View Full Version : I have heard the pay is $1 per foot ascended...
GoldenRivet
09-16-10, 10:03 PM
... get climbing. :o
http://www.rbr.com/radio/ENGINEERING/94/27557.html
First thing i would do is piss right off the edge.
***UPDATED: LINK NOW WORKS***
NOOOOOOOOOO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!:o:o:o:o
Really interesting vid :up:
.
Day-um.
I have no trouble on a mountain, but watching that made me woozie. Imagine the down-climb...
Ducimus
09-16-10, 10:18 PM
Heh, and i thought being a 115 feet in a aerial lift all day was scary.
But this?
Oh hell no. My hands are sweating just looking at this video, and getting that sickly butterfly feeling in my gut.
Hell no...
These...
http://www.ducimus.net/sh3/brassballs.jpg
The pair i have, is way too small for this kind of work. Anyone who does this work, has a pair of brass balls so large, it takes a 10 ton dump truck to move them around.
antikristuseke
09-16-10, 10:28 PM
**** that, I'll take mortar and machinegun fire over that any day of the week. Balls of steel indeed.
Now imagine reaching the top to realize you left your spanner behind...
easy money,not if you are afraid of heights :hmmm:
conus00
09-16-10, 10:54 PM
I used to skydive and I'm not particulary afraid of heights but that video put butterflies in my stomach. There is no way in hell I would get on that tower without rig on my back. On the other hand, with parachute.... hmm... I've always wanted to try BASE jumping.
You guys are a bunch of negative nancys. Those guys pull down 6 figures and only work maybe half the year.
Ducimus
09-16-10, 11:07 PM
You guys are a bunch of negative nancys. Those guys pull down 6 figures and only work maybe half the year.
Yeah, and would YOU climb up there? Be honest.
The thing that bugs me the most, is most of the time, your completely unattached. One slip, or lost grip, and you probably have 10 to 15 seconds to think about how badly you just F'ed up before you suffer a terminal case of decelleration trauma.
Noooooo thank you.....
Castout
09-16-10, 11:12 PM
Respect I can never do that :salute:
Can you imagine if it started raining when you're out in the open that would make slippery climbing up and down not to mention the cold. Just listening to the wind blowing at such height is already terrifying.
Dangerous business.
Yeah, and would YOU climb up there? Be honest.
The thing that bugs me the most, is most of the time, your completely unattached. One slip, or lost grip, and you probably have 10 to 15 seconds to think about how badly you just F'ed up before you suffer a terminal case of decelleration trauma.
Noooooo thank you.....
If I were a younger man you betcha. It's no more dangerous than being an Army Paratrooper... :DL
HunterICX
09-17-10, 03:45 AM
I'll stay on the ground, thank you
HunterICX
Castout
09-17-10, 03:54 AM
One slip, or lost grip, and you probably have 10 to 15 seconds to think about how badly you just F'ed up before you suffer a terminal case of decelleration trauma.
Noooooo thank you.....
What trauma they wouldn't be able to find what's left of you if you fell from such heights :haha:
There will be no terminal case of anything at all. If you slip, you slip on your life.
If you even make it to the ground alive, think there's been some studies that suggest that people falling from great heigths can die off the extreme fear/stress before the impact kills them. :hmmm:
GoldenRivet
09-17-10, 07:39 AM
then again there are stories of people surviving free falls from heights which make 1700 ft look like a small ledge.
then again there are stories of people surviving free falls from heights which make 1700 ft look like a small ledge.
Lots of those stories are documented on this website
http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html
Alan Magee, a gunner on a B-17 with the 303rd Bomb Group of the U.S. 8th Air Force, was on a mission to St. Nazaire, France in January of 1943, when his bomber was set aflame by enemy fire. He was thrown from the plane before he had a chance to put on his parachute. He fell 20,000 feet and crashed onto* the skylight of the St. Nazaire train station. His arm was badly injured, but he recovered from that and other injuries.
Tribesman
09-17-10, 10:06 AM
What is the rate of heart attacks in the industry?
then again there are stories of people surviving free falls from heights which make 1700 ft look like a small ledge.
True, IIRC the highest one is 11km or something like that. Stewardess blown out of an exploding plane, survived with some bruising and few broken bones. :doh: (Think that was in Guinness World Record 200something)
Looks an interesting place to base jump from....but yes, sod doing that. A parajump out of the back of a plane, I'd consider that yes, but not going up that, no thanks. Standing on the platform at the top of Dungeness lighthouse was bad enough (it really felt like you could touch the sky :doh:) and that's a pebble compared to that monster.
Fincuan
09-17-10, 10:36 AM
That'd be my kind of work :yeah:
Nice, solid foot and hand holds all the way and you even get paid for it!
SteamWake
09-17-10, 10:45 AM
Saw this video over at QRZ.com the other day. Gives me the willies.
