We Never Know What's Going To Fly In

This morning we had a helicopter land outside our hangar. The weather's been so stormy lately that the helicopter pilot needed a place out of the rain, thunder, and lightning to have some maintenance done. Actually, he and his mechanic are down in the hangar swapping out the helicopter's engine as I type this blog. While we don't work on helicopters, we were very happy to offer space for them to make their repairs.

But this just isn't any helicopter. It is a Hughes 500 used by a company to keep the trees trimmed back from their high-tension power lines. I bet you've never thought about how all those tree-lined power lines stay tree-free. Well this little helicopter (and others like it) are one of the reasons. So does the pilot trim trees with one hand while flying with the other? Nope.

They hang a giant, and I mean giant chainsaw on a long steel cable beneath the helicopter and fly right along the trees chopping as they go. Pretty wild eh?

A word of advice: when you're hiking in the woods and come to a clearing with high-tension power lines...listen for helicopters and look both ways before crossing!