I have never seen an old wind turbine tower fail like this, in fact they almost never fail until they are messed with. This one makes no sense, the only thing I can think is at some point in the past they rigged a tractor to the top and tried to pull it down, and then gave up. No way would aero forces on the water pumper (no doubt) account for the fail, by a factor of 10 or 20 the tower would be stronger then the aero push.....regardless, it was a good excuse to land and check it out up close.

Hate to rain on your parade CG, I've known many a windmill tower to fail..had one fail on our pasture land. Think wind and ice. Same with big transmission lines and trees with leaves..lots of weight.
HC

Is that windmill in Wyoming or Nebraska?

Cool picture, nonetheless.

I've seen a few radio towers fall from ice, wind, earthquakes, and a bunny-hugger with a cresent wrench. That looks llike it took on a lot of ice in a freezing-rain storm.

maybe it melted last summer...

Got ya Hi Country, I actually have seen some laid down ones, usually when the foundation fails in some fashion. But to fail up toward the top? Never seen one like this, but upon further thought, I bet what happened is that the old water pumper fell into disrepair and got way out of balance.....and when the next big storm came along the rotor blew and went into the tower. That would account for it failing where it did, up that high. I guess my first thought was the bare tower failed, highly unlikely with no surface area to speak of. No doubt the mill failed first and then took the tower out. I really enjoy looking at failed structures of any types and trying to figure out what happened. Ones I can land by get special attention

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Looks like another subject for ski pilot retirement home.

I'd bet icing. We installed mountain top radio repeaters, with long external antennas. They were side mounted alongside a metal tower, at the insistence of the radio guy we worked with. He then tied a piece of rope between the antenna about mid height, and the adjacent tower, just so that the rope was taught, but no strain. I asked what that was about, and he responded Icing....the antenna will ice up, and then as it blows, it'll work against that rope, which will cause it to jerk as it hits the end of the rope, and being fiberglass, the ice will shed off. Later, the BLM radio experts took over our service contract, and they removed the rope and jacked the antennas up to the top of the tower. First winter the antennas were all gone....iced up. Went up to one of them mid winter, and it was a huge block of ice, laying on the ground.

I'll bet that aeromotor, even if it was folded up, got a huge load of ice, then failed in a wind.

MTV

I'd bet on ice too.

I've seen one within an hour after the fact. Looked a bit like this one, just not as bad.

We had been remarking beforehand at just how the angle steel frame was flexing/rotating from the vibration, and it likely failed from fatigue/buckling sometime after we went inside. It was a rare ice storm in Montana. It probably happened in a flash. It was running the water tank heaters...they froze solid.

Dan! Title got me all excited. Though it was one of those piece of shit propaganda turbines that are cranking out sooo much green energy for us at the expense of tax dollars, wasting good land, and killing good flying. Can't wait till all those ugly monstrosities get knocked down, blown down or destroyed by something that uses lots of oil and gas. Yet another scam the govt has pulled off on the American sheeple.
Buts it not. Just a broken windmill.

That windmill might just need a Viagra

55wagon wrote:Dan! Title got me all excited. Though it was one of those piece of shit propaganda turbines that are cranking out sooo much green energy for us at the expense of tax dollars, wasting good land, and killing good flying. Can't wait till all those ugly monstrosities get knocked down, blown down or destroyed by something that uses lots of oil and gas. Yet another scam the govt has pulled off on the American sheeple.
Buts it not. Just a broken windmill.

Setting aside the issues of government subsidies and the utilities being forced to buy the power when they may not even need it at the time.... the local farmers in my area who are getting big checks every month for their leased land, while continuing to graze their cattle on the land as usual, are pretty happy campers. As are the local car dealers they are buying new pickups from, etc. etc. Plus steady fairly high paying jobs, using locals, for the maintenance crews. When they were building the farm, the local area boomed with all the construction help, temporary though it was. Point being, around here they have proven to be not so bad. If someone thinks they look ugly, the land leaser is sure to have a different point of view.

The worse thing that has effected me is the anometer 100' towers, galvanized and damn hard to see, I learned my lesson on those last year and now have only the drones to worry about.

Some benefit. Some suffer. The money the land owners get is pennies compared to the big picture. About 5k a yr per turbine. Many places they already having a hard time getting their money. Lots of promises and hot air in to get in. When you look at the billions of tax dollars spent on these inefficient dinosaurs the numbers don't add up. Period. Wed be better off paying the land owners the $ and not putting anything there if that's all we're worried about. As w most anything, if the govt has to subsidize it, it's not a good business. If there's money to be made, someone will do it. Capitalism I know is becoming a less popular view but that's how it works. If you dig into the green energy scam and educate, instead of just believing what's heard, lots of views change. I live with and work in these things. Farmers are pissed about them. Of course the ones benefiting a little financially now will overlook the big picture. I went into with an opened mind. Got educated. Now seeing them makes me mad. I would assume anybody in the banking industry or auto industry didn't think the bailouts where a bad idea. I disagree with that a 100% to. That's how our country became what it was. You make, you don't. Next guy gets a shot to do it better, cheaper, more efficient. All the windmills do is blow smoke up people's asses, make em feel warm cause were saving the world and make people behind the scenes mega rich off our money and ignorance. Some facts from the windmill guys themselves here. Off the record discussions. They're life span and payout are the same. They can produce 1.5% of issuable energy. Of that .5 is lost in infrastructure, .5% is used within itself (turning,braking,ect). .5% useable at An astronomical price when rate it out at what they cost to put in. Meanwhile we've got so much natural gas they're releasing it into the atmosphere because they any use it. This will prob get moved to hot air. Which is what I'm full of I guess. Sorry for the hijack. I've learned not to trust anything the govt sticks there's nose in. Although everything they take over or get into they do better and watch out for our best interest. It's never about the $ power or control. And ya. Those met towers are a killer! Should be illegal as well. No lights, balls, paint, nothing! Almost invisible.