We had crews when I worked for WUSF that would come out to change copper, bulbs and antennas on top of our towers. They didn't climb them like the guy in the first post did. One guy, however, would by hand and connect to tow motor to the tower. The tow motor was then used to carry each guy of the crew up the tower.
Had a skydiving buddy work his way through college painting towers. When he could get away with it, he would bring up his 'chute, and base jump when he finished the tower. I thought he was nuts.
Repairing an airport beacon was as high as I wanted to be outside a structure. ( flying is different )
His best story is when he and a fellow nut climbed a tower near Albany, stopped at the top for a breather and a beer, and as they prepared to jump, a Deputy pulled up in his car below, got out his bullhorn, and ordered them to "come down, right now!". So they did. ( "heck" he told me "trespassing is trespassing, we were busted if we jumped or not" ) They ended up giving the rest of their beer ( they only brought up one can each) to the Deputy to calm him down. He was in near hysterics, imagining his boss asking "you told them to jump?!?"
Anonymous
Posted on Monday, September 20, 2010 - 09:14 pm:
This is one of the very few times I'm glad my arm is so screwed up. "Yeah, I could climb that if my arm weren't so F'd up". Gives me a good excuse not to admit I'm a big puss.
Back in the day my good friend and I would imbibe the Diethylamides and strap on the rappelling gear... go down to the flood control, climb the big metal towers up to just below the bottom set of wires.
Had endless fun zipping down the lines into the darkness below. We'd put glow sticks on the ground so we could see just enough to stop ourselves before hitting the ground.
I was alright with the idea of climbing that thing in the first part when he was inside the cage. Then when he got outside the cage and kept climbing higher, I thought, well that's not so bad, he's just going a little bit higher to get to the work location.
And then he kept going...by the time he was shimmying up the little pole at the top, I felt my heartbeat a little elevated just from watching.
I think I'd have it in me to do that climb, but there would have to be a compelling reason. I don't think I'd be interested in doing that for fun at all!
Posted on Thursday, September 23, 2010 - 04:55 pm:
Not just no... but HELL NO!!! And this is why I stick to stick to satellite equipment. The highest I've had to go is about 200FT. You won't see a satellite dish that far off that ground unless it's the one attached to the satellite. lol
