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After the cartoon hold on to your seat, as this might not be the best working enviroment for everybody and surely not me.

Enjoy

http://www.liveleak.com/e/07b_1284580365

whatever they get paid....it aint enough. the little bolts making believe they're a ladder with no real clip on....yikes!!!

Holy crap.

I think I'd want a parachute!

the little red bag doesn't hold enough diapers for me to do that !!

i did that like four times in my life . one was the tower on top of the world trade center around 1983 the other was on long island riverhead tower , miniola 911/police was much harder because there are no stakes sticking out. no extra pay because a tower/pole is a "tool of the trade" . extreme fear going into the bottom of coughfer dam(sp?) when they built the bridge over reynolds channel long beach.this is the concrete form they put in from bottom of channel to above water ,later filled with concrete for foundation.i have a fear when under the surface of the ground like a excavation but i could stand on top of a flagpole ,just one of those things.

Tightened my colon just to watch the first few seconds, then my sphincter tightened to the point of destroying my chair and I quit.
Faced the angry sea in a tiny boat without a thought but heights . . .Whew!

I wonder what they do for excitement. Man one mistake and you are not even a puddle on the ground.

Those guys have bigger balls than King Kong!
I got taken up the North tower of the Golden Gate Bridge with a neighbor at the time who is a painter. Elevator to the furthest we could go, then its climbing the rest. He was free climbing just like that guy, and like it was nothing., While I clinched everything my hands could get a hold of. He even started walking down one of the suspension tubes and told me they used to have races to the bottom, one on west side the other on east. And let me tell ya, those towers don't just sit there, they are moving 6ft side to side while I'm clinching and he's playing like a monkey up there!

Great video DQ- Last time I "felt" that high I was sitting on a t-top of a 61 Viking tower screwing antennas on. I think my butt ate the hard top that day.

I can play all day in a hole, don't care how deep, how hot or how small and dark. Come to think of it sounds allot like------- never mind........

More than 25 ft off the ground and I'm getting un-happy.

well...once you get over 15-20 feet its not like the movies. half the people who fall that far die and most of the rest get seriously injured. speaking from experience.

so 100 feet....1000 feet.....same thing. except in your mind. but thats a huge except.

thats the truth randall ,any thing above thirty feet forget about it. like anything else you get use to it . walking steel on a high rise is much more differcult because there is nothing to hold on to if you lose your balance it`s over. main thing you do when climbing a tower like this or the ladder of the stack at northport power house is to altenate your handgrip . never put two hands on the same treelimb,handle,ladder rung, stake, whatever. jp you have alot more nerve then me ,bury alive is like the worst death in my mind . i avoided the situation all my life.

Doug, does that bring back memories?? Call that guy next time you need to remove the top from Short Circuit......some things you never out live.

I guess we all have our quirks......I have no problem laying flat faced down on the bottom of the ocean....heights??? now that is a different story....that video sent a sharp pain right up my south side! !

hb

Yeah Harry, I hear ya! but that height would kill me before I ever hit the ground. Could you imagine dropping your last wrench in the bag and having to climb down an climb back up. The best words you could ever hear would be YOUR FIRED! Amen Brother, I'm outta here!

DQ

the worst part is your working a composite crew with the iron workers because the Q deck has cells for electrical in it.no ladders you shimee up the I beam and they past around a bottle of whiskey for coffee break at 9am. steel worker (ironmen) are mostly Indians in the new york area.quite a pocker factor at 120' high walking 6" steel with wiskey in your blood!!

