Please be advised that, weather permitting, Chesapeake Bay Helicopters will be mobilizing to the Met-Ed region to begin performing UV/IR patrols on all Met-Ed 69kV and 115kV lines. These inspections are expected to take approximately one to two weeks to complete, however, any storm or outage-related patrols could prolong completion. The helicopter to be used is as follows:
Blue Bell 206 Jet Ranger w/tail registration number N719CB – see photo
A UV/IR patrol (also known as Infrared & Corona inspection) is a similar to a routine visual patrol in terms of patrol speed, but the onboard inspection crew is viewing the transmission line(s) through the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums through specialized cameras. The purpose of a UV/IR patrol is to detect any overheated transmission line components or arcing that isn’t otherwise visible to the naked eye.
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 Transmission Lines Maintenance, FE East Transmission Operations, and any local airports when in their airspace.
