It may have been another day in the office for Heliventures owner and pilot Craig McMillan yesterday but his office was in the air and involved threading the needle.
A McDonnell Douglas 520m Notar helicopter is being used to string a 19.5km line in the Awarua network project in Invercargill to allow the transmission of increased volumes of power to a rapidly developing industrial area.
Mr McMillan said it was a very challenging job for the Oamaru-based company.
When asked what the key to it was, he said just practice.
"We've been doing it for a long time — for about 10 years — one of those things we've sort of developed as time's gone on. And we're working with the Network Waitaki crew as well," he said.
They had "worked together all over New Zealand doing that work with them".
He said yesterday was pretty straightforward with only a few hundred metres of line connected.
"I guess it gets your brain thinking doing it, but it is definitely a lot better and safer than carrying a drum."
"Every job's a little different, but we worked out of Macraes and we did a job up north in Kerikeri a couple of winters ago with Network Waitaki as well."
The helicopter was 50% quieter than other helicopters.
The line build work started in February and there were 191 poles in the ground. Power would be switched on sometime next month but full load would not be reached until January.
The project has been driven by industrial users decarbonising their power from coal to electricity. — Allied Media
