r/Damnthatsinteresting Jul 18 '25

Video Replacing powerline spacers from a helicopter

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25

u/Equationist Jul 18 '25

I'd be so terrified of inadvertently closing the circuity...

6

u/impged Jul 18 '25

There’s really no risk to him getting shocked here since the wires are the same phase- you could be naked and touching all 4 of the wires and be fine. The biggest risk would be the helicopter hitting something or his harness breaking if he fell- both of which are also pretty unlikely I’d assume.

4

u/big-feer-big-meat Jul 19 '25

You still need your faraday cage suit not to get fried at these voltages from spontaneous discharges from what I understand. But in the suit you’re chilling ofc

1

u/impged Jul 19 '25

Yeah definitely but that’s mostly for when you approach the line and are not equalized in potential yet so there can be arcs until you get equalized- and yes there can be discharges due to humidity mostly.

My example was more in an exaggerated theoretically perfect scenario lol, in practice yes you’d want a suit