I got a nose bleed watching this video

I think I may have peeeeeed my pants just watching

just think about this harv; those blackfoot,crow, and cherikee call us a pussy as we climb those towers. they do it without the steps! after it is erected they climb and install steps and steel tabs for safety belt. while building there is nothing but the SKY to belt up to. you have to see these guys go half way up wrap a leg around steel let go and light up a butt. at the powerhouse they install a gav. steel cable alongside the steps to put special end of safetybelt in, as you climb the belt glides along with you.basiclly you have to be able to support your weight with one arm and be in good physical shape. the red aircraft warning lights have to be changed every 6 months or so.

height is a funny thing. i worked as a roofer and would be quite nervous doing the first or second course on a two or three story roof...but...with skis on i have no trouble at all looking down a 1500 foot drop. i only fell from 12 feet when i shattered my wrist and i couldn't have felt more secure a second before it happened. a little fear is a good thing sometimes.

i shimmied up a mast to free a stuck halyard once.....but i was MUCH younger then.

Thats nuts why are they not tied off???

its the low heights that will get you i think most are less than 2 or 4 feet i forget. My worse have been 4' fall and a 6' fall ladder slipped once and steped wrong off the roof of my bro boat, caught the edge where the piolot house meets bow, my ancle has never and will never be same. Randal i guess i am lucky i should have broken it twice,

ive climbed poles up to 50' for 30 years for a living, but i draw the line on that, no thanks.

cwj wrote:ive climbed poles up to 50' for 30 years for a living, but i draw the line on that, no thanks.

charlie...i was wondering when you would chime in.

50 feet...5000 feet..same thing. but its a huge difference in your mind. the trick is not to get completely careless at 10 feet. tough to do sometimes.

50 feet...5000 feet..same thing. but its a huge difference in your mind. the trick is not to get completely careless at 10 feet. tough to do sometimes.

its not the fall thats kills you its the sudden stop, but at that height i would probably have a massive heart attack on the way down

Not enough money in the world to get me up that...

Bob, my hats off to you and those Iron Workers who can strut around on the Iron like it is nothing. I'm not overly found of deep, tight spaces...but I can usually think my way thru them. With heights, I start to lose my legs and forget to breathe.
I think my worst experience was on the AstroTower at Astroland. We had to replicate the trucks that the unit rides on. No problem its only 25- 30 feet up to the top of the Roof...so we go in, climb up the ladder and out on the roof...I'm not thrilled but its okay...start taking measurements then they decide to show me how it works...then up we go with me on the Roof as the fricken thing is revolving as it climbs the tower. I tried telling them I pretty much had it figured out before I stepped foot in the park...but they felt a need to show me. When I was called in to work on the parachute jump they started to restore... I had them take it apart and send it to me.

I hate heights...now that my legs are coming back after watching that clip... it's back to work for me.

When I was a kid, the guy who lived across the street was a window washer in New York City. That was the days of no Scaffolding, just clip the old saftey belt to the window clips and lean back.

He made the front page of the Daily News when one day he forgot to clip one side of the belt while washing windows on the Empire State Building. He leaned back to wash the window and wound up dangling some 8- floors up. Hung there for a while before they could get him back in the window.

He used to laugh about it and say no big deal, but I bet when it happened he had to change his shorts.

you can only hope and pray you have a heart attack

Like your Mother always use to tell you when you where young. Make sure you always have a clean pair of underwear on, as you never know when you might have an accident. :)

made the front page of the Daily News when one day he forgot to clip one side of the belt

always make sure you hear the belt clip in and then pull on it, before leaning back. they make a saftey belt now called a buck sqeeze, so your accually using 2 belts, when climbing over eqipment so your never un belted. not for me, the old saying you cant teach a old dog new tricks

Here is one of my favorites sort of that same feeling except the engineering side of your brain is trying to calculate things like thickness vs weight and where is the reinforcing steel, etc. Top it off with a Bob Dylan song with Dave Mathis and Neil Young singing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGC1qiKowT8

That was mind blowing...two guys on a 20" square 1700' off the ground...whats that bulb change cost $20,000?? Not enough for me...BH

Who even THINKS of putting bulbs in places like these without a system of changing/replacing them without the risk of life and limb?

it`s no big deal just another day at work. you are not ordered to do this work. you go to school and become a specialist on a list now your a master electrician/ alluminum ,gas welder or high voltage splicer or pole, tower, smokestack climber,steel walker, nuclear rated, it is just like another tool in the toolbox and you become more employable .i feel completely coftable up there and rather sleep up there then go into a MRI head first.

