Saturday, September 18, 2010

Do not watch after eating ...

Good googly moogly.

34 comments:

Tugboat said...

When I read the title, I was 'Yeah, yeah, probably another video that NORMAL people would find scary...' (Implication being: Not ME!).   I am profoundly grateful that I had not eaten breakfast.  Do not watch that video largescreen unless you are REALLY happy with heights.  I am laughing my arse off at myself at the moment, the guys who do that are absolutely nutters and therefore have my total respect.  I have no issues going deep undsersea (in fact having more time doing the macarena on the sh**er at test depth than most of the world's population)(freely acknowledging that probably less than .01% of the world's pop are submariners), but 1670 feet is a long doggone way up.  My inner ear didn't get messed with until the last few minutes, where he's free climbing the little bitty part at the top.  Oh HELL no.   Thanks Sal for an entertaining morning video.

DeltaBravo said...

I backed down the ladder and clicked off at the 1:03 mark.

I know my limits.

steve said...

Somehow the SPS 10 platform does not seem so high anymore.

LT B said...

I watched it and loved it.  I passed it off to the wife and she almost launched breakfast on the coffee table.  All in all, an entertaining morning.  :)

Vigilis said...

True, but at sea radar platforms sure have a whole lot more roll, pitch and yaw.  

xformed said...

No easy way down?  With all the free air around them, plenty of room for a base jump.  Those parachutes have become much more refind and no requirment to have a reserve (no time to use it anyhow).  LIke an ejection...use when you have to, not just for the fun of it.  Attach the tool bag to the tower and revoer it after the bad storm.

All the way to the top on a 24" wide screen monitor...pretty cool!

ewok40k said...

do NOT  look DOWN...

SJBill said...

Great vid. Makes you appreciate how essential old-fashined human support is to technology.

My being aloft on the partially corroded mast of ESSEX, while underway, in Winter off New England, was my best thrill. An exposure suit was needed.
First, obtain a chit certifying all radars were inactive, and believe them all.
"Man working aloft" was sounded over the 1MC.
Climb to the O-10 level. Unlock the hatch. Out onto the catwalk at the base of the mast and begin the climb. There is lots of stack gas streaming aft and the gentle pitch and roll motion of the ship. Surface search antennae were still rotating. I felt no warmth from them as I passed by.
At the top of the mast there was a small gridded catwalk at the base of the TACAN dome. Next, advance to the TACAN dome and mount it. Restrain yourself with two wraps of safety strapping around the MCJR antenna mast and clip to your harness. Park your a$$ on the TACAN dome. Disconnect and exchange the X-band receiver antenna and battery powered headamp from the Helicore coax cable, and come on down.  Signal restored.

Can you believe it? I still remember these climbs.

kmadams85 said...

I almost fell off my chair on one of his head moves, very disturbing being that high up.

Anonymous said...

Not just brass ones...  PROPSHAFT BEARINGS!!!  

These guys have all my respect.  I'm not afraid of heights, but I do get winded after a couple of flights of stairs.  :)

UltimaRatioRegis said...

"Oops, I dropped the 11/16 socket and the ratchet handle...."

Yowzah.  Used to have to climb wind turbine towers, didn't like it.  Of course all safety rigging seemed to say "load limit 225 pounds" and I was about 245.  Ahh well. 

But those things were comparative step ladders compared to this.  Dude has a screw loose....

sid said...

Kinda reminds me of doing PMS on the SPS-10....

Real bitch getting that oil up there.

And, of course there is the mast climbing sequence in The Caine Mutiny.

Byron said...

Only way they'd get me up that antenna is with a big damn gun...and then he better pray he can move out of the way fast enough while I'm on my way down throwing tools at him. I'm OK with heights, but this is beyond nuts. They must pay those guys a butt load...and they're worth every penny.

Worker: You want me to go where?
Boss: All the way to the tippy top, fix the wizmajig.
Worker: How much?
Boss: Same pay as ground
Worker: (falls on floor laughing, gets up) $1 a foot per hour, top to bottom
Boss: (many bad words)
Worker: See ya, enjoy that climb
Boss: Got to have done! Must do! Must do!
Worker: If must do, and you not do it, you PAY me what I want!
Boss (sweating: OK

:)

BTW, commercial divers work for a rate similar to this.

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

Not this little gray badger, I'll stay right here, under the porch, where it is safe.

