I was the pilot that was sent in to finish the job in Indiana, This was a really tough situation to deal with, I knew of him, not really knowing him. He really didn’t have the experience to be doing the needle in high wind conditions. 1st mistake.
2nd mistake: when you watch the video you see him come over top of the tower with the helicopter, then come down and try to pull more wire to go under the bridge with the needle and catch off. You MUST pull past the tower about 60-70 feet and then slack back so you aren’t fighting for slack AND trying to attach under the bridge at the same time. You’ll notice he’s struggling to get the needle attached due to the tension pulling the needle straight to almost up on the back side. No Buano. You need about 30 degrees down side angle to attach the bridge on the other side.
This is basically sewing with a metal needle thru the center of the tower. Once he pins the needle under the bridge he moves the grapple hook to the other side of the bridge and pulls it thru catches off again and hooks it in the center loop ; ring again.
Puts the line in the traveler : block and goes to next tower, you’ve now threaded the pulling wire thru the tower for the center phase, this usually is done about 12 - 15 towers per pull of wire. Your limit is the length of the conductor and size of the wire.
When he snagged the front of the needle on the tower he pulled a massive amount of power IMO and lost TR effectiveness and also a airborne dynamic rollover [aft datum line] (center of gravity) loss.
He (possibly) could have SHOULD HAVE punched the line off and saved himself. Before the loop broke off the needle and he was in uncontrollable free fall spin, once the line wrapped in the rotors it was over. blades are separating, detaching immediately and now You’ve tied the swash plate that controls the pitch and angle of the blades and after 2-3 wraps (1.5 sec) the control tubes are crushed/bent. Game over.