My freinds father was a climber for commercial towers. He passed away when a tower he was climing, reletavly short at around 100 feet failed and the safety tether pulled him down with the failed section and it landed on top of him.
:oops:
TLAM Strike
09-17-10, 10:50 AM
My granddad had to climb up 200-300 foot radio towers in the Arctic while he was in the Air Force (he worked on the DEW Line).
Me on the other hand gets scared out of my mind climbing a ladder on to the roof of my 1 story home... :haha:
My granddad had to climb up 200-300 foot radio towers in the Arctic while he was in the Air Force (he worked on the DEW Line).
The wind chill on a 200ft tower in the Arctic must be quite something!
Ducimus
09-17-10, 11:33 AM
If I were a younger man you betcha. It's no more dangerous than being an Army Paratrooper... :DL
I don't think you've thought this all the way through. These guys don't have parachutes. Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, is probably safer than this. :har:
antikristuseke
09-17-10, 11:35 AM
Looks an interesting place to base jump from....but yes, sod doing that. A parajump out of the back of a plane, I'd consider that yes, but not going up that, no thanks. Standing on the platform at the top of Dungeness lighthouse was bad enough (it really felt like you could touch the sky :doh:) and that's a pebble compared to that monster.
Lighthouses arent a problem for me, those are usually solid looking, and feeling, structures. Steel tower like that one, though, are more akin to being on a swingset. Then again, I enjoy being out on the sea in a storm so I guess logic doesnt really apply as to why I find this scary.
Edit: Speaking of awesome lighthouses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7RSryuJAwE
I don't think you've thought this all the way through. These guys don't have parachutes. Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, is probably safer than this. :har:
Parachutes still have to open to work, there there is that little issue with AA fire and hot DZ's.
Actually though tower climbing doesn't even make it into the top 20 dangerous jobs. That puts it behind policeman, fireman, fisherman, and linesman.
Tchocky
09-17-10, 12:14 PM
Oy, now there's a commute :/
I'm bad enough cleaning gutters.
nikimcbee
09-17-10, 12:38 PM
Hell no. Too acrophobic. That made me dizzy just watching it.:doh:
"Now we've reached the base of the antenna, from here it's just another 60 feet to the top."
:dead:
better you than me...
peoples are made to be in direct contact with terra firma - unpleasant and often squishy things happen when this contact is lost for more than a few seconds. Serial!
XabbaRus
09-17-10, 01:30 PM
Glad I wasn't the only one feeling a little queasy.
I'm not afraid of heights per se, but when I go up high like a tower I hate going near the edge, even on an 8th floor balcony. I think it is the fear I can go over the edge.
Very strange.
Ducimus
09-17-10, 01:40 PM
Parachutes still have to open to work, there there is that little issue with AA fire and hot DZ's.
Actually though tower climbing doesn't even make it into the top 20 dangerous jobs. That puts it behind policeman, fireman, fisherman, and linesman.
Ok, I give up. Your not going to be honest and admit you wouldn't climb up that. You can keep tap dancing about "whos more dangerous" and "when i was younger", but as we sit here, living and breathing, id bet my last dollar you would NOT climb up there. Of course, you'd never have to prove it, so you can pretty much say whatever you want, but i'm pretty sure we both know better. :haha:
TLAM Strike
09-17-10, 01:42 PM
The wind chill on a 200ft tower in the Arctic must be quite something!
Yep, he lost a big toe to frost bite up there. :03:
Ok, I give up. Your not going to be honest and admit you wouldn't climb up that. You can keep tap dancing about "whos more dangerous" and "when i was younger", but as we sit here, living and breathing, id bet my last dollar you would NOT climb up there. Of course, you'd never have to prove it, so you can pretty much say whatever you want, but i'm pretty sure we both know better. :haha:
Believe what you want. Just remember that just because you are chicken doesn't mean everyone else is.
If I were in better physical condition, going up would be a shot I might take...but...just bugger having to go back down again...just...no. You'd have to get a hot air balloon or something to pick me up. Not a helo though...I don't fancy getting zapped...
Lighthouses arent a problem for me, those are usually solid looking, and feeling, structures. Steel tower like that one, though, are more akin to being on a swingset. Then again, I enjoy being out on the sea in a storm so I guess logic doesnt really apply as to why I find this scary.
Edit: Speaking of awesome lighthouses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7RSryuJAwE
Whoa! That is awesome. I thought our winter storms were bad but...no...
This is about as rough as it gets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCYADeobHaI
(Taken on the local beach)
Reminds me of a photograph that my old Doctor used to have on his wall, it was of the base of the Needles lighthouse off the Isle of Wight with a large wave crashing over it...beautiful.
