20 feet of flying circle saws!

[Jeff]

I think this is one of the most interesting videos I have ever made. I had an extraordinary opportunity to view and learn from  a Helicopter line sawing  crew working clearing the transmission lines on ours and neighboring properties in the Eastern Upper Peninsula near Detour Village. A very Interesting Dangerous Job! The pilots and saw crew were camera shy but not shy about answering my questions off. We had great coversations as two were from Montana, one of those via New Zealand, and the other from Wyoming.  The guys had stowed kiddy fishing poles with them  and after asking, fished in the pond between flight shifts. (to no avail)
VIDEO LINK>>> 20 Feet of Flying Circle Saws! Helicopter Power line clearing. Eastern U.P. - YouTube

[Jeff]

Well I guess y'all have seen it all before. 

[Don P]

No!  It's been qued up since posted,its July  :D I chatted with the ground crew watching and asking questions here a few years ago.

I gotta go clean up in da rain today, blech

[thecfarm]

Interesting!!!
Never knew it had its own motor.
Nice barn in the back ground.

[Bradm]

2 years ago I was talking with a helicopter pilot who wanted to setup an operation like this to keep the main lines clear for Ontario Hydro.  He was turned down because it would have resulted in too many jobs lost.

Nice video though.  I was surprised as to how aggressive the blades are as they look like they're almost a high tooth count (about 30 teeth on a 24" (610mm) blade if my count was correct) rip saw design.

[sawguy21]

I was in helicopter ops support for a number of years, I am really glad I didn't have to maintain those beasts! Anything goes wrong the pilot is dead.

[Resonator]

Where I was working a few years ago, they were constructing a high tension powerline. One of the highest pay jobs (and high risk) was connecting the cables to the tops of the towers. They would do this with a man in a basket, hanging from a cable under the helicopter dangled over the powerline. 

[Don P]

That was cool, I never got to see it on the ground. That thing isn't much more than a chevette in the sky.

I took this a few years ago when they did our lines. Its to the right of the pole and towards us in this pic. When he was done we looked at this stretch and I asked the power company crew if they would mind just dropping that row on each side, it was just too tight and they had been limbed to death. Hopefully he won't have to mess with that for a long time. As he was coming up that hill it sure looked like we were at eye level with each other. Too much fun for me!

[azmtnman]

Why didn't you follow with your drone?  :D :D :D :D :D :D

[rusticretreater]

I have a piece of property with a power line easement through it.  I just happened along the day after they came through with their giant flying whirlygig of death.  The carnage to the trees was horrendous.  I cut down trees and clear land but seeing trees cut in half, ripped and mauled was a bit shocking in a way.  The mess it left was also substantial.  I was like "thanks a lot for the extra work!"  

I passed by a few days later ready to start piling stuff up and they had come through again and done a pretty thorough job of cleaning and removal.  I bet some wood products company was pretty busy mulching that stuff.

One of these things is used as a death machine in a Pierce Brosnan James Bond movie.  It cuts a fishing shack in half no problem.

[Jeff]

In this boreal forest, it actually leaves the powerline edge looking better. The bows that fall almost form a path.  Yesterday a skidder rigged with a huge tank was following up spraying everything for a final kill within the right of way

[Ed_K]

 That was really kool,  ;). I'd never saw one before other than a picture in Northern Logger of the blades.

[Jeff]

We saw them working today about twenty miles on down the line