Climbing a 1,700ft tower repairman
Thread Starter
Banned
MotoGP
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 5,942
From: Lake View Terrace, CA
Climbing a 1,700ft tower repairman
Oh wow, you couldn't pay me enough, these guys have some serious minerals.
Trust me, this is a worthy view, scared of heights or no. Personally I would rather have someone shooting at me again.....
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2010/09/15?ref=nf
Trust me, this is a worthy view, scared of heights or no. Personally I would rather have someone shooting at me again.....
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2010/09/15?ref=nf
RUNLEVELZERO #99
SuperBike
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,219
From: Skokie
Safer Than Riding 2 Wheels
Design, erecting & maintaining antenna towers & spires is definitely safer than riding 2 wheels, especially bicycles, based on my 30+ years of doing both.
In Chicago, I have been one of the highest paid engineers in the world, not highly paid (only elevation wise). Very few skyscrapers have surmounted Sears Tower (now "Big Willie") in height but it is still is the tallest building in the Americas in the category of highest occupied floor.
I spent literally months (if not years combined) hanging off Sears, Hancock, Prudential, AT&T and several free-standing & guy towers over the past 4 decades. I also inspect their curtain walls. Guy towers are the trickiest and most unsafe usually due to their age (many are 70+ years old) and because they are often AM tower; i.e., the tower itself is the antenna and must be isolated from ground (earth). BTW, when I hang-10 on the east Tower on Sears, I'm at 1764 AGL. If you take a whiz, your **** ends up in Indiana (which deserves it).
Attached are some photos I've taken from different vantage points in Chicago, which I usually don't bother to do because I really don't look around much while working anymore unless its an exceptionally nice day. Wind is always an issue but I work year round. In 1983 when we designed & put up the main towers on Sears, it was 40 degrees BELOW zero F WITHOUT windchill. On FM towers we work at night when they switch to their stand-by antennas so the don't cook us like in a microwave oven with 5 million watts. The Sky Crane helicopters had a hard time lifting off because each tower section is over 20,000 pounds. BTW, I once realized it was my B-day when I was on Hancock's roof one night, and when you are on the roof of AON Center (formally Amaco, sister building structurally to the now belated WTCs, which was a scary on 9-11), your about 45 feet above the roof of Hancock.
In Chicago, I have been one of the highest paid engineers in the world, not highly paid (only elevation wise). Very few skyscrapers have surmounted Sears Tower (now "Big Willie") in height but it is still is the tallest building in the Americas in the category of highest occupied floor.
I spent literally months (if not years combined) hanging off Sears, Hancock, Prudential, AT&T and several free-standing & guy towers over the past 4 decades. I also inspect their curtain walls. Guy towers are the trickiest and most unsafe usually due to their age (many are 70+ years old) and because they are often AM tower; i.e., the tower itself is the antenna and must be isolated from ground (earth). BTW, when I hang-10 on the east Tower on Sears, I'm at 1764 AGL. If you take a whiz, your **** ends up in Indiana (which deserves it).
Attached are some photos I've taken from different vantage points in Chicago, which I usually don't bother to do because I really don't look around much while working anymore unless its an exceptionally nice day. Wind is always an issue but I work year round. In 1983 when we designed & put up the main towers on Sears, it was 40 degrees BELOW zero F WITHOUT windchill. On FM towers we work at night when they switch to their stand-by antennas so the don't cook us like in a microwave oven with 5 million watts. The Sky Crane helicopters had a hard time lifting off because each tower section is over 20,000 pounds. BTW, I once realized it was my B-day when I was on Hancock's roof one night, and when you are on the roof of AON Center (formally Amaco, sister building structurally to the now belated WTCs, which was a scary on 9-11), your about 45 feet above the roof of Hancock.
Last edited by skokievtr; Sep 18, 2010 at 08:20 PM.
Senior Member
SuperBike
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,978
From: thorold ontario
wow, **** that. i dont like getting off my ladder on to the roof of my garage to fix my dish, haha. although ive got a buddy whos a sky dive instructor and him and his friends climbs antennas and jump off them.
Out of my mind, back in 5
MotoGP
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 6,109
From: Skurup, Sweden
Oh wow, you couldn't pay me enough, these guys have some serious minerals.
Trust me, this is a worthy view, scared of heights or no. Personally I would rather have someone shooting at me again.....
