TomD wrote: ... I have flown this route tens of times but normally at altitude that puts me over the high tension lines running from the dam down to the Puget Sound area. ....

What is with this power line dream deal. I had dreams of trying to land in the city between all the power lines that crossed the street.

contactflying wrote:If wing is not level, cutters are not an issue.

MountainFlyerN22 wrote:

contactflying wrote:If wing is not level, cutters are not an issue.

Just not sure I understand. So the wings would cut the wires?
That doesn't make much sense in my head. Seems if the wing was level it would pass between the wires. If your banked then the wing is more likely to catch a wire I would think.

iPat wrote:33-year old - and still pertinent - advice from the helicopter folks:

https://robinsonheli.com/wp-content/upl ... c_sn16.pdf

Fly safely!

Cary wrote:Once in awhile I'll have a nightmare of flying into multiple power lines, with no way to go up or down to miss them. I don't know why the dream, because so far, I've never been surprised by power lines. I've flown purposely pretty close to ones I knew were there, though, and usually I've known about them because of watching for poles, or because I knew of them in advance.

For instance, there used to be wires strung before the approach end to 21 at Laramie, the typical 40' AGL type. I tried really hard when I chaired the airport board there to get them buried, but the best I could get done was to have orange balls attached to them. I haven't noticed whether the wires are still there. Over several years, we had a number of airplanes hit them, although no tragedies happened. One that I recall was a Baron that actually flew not quite low enough below them at night, sawing off the top few inches of the tail. The wires snapped, cutting power to the airport. I was told that he came into the FSS, fuming and accusing the FSS specialist of shutting off the runway lights just as he was landing.

Seeing wires is really, really difficult. I think I realized how difficult when I took an intro seaplane lesson some years ago in BC. One of the places I landed was at a cove (Montague Harbor) which requires flying under wires at 100' AGL/MSL, both coming in and going out--the wires are at 200' AGL/MSL. The poles are the big Erector set type, so they're really visible. The wires themselves, although they must be pretty thick because of the span, are almost impossible to see.

Another thing that is pretty visible when less obvious poles are used is the swath removed from the vegetation when the wires are strung. It usually runs pretty straight along the path of the wires and is pretty obvious from above. That justifies reconnoitering at some altitude before dropping down.

Although perhaps not as well known as Sparky Imeson, another experienced mountain/back country flyer and author, Fletcher Anderson, died in a wire strike incident, flying a CAP 182 low along the Snake River in 2005. So even experts who supposedly know the territory aren't immune. As the sergeant in Hill Street Blues used to say at the beginning of each show, "Let's be careful out there!"

Cary