What I'd love to do, although I have to be honest and admit that although I say it, if actually confronted with it, I don't honestly know how I would react...but I would love to do a paradrop from a C-47. Just to get an idea of what those brave and wonderful men went through on the prelude to D-day and Market Garden.
Oh, and sadly it looks like the original video has been taken down. :damn:
Sailor Steve
09-17-10, 05:07 PM
Yeah, I just got here and can't watch it.
On the other hand, when I was twenty and just back fro Vietnam my destroyer as in a floating drydock. Our Chief Radioman took me on a climb up the ladder to test the antennae on the main mast. I held the leads while he cranked the hand-powered generator, and the aluminum mast wobbled back and forth 200+ feet above the bottom of the drydock.
Then I thought it was pretty cool. Now I don't like going up a ladder to the roof of a house.
Sammi79
09-17-10, 05:32 PM
I would definitely give that a go, though maybe a safety line (for the first few goes at least) wouldn't go amiss. Wind and condensation sprang to my mind immediately and watching the video gave me vertigo which I don't get when I work at height - still I can't honestly predict what I'd experience at 1700 feet. You could just use a retractable steel line attached to the top of the various (3 I think) parts of the climb, or a Grigri on a rope. Steel could be made weather-proof as a permanent fixture though. Either way it don't waste no time clipping and unclipping on your way up. I was holding on to my chair just watching him on the external part. If he was working with the guys I work with, one of them would have been shaking the mast at the bottom for added enjoyment. The view would be worth it I think.
the aluminum mast wobbled back and forth 200+ feet above the bottom of the drydock.
Funny thing about aluminium is its tendancy to fail suddenly when under tortion that exceeds its capacity to withstand... steel will bend and creak and groan for a good while before it fails, whereas aluminium will SNAP suddenly. :o
Ducimus
09-17-10, 05:59 PM
Believe what you want. Just remember that just because you are chicken doesn't mean everyone else is.
Hokkay dokey...., but I don't subscribe to your magazine. :har:
http://globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/internet-tough-guy-magazine.gif
If he was working with the guys I work with, one of them would have been shaking the mast at the bottom for added enjoyment.
The bastards :O:
antikristuseke
09-17-10, 07:06 PM
If it was the people I work with, they would be hanging on to the toolbag and would expect me to drag their sorry asses to the top while constantly asking "are we there yet?"
Freiwillige
09-17-10, 07:12 PM
I found it again.
http://video.yahoo.com/network/101149635?v=8244494&l=5144241
Pretty nutz how they climb all over the outside of that thing with little safety equipment in strong winds. Ill pass!
krashkart
09-17-10, 07:32 PM
Watching or thinking about that kind of climbing gets the palms a little sweaty. I'm usually OK with a climb as long as I'm not thinking about the inevitable, so maybe a tower ascent wouldn't be much different for me. Only one way to find out... but damned if I have the gumption to change careers just to see if I've enough courage to change lightbulbs on an over-glorified whip antenna. :)
@Sammi79 - My eldest uncle is just one of those guys that would make your climb more entertaining... for him, at least. I don't ride cable cars with him anymore. :har:
@August - Is that a younger you in your avatar?
EDIT - So, if the pay is a buck per foot and you climb a 1,000 ft. tower.... hey, maybe I should change careers! :D
GoldenRivet
09-17-10, 08:45 PM
I have attached a link to a working video in the original thread and here:
http://www.rbr.com/radio/ENGINEERING/94/27557.html
krashkart
09-17-10, 08:55 PM
Thanks, GoldenRivet. My palms are now properly slick with sweat. :up:
The worst part of watching is having no tactile sense of the object he's climbing. :)
Sailor Steve
09-17-10, 11:25 PM
Okay, so they take an elevator to the 1600-foot level and really only have to climb 168 feet. Hey, no problem!
:rotfl2: RIIIIGHT! :dead:
It takes someone with no fear - and no brains - to do a job like that. Better men than I.
antikristuseke
09-17-10, 11:30 PM
Your criteria for a better man than you are a bit strange
krashkart
09-17-10, 11:30 PM
The balancing act at the end there... http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=258&pictureid=2284 Would I be draining my boots after that? :hmmm:
Or a one night stand :roll:
Ok, I give up. Your not going to be honest and admit you wouldn't climb up that. You can keep tap dancing about "whos more dangerous" and "when i was younger", but as we sit here, living and breathing, id bet my last dollar you would NOT climb up there. Of course, you'd never have to prove it, so you can pretty much say whatever you want, but i'm pretty sure we both know better. :haha:
This. :DL
krashkart
09-18-10, 05:44 AM
Or a one night stand :roll:
Vendor! I thought we were gonna keep that a secret. :O:
Vendor! I thought we were gonna keep that a secret. :O: :haha:
Sailor Steve
09-18-10, 10:32 AM
Your criteria for a better man than you are a bit strange
Better at doing that, anyway.
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