QMC(SS) said...

I've been a licensed skydiver for many years and I'm STILL terrified of heights...go figure!  I got dizzy watching this vid on a SMALL screen...you wouldn't get me more than 20 rungs up the first ladder.

xformed said...

No thoughts of a trip to New River Gorge? :)   I almost got in the car and went up, back before it was so big you had to apply and get picked by lottery to even jump.

xformed said...

Wne doing elex recycling, we got a light like that from a TelCo pull out.  Never used, one minor scratch in the paint on the top.  Plastic Fresnel lens, FAA speced for span bridges less than 500' high.  Sat outside my office on a table in the warehouse for months and I always asked my walkin customers if they wanted it.  No takers.  Finally put it on eBay, after one of them said, when I opened to top to look at the really cool bulb, he had a friend you bought a light bulb like that once, for $300.

Put it on eBay for $299 buy it now.  An account from TN, some name like "smokymtlight" bought it right away.  I guess he knew a good deal and my boss was still happy to see it go.

Peterk said...

urp! glad I waited until after dinner was digested

Byron said...

That is some purty country. I love stopping off at New River Gorge and doing the overlook.

Mary Alpha said...

I couldn't finish watching it. :(

Salty Gator said...

biggest racket in Naval shipbuilding / repair.  And the funny part:  they are all retired chiefs and senior chief divers.

Salty Gator said...

Hey dude...you didn't happen to bring the torque wrench up with you?  No?  Shit........left mine in the truck.

Salty Gator said...

yeah just hope that a gust of wind doesn't make you into a chime.  base jumping in a trench / off a cliff better than away from a building / tower that wind may or may not blow you back into!

Anonymous said...

You fall off the top of that damn thing you wouldn't need to bring a BASE jumping rig, you'd have enough time to call for someone to go buy you a 'chute and have it waiting at the top of the elevator to grab as you went by....

Was drinking a scotch when I watched this....bad combination!

Aubrey said...

Erp, that was me

QMC(SS) said...

HELL no!!!  I'll take 12,500' out of an Otter any day!  Much safer :)

Anonymous said...

UFR!! There is one quick way down, contrary to the narrator's claim; quick, but not acceptable.  I felt my waffles coming up.

The Usual Suspect said...

At 7:20 to 7:25 he takes both hands off of the tower to secure his rigging.  All the way up he has maintained 3 points of contact, but when I saw his hands turn loose at the top...whoa! I think that was his 30 pounds of testicles that they were hauling up in the red bag.  At least 30 pounds!

The Usual Suspect said...

The waffles are mine...switched machines.

TBR said...

In Germany such large transmission towers belong to the Navy. Granted, they're just shy of 1200 feet, but here are eight of them and each is anchored on a small isolator. Going up there is a like endeavor as I was told by some old hands. Climbing more than 350m knowing that the tower rests on a less than 30cm connection...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLF_transmitter_DHO38

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/5/53/Marinesender_DHO38_Längstwellensender_der_Marine_-_Fußpunktisolator.jpg

Byron said...

And contrary to what the video says, this method of going up the antenna is a gross violation of OSHA rules. He should have been tied off with at least one point constantly, and the hooks he was using were illegal; they should have had a slide release that allows the snap link to open, so it cannot do so inadvertantly.

Says he who has sat through more hours of OSHA mandated safety training than he cares for, and who wouldn't violate three point hold for any kind of money, much less 1700 feet off the ground.

virgil xenophon said...

I have that gnetic syndrome that gives one the very physical urge to jump off high places that are connected to the ground.  (No effect when flying as is no direct visual connection to gnd) Can't begin to tell you the emotional torque and physical squirming I did just merely watching that.

BTW, makes one appreciate the old tars in the day of the the Cutty Sark/America, etc., who sailed in ferocious seas 'round the Horn and climbed out on slick, frozen yard-arm ropes swaying on a ship tossed about in hurricane-force gales to furl the sails during bad wx. And , needless to say, with NO safety rigging. Iron Men and wooden ships indeed!

Casey Tompkins said...

Highest I ever went was backstage theater work (lights & sound), and that was plenty high enough. And, yes, I made damn sure of a  three point even then.

xformed said...

You musta started in AfFF, no?  I recall many a "concerned look" on Lvl 8s @ 3500 ft...Me?  Super Cacs @ 15K....the preferred method, when you can get it.