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2010/09/15?ref=nf
Trust me, this is a worthy view, scared of heights or no. Personally I would rather have someone shooting at me again.....
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2010/09/15?ref=nf
And yeah, I'd much rather jump out of a perfectly functioning aircraft as well... That doesn't scare me much...
But the idea of climbing one of those things to jump? Nuhu... No way... The jumping I don't mind, the climbing is not my thing...
Senior Member
Back Marker
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 231
I've had a few scares with tower structures failing (one tower bent like an "S" while climbing), but the worst was every year when the yellow jacket wasp's would swarm towers to get the warmth. They were harmless but being alergic and at the top of a tower covered in them always freaked me out. I would chant in my head while climbing, "don't flinch, don't flinch" in case they stung me while sweeping them off the ladder.
It's a scary job but you do get a vantage point that few ever see. I remember being on the top of a tower on a 3000' ridge seeing a small plane flying lower than I was hanging.
Senior Member
Back Marker
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 243
From: Toronto, Ontario
jeez, u kidding me....i have goosebumps and shivers in my hands...no way in hell would i do that...
one, and i mean ONE wrong move and you got about 30 seconds of swearing at yourself before the big long sleep...
one, and i mean ONE wrong move and you got about 30 seconds of swearing at yourself before the big long sleep...
Senior Member
MotoGP
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 3,452
From: San Clemente, CA
I worked as an electrician for 5 years in the late '70s. When we did residential service changes, we had to cut the live 220v service drop wires, strip back the insulation with a pocket knife and splice them onto the new service wires...all done on the roof. When I started that job, my boss told me, "Don't worry about the shock, the fall is what will kill you".
Two story pitched roofs freaked me out though. It's not so much the height, but the exposure. The service riser is always at the edge of the roof.
One time my boss plugged the meter in while I was still making the last splice...
That was quite a jolt, and I was glad it was just a single story, even though I maintained my balance.
Then there was the time I was on the next to the top rung of a 28' extension ladder, installing a lighting fixture on the side of a concrete building with Santa Ana winds blowing. I don't know how I did that one. Even with my helper on the ground steadying the ladder.
As far as climbing a tower without an enclosure...too much exposure for me.
Two story pitched roofs freaked me out though. It's not so much the height, but the exposure. The service riser is always at the edge of the roof.
One time my boss plugged the meter in while I was still making the last splice...
That was quite a jolt, and I was glad it was just a single story, even though I maintained my balance.Then there was the time I was on the next to the top rung of a 28' extension ladder, installing a lighting fixture on the side of a concrete building with Santa Ana winds blowing. I don't know how I did that one. Even with my helper on the ground steadying the ladder.
As far as climbing a tower without an enclosure...too much exposure for me.
Senior Member
SuperSport
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 987
From: Asheville, North Carolina
Came back for a second look at this video, My mind kept returning to the 1/2 bolts that were "BENT"- Yeah, the one at the top / that are sticking out of that piece of pipe( the bolts that would be supporting my fat ***, and that 30 pound bag ).
Senior Member
Back Marker
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 231
Senior Member
MotoGP
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,934
From: altoona, pa
My first time repelling, when I had to jump backwards off a cliff, the first time I had to step out onto the wing strut of a T-Craft to skydive, the first time I accidentlally wheelied sitting sidesaddle at the start of an AAMRR race(jumpstart race) at Summit Point we're some of the times i was scared shitless. If I had to climb into the clouds I can tell you that I would try not to look down haha, measure every movement, keep breathing to stay alert, focus intensely on what i was doing, and kiss the ground when I got back to earth, whether it be a hard or soft landing.
Senior Member
MotoGP
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 3,452
From: San Clemente, CA
My wife would have no problem climbing one of those towers. She used to be a hard core rock climber. Trad climbing, not sport climbing...as she says, "sport climbing is neither".
As for me...my ***** were tingling just watching that video.
As for me...my ***** were tingling just watching that video.
Senior Member
MotoGP
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,934
From: altoona, pa
RUNLEVELZERO #99
SuperBike
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,219
From: Skokie
Clipping in and out gets your lanyard lines in the way and causes a lot more work and time. It actually wears you out a lot faster which creates mistakes. You do focus on keeping three points of contact at all times. I would have clipped in at the transition where you see him looking for hand holds. That part made me pucker up.
