Changing a Bulb on Top of a Radio Mast

I couldn't finish watching it either....my stomach was churning violently and my head was spinning. I have an intense fear of heights, but no problem jumping out of a perfectly good airplane (as long as there's a reserve chute and I did the chute packing)!!!! This video should be rated VERTIGO +++++++ PUKING FACTOR! LOL

Honestly, if I were on that tower I'd be wearing a parachute and latching my safety line on everything I could find, each and every step! No fee climbing for this guy! ***Bill the Cat ACCCKKK ACCCKKKK!!!!***

I managed to get to the end where he casually held on to the bulb right at the top...

But my sweaty palms were a dead giveaway.... LOL

Hand me the new bulb....

I thought you had it.....

...........

great scenario. when i pictured that in my mind, i had to laugh.

I have been trying to develop a small blimp for just this job, but, alas, blimpin' aint easy. It's my contention that on a dead calm day I could approach towers, bridges, etc, with a ship designed to get me right to the bulb. The fee for this work has to be huge. Hopefully I could get enough bulb, pest control, photography, advertising, etc. work to pay for my helium and hamburgers.

Very impressive!

2 questions:

-why not make a 2 or 3 bulbs sytem with automatic connexion of a new one when the one in use burns?

I can understand that due to many environmental factors the bulbs have a shorter life than on other structures.

- why not use a helicopter to bring the professionals on top ?

Navigation buoys at sea have multiple bulbs that rotate into use as the old one burns out. The towers may not have enough room for such an apparatus.

A helicopter flight costs mega bucks. It may cost fifteen hundred for a chopper, and this good old boy will climb the tower for a thousand. Something like that. If I ever get my blimp going, I'll fly up there for half the chopper fee. Once a blimp is filled and flying, it's low maintenance. The trick is to keep busy.

I watched it. I couldn't do it. That's over 1/4 mile up if you measure like an Arkie.

I think it's cheaper to pay two guys to climb up the tower than rent a chopper.

While this sort of light lamp changing is tough, it is the building of the tower that would seem to me to be even tougher.

I know when I had guys climbing high I didn't want cameras around.

Metal breaks.

Just like when building skyscrapers, they need a crane attached to the structure to be higher than the structure, so they can put stuff on top. Oh, boy, what a job. Not me!

Thought they had to use Gin Poles.

That's what I meant.

as a former ironworker, i know that the two men that are doing this job are doing it for the adreninalin rush. money is only secondary, if it matters at all. only 1 in a thousand men are cut out for this type of work. when a person risks his life every second of the working day, it gives a person a completely differernt aspect of life. it makes you love every minute that your alive.

as a former ironworker, i think that you'ld me amazed at how it's done. they don't build cranes that are capable of reaching to those heights.

Have you never had on the sites cranes moving up on the structure or with the structure as the structure is erected ?

It is quite common solution for very high structures, the crane climbs on the structure it self.

It's called a kangaroo crane. Aussies invented it

I agree with PWSlack, if a fibre optic cable can be installed along with the signal cables going up the tower, it sure would make things simpler. If the light goes out in bad weather, the tech won't be able to climb, and there would be danger to aircraft.

Excellent question and suggestion ! Congratulations!

To allow a view from all angles the prism has to be either rotating or conical. This comment does not reduce the value of your first suggestion.

would it be feasable to send a beam of light from ground level to a concaved mirror focused on a rotating mirror at the top of the mast? i doubt if a fiber opic cable could handle the the amount of light that's required by law.

i'm not familar with a light pipe. could you enlighten me?