Man Climbs 1,500 Foot Tower to Change a Lightbulb

originally posted by: eisegesis
If you havn't seen this yet, grab the waste pail and put on your seatbelt!

Watching that had the same effect on me as diving in really cold water.

I think I could do the tower but this one, Nu uh...no way!!!! Not even with a parachute.

The view looks like it makes the climbing worth it though, haha.

Still, i probably wouldn't do it.

Hell no.........My knees started to get weak as if I was doing the climbing. Fear of heights? He'll ya..
Really??? Did he just take a selfie at 1500 feet above ground. Damn son!!!!

originally posted by: eisegesis
This guy is nuts! I wonder how much he pays for life insurance? You couldn't get me to do that unless there was a big enough pile of money able to break my fall at the bottom. Even then I would probably wuss out.

I bet he gets paid minimum wage haha. I'm just joking, I bet it would have to be a bit more.

It's a mast not a tower.

If it has supporting cables it is a mast and NOT a tower!

a reply to: darkbake

I bet he gets paid minimum wage haha. I'm just joking, I bet it would have to be a bit more.

This man would most likely be part of a company that specialises in this kind of thing . The owners of these towers generally speaking would not have enough work to employ specialist gangs . This climb may have been weeks in the making , waiting for the weather especially , no wind , no thunderstorms , no rain , with at least a 12 hour window . That being said if he is on a comparable rate to what i am in Australia he would make 90-100 thousand a year . I no longer work for a company that does this type of work so his salary may be quite a bit more . Given also that they may work in places like the middle east where money isn't a problem then his salary just explodes .

Note . You think this man is brave . Someone had to build these things .

a reply to: eisegesis

Answer: one hallawa courageous man.

Question: how many men are needed to change a lightbulb on top of a 1600 ft tower?

For 12 years, I worked in the construction of cellular towers. One time, I was asked to climb a 1,500 ft tower. The antenna at the top was hit by lighting and was no longer working. My job was to take pictures of the bolt pattern that attached the antenna to the tower and to take measurements. It was a beautiful view.

It definitely takes a special kind of nerve to do this kind of work. I got over my fear of heights in the military. I went through a lot of rock climbing and repelling training. SPIE rigging is one of many things I did. Here is SPIE rigging video.

m.youtube.com...

Weather definitely plays a big role when building towers, and I was constantly playing the weather guessing game. I could watch a storm out in the horizon and tell you if it was going to pass by or should we get off of the tower. You don't want to be climbing around on wet steel, it gets very slick. One time the wind was blowing around 30 mph and this "project manager" just had to have these cellular antennas put on the tower, and even after I told him it was to dangerous, he insisted we give it a try. Half way up a 300 ft tower, the antenna was flying around like a wild kite out of conltol, banging around on the tower. By the time we got it to the ground it was heavily damaged. I laughed and laughed. I have a lot of stories like this.

Like one poster already mentioned, always take more than one light bulb, and don't climb 300 ft before you realize you dont have your screwdriver.

I can probably answer a lot of questions, feel free to ask.

Pladuim

funny...normally, those videos make every muscle in my body weak, but since this was filmed with a drone and not a self-mounted GoPro, it didn't both me that bad.

Still wouldn't do that job...no way in hell.

I guess this story is better than the one about the guy who climbed 1500 feet to change a light bulb only to realize he left it in the trunk......