Please be advised that in one to one and a half weeks, weather permitting, Chesapeake Bay Helicopters will be mobilizing to the JCP&L Region and will begin performing Routine patrols on all JCPL 500kV, 230kV, 115kV lines.. These patrols are anticipated to take approximately two weeks to complete, but as always, work is strongly weather dependent and completion could be impeded by any post-storm or outage-related patrols that may occur. The helicopters to be used for these patrols are as follows:
- Black, Hughes MD500 with tail registration number N748CB – see photo
A routine visual patrol is a general inspection of the structures, conductors, and all associated hardware on the transmission line(s) where the onboard inspector is looking for any outstanding issues or immediate threats to the reliability of the transmission line(s). The helicopter may also be seen hovering and/or circling to get a closer look at any problems that may be found during these patrols.
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 provides information on their daily location to both Transmission Lines Maintenance, FE East/NJ Transmission Operations, and also any local airports when in their airspace.