Use of helicopters for constructing and maintaining the electrical grid has been on the rise for more than a decade. Now, so is helicopter safety, thanks to Ron Stewart, director of helicopter operations for Wilson Utility Helicopters, a division of Wilson Construction Co., Canby, Ore., and other line industry members.

“Over the last 10 years, our business has more than doubled,” Stewart said. “We started with six helicopters in 2008 and added 10 helicopters in 2022.” 

Wilson Utility Helicopters employs in-house pilots who work with lineworkers, apprentices and groundhands throughout the country.

Helicopters can be used to support construction and repair of transmission and distribution systems, as well as aerial assessment through LIDAR scanning, photography, visual inspection, installation of monitoring and reset technologies, and fiber optic cable for communications companies. An aging grid, demand for capacity,
wildfires and lack of ground access are fueling reliance on helicopters.

“Our power grid runs through massive variations in terrain,” Stewart said, adding that many access roads have closed due to lack of maintenance.

Building new roads is costly. Trimming away vegetation and hauling in necessary equipment involves a variety of risks. 

Riding below a helicopter in a harness or on a skid and being placed on a pole or tower poses risks and requires a lot of coordination, he said, “but with the right training, those risks become manageable.”

Ground-related risks decrease and the actual work of line construction and maintenance proceeds more quickly and with less environmental impact, according to industry experts, including NECA CEO David Long, who considers the use of helicopters an industry “game changer.”

Wilson Construction regards helicopter use “as a tool enabling us to tackle transmission and distribution work with greater efficiency,” Stewart said.

New training initiatives

Success depends on training that didn’t previously exist.

Stewart worked with the Helicopter Association International, now known as Vertical Aviation International, Alexandria, Va., chairing the Utilities, Patrol and Construction Working Group to develop the UPAC Safety Guide for Helicopter Operators, published in 2020. The publication covers best practices and considerations for helicopter pilots operating in the electric utility environment.

Stewart also has collaborated closely with Jules Weaver, executive director of the NECA Western Line Constructors Chapter, and Neil Tolson, executive director of the Electrical Industry Certifications Association (EICA), to develop free online training courses to prepare lineworkers, apprentices and groundhands for working safely around helicopters.

Their goal has been to create eight hours of training to address safety, communication with pilots, emergency procedures, landing zone, rigging and human performance. 

The first course rolled out on EICA’s Safety Wallet platform last April and addresses the basics of safely approaching helicopters, understanding the landing zone and communicating effectively with pilots. By mid-August, more than 500 people had completed the course. 

EICA expects to introduce two more online helicopter safety courses for lineworkers before the end of 2024. These will cover human external cargo and rigging. The certificate of completion will automatically upload to an individual’s Safety Wallet profile.

The courses were inspired by a 2013 collective bargaining agreement requirement initiated by NECA in Riverside, Calif., and IBEW locals 1245 and 47. The requirement for apprentices and journeymen to complete eight hours of helicopter safety training resulted from “lessons learned the hard way” as lineworkers first began working around helicopters, Stewart said. 

“This online training gives us a standardized platform for companies everywhere to work safely with helicopters in the power transmission environment,” Stewart said. “It ensures that linemen have some degree of basic safety knowledge. But we want to stress, it’s also important for every helicopter operator to present their own safety instructions to lineworkers before starting any job.”

“These courses are taking that rudimentary safety knowledge to a nationwide level,” Tolson said. “The training is critical for linemen, apprentices and groundmen, but also management. It’s all about understanding and assessing the risks.” 

EICA also plans to introduce video courses in 2025 to prepare helicopter pilots to work in the wire environment, and to understand line industry terminology, electrical theory and bonding.

Header image courtesy of Wilson Construction Co.