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Comments on proposed AC regarding met tower marking.

lowflyin'G3

Registered User
Gooding, Idaho
This is more from my ag aviation background but I feel that this may be pertinant to some of you here as well.
The FAA is soliciting comments through February 4