type of activity is not good for my equilibrium, I was once at the top of a mast on a pitching sailboat in the middle of the Pacific for about an hour getting beaten up by the furling hardware at the top of the foil on the broken forestay swinging around trying to wear it's way through the mast, this has caused me to have the heebie jeebies about a lot of climbing and standing on the edge of big drops.
I wonder what the true temperature and wind speed is up there. I have never had a problem with (even extreme) heights, but wind gusts would certainly have me concerned.
That thing has got to sway several feet. Bound to feel like K1W1's time at the top of the mast...x20. They'd have to cut my fingers off to pry my grip lose.
I sent this to my Father for his review. He's gone silent on me. My Father, the same guy who won't climb the mast on his B57. It's 75ish feet if I recall. Saves the tasks for me. I simply don't know how guys do that. I also wonder if they have a bail out chute (base jumping type) on their back that wasn't shown.
Nope, just a very high mortality rate. "the most dangerous job in America." http://www.wirelessestimator.com/t_content.cfm?pagename=Climber Fatalities
I get bird foot as I call it when ever I get more than 20ft off the ground ! I actually get cramps across the arch of my feet as they try to grip like a birds foot would a branch. needless to say I'm useless and any elevation task!!
We work on High Mast fixtures, although never near antennea high but it gets puckerish when the bucket sways one way, the fixture is swaying differently and the clouds are going by byyond you filed of view at a good clip. Sometimes you have to just grab the sides of the bucket, hold on, close your eyes and center yourself.
