VERTICAL REF
Senior
- Mar 10, 2003
- 311
- 0
Hey CTD, not to drag up an old topic, but too busy to reply any earlier!
With regards to the "bags" vs "drills" thing though, a few points...
You can move bags for years and never leave the flats of sask. or ab. This cannot be said for drills. All the flats are drilled by buggies or tracks or LIS drills unless they are using shakers / vibs. Due to the cost of heli's you only work in the slopes or rocks.
With bags you can vary your load to reflect your aircrafts performance, daily enviromental conditions and pilot skill level. Not so with drills...they start the job at that weight and stay that way!
When you are laying out bags you are miles from any ground crew. While setting a drill into a dropzone you have the coordinator/front end/driller standing there trying to catch the 3000 lb. anvil you are trying to squish him with! Then we throw the 3000 lb. compressor in along side, without ripping off hoses or puncturing rads or oil pans! or "grill cheesing" the poor bastard!
The average drill and compressor are valued at 50k each, the average bag now at about 10K!
I have seen lots of low time guys moving bags but never moving drills. Swinging bags is usually the predecessor for moving drills!
You have done both so you know the gig! Not black magic but definate more skill involved. Kinda like driving a motorcycle on dry pavement on ottawa, and driving one thru a snow storm in the mountains
...same thing but a little different!
Destiny, the good old days...eh?
Take care my friend!
With regards to the "bags" vs "drills" thing though, a few points...
You can move bags for years and never leave the flats of sask. or ab. This cannot be said for drills. All the flats are drilled by buggies or tracks or LIS drills unless they are using shakers / vibs. Due to the cost of heli's you only work in the slopes or rocks.
With bags you can vary your load to reflect your aircrafts performance, daily enviromental conditions and pilot skill level. Not so with drills...they start the job at that weight and stay that way!
When you are laying out bags you are miles from any ground crew. While setting a drill into a dropzone you have the coordinator/front end/driller standing there trying to catch the 3000 lb. anvil you are trying to squish him with! Then we throw the 3000 lb. compressor in along side, without ripping off hoses or puncturing rads or oil pans! or "grill cheesing" the poor bastard!
The average drill and compressor are valued at 50k each, the average bag now at about 10K!
I have seen lots of low time guys moving bags but never moving drills. Swinging bags is usually the predecessor for moving drills!
You have done both so you know the gig! Not black magic but definate more skill involved. Kinda like driving a motorcycle on dry pavement on ottawa, and driving one thru a snow storm in the mountains
...same thing but a little different! Destiny, the good old days...eh?
Take care my friend!
