PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Recently I have seen more and more videos with people flying near high voltage power lines. My last job was working with the local electric company and one of the safety demonstrations sticks in my head to this day. There was the standard safety warnings about do's and don't near high tension lines as well as common sense practices. The thing that stood out the most is when they cooked a hot dog from the arch of lightning produced when the hot dog was too close to the wire. the video demonstration I posted was not as high voltage as I got to witness as the instructor was pulling a 25 - 30 foot arc from the line with a hot dog on an insulated pole.
These wires over head are usually covered but with squirrels crawling all over them and birds sitting on them these coverings can be breached. It only takes a pin hole in these to allow the electricity to jump from them to anything within range or touching the exposed area.
Should you get near one of these exposed areas or happen to hit a wire and puncture that coating your gear just got fried. That normally wouldn't cause people to stop and think anything more then my quad got zapped and died. The thing is you have a lipo strapped to it which just became a bomb should that power transfer from the lines to your quad. The nightmare scenario is if the lipo explodes with enough force to snap one of them lines ( not to mention the ensuing fireball flying thru the air) Now there is a live high voltage line flopping around becoming a serious hazard to health and safety of everything around them.
Not trying to be the nanny here just a word of caution to those who may not know the potential for really bad things to happen. Here is a video of a few examples just how powerful those lines are and how fast they can become a problem.
Please do not fly your aircraft near these things at all to be sure you never have to go thru an accident with them.
These wires over head are usually covered but with squirrels crawling all over them and birds sitting on them these coverings can be breached. It only takes a pin hole in these to allow the electricity to jump from them to anything within range or touching the exposed area.
Should you get near one of these exposed areas or happen to hit a wire and puncture that coating your gear just got fried. That normally wouldn't cause people to stop and think anything more then my quad got zapped and died. The thing is you have a lipo strapped to it which just became a bomb should that power transfer from the lines to your quad. The nightmare scenario is if the lipo explodes with enough force to snap one of them lines ( not to mention the ensuing fireball flying thru the air) Now there is a live high voltage line flopping around becoming a serious hazard to health and safety of everything around them.
Not trying to be the nanny here just a word of caution to those who may not know the potential for really bad things to happen. Here is a video of a few examples just how powerful those lines are and how fast they can become a problem.
Please do not fly your aircraft near these things at all to be sure you never have to go thru an accident with them.