still makes u wonder why pick that but hey we all got our reasons right.

bob..i'm with you....i have developed a distaste for confinement.

i have a great disliking to electric and heights lol, on a serious note iam very comfortable 50' up belted in on hooks, i could fall asleep up there, but put me on the roof of a building on the edge and i start getting a real bad feeling

cwj wrote:i have a great disliking to electric and heights lol, on a serious note iam very comfortable 50' up belted in on hooks, i could fall asleep up there, but put me on the roof of a building on the edge and i start getting a real bad feeling

i know that feeling really well. add in 200 feet from the ocean in february with a 30 K wind and it gets even more interesting. glad thats over. its been years since i even thought about it. worst part....getting from the ladder to the roof.

Nah that leap over the edge on to the roof or back on ladder is fun part :)

randall i imagine you had to go head first into the mri machine for your hand . that is what i had to do with tumor on hand . i went wild like incoming motar at tet offensive and i could not move. i had to come back and there knock me out first . i stood on top of a chimney 4 stories up at a mansion in the rain drilling thru the brick to mount lightning air terminal so my son didn`t have to do it. i figure i was more expendable!!

back on the ladder is worse.

bob...no MRI. it was so mangled the surgeon said he had no idea what to do till he opened it up. i was still awake as he picked up the phone and ordered parts. "um....gimme about eight #6 stainless bolts and nuts , a g-47 T plate, some # 4 stainless wire and a bunch of pins and screw".....then i passed out.

Randall

Sounds like Capt. Pat was doing the surgery. I can see him saying right now, no problem Randy, I will overbuild the hand this way it will never break again. I'll even get Bob Lilco to get us a Titanium Plate. LOL

tony...the single biggest shock of the whole experience was when i saw the "after" X ray. in my mind i saw an elegant titanium plate and some micro screws. what i saw looked like it came from the framing supply bin at home depot.

randall you went thru hell brother! i wish you called ,you would be the talk of the town "randall has a piece of a f-14 tom cat in his hand." the hand keeps pointing to blonds ( you know of course kelly m. lives in southhold) i don`t imagine she looks likes she did in top gun but what the hell.

bob..not really. i was so happy i wasnt dead or worse i just kinda grinned and beared it the rest of the way. inconvenient is how i would describe it. plenty of pretty women on the south fork for the hand to point at.

Randall

I somewhat know the feeling you had. You only get lucky once with situations like that.

As long as the hand points and all the fingers work that is what counts.

I had an incounter with a chop saw. Guard did not drop after the cut and my hand got in the way. Luckly the blade was slowing down.

First thing I did was make sure all the fingers were there and they worked. Next thing I did was go inside and yell, hey Arlene, can you take me to the emergency room I need some stiches.

She still is upset with me two years later. Said I was too calm. Go figure.

Calm as in shock....

Walter

Not shock. I just knew I needed to remain calm. She tends to loose it. I had a kidney stone once. Not sure what was worse, her driving me to the hospital and hitting every dam bump or the pain from the Kidney stone. In fact, when they took my blood pressure at the hospital, they were suprised at how good it was given what happened. Just missed the tendon. I did hear the blade hit the knuckle bone though. That sound still bothers me when I think about it.

OMG
they have probably already been struck by lightening
so many times, they don't feel a thing.
You have to respect them.

ok, this is just crazy. I had trouble watching that one. That wind is howling.

tony...my wife is the calm type. i had a collision in a volleyball game and split my eyebrow down to the skull. a friend drives me home(after i came to) and asks what i'm working on. we go back to the shop where caren finds me with a very bloody dripping t shirt wrapped around my head. her exact words..........."you are a moron..get in the car"!.....when we got to the ER they thought it was a gun shot wound so i went to the front of the line. i had the same ER doctor stitch up my head 3 times in 6 years.

glad you kept those fingers ...i have a bunch of friends that aint as lucky.

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