Air Inspections for Illuminating Company Lines
Please be advised that Chesapeake Bay Helicopters has mobilized to The Illuminating Company region to begin performing comprehensive visual inspections (CVIs) on all Illuminating Company 138kV lines. These inspections are expected to take approximately five to six weeks to complete, however, any storm or outage-related patrols could prolong completion. The helicopter to be used is as follows:
- Black and silver, Hughes MD500 with red tail registration number N774CB – see photo
A comprehensive visual inspection (CVI) is a slow, structure-by-structure, span-by-span inspection where the inspector onboard the helicopter gets a thorough look from top to bottom of each structure, associated hardware, and conductors of the transmission line(s). The helicopter will be moving very slowly along each of the transmission lines and will often be seen hovering while carrying out these inspections.
It should be noted that the contractor has been authorized to patrol the transmission circuits in their entirety (i.e. “breaker-to-breaker”), so patrols on certain lines may therefore extend into the neighboring regions. The flight crew will provide information on their daily location to any local airports when in their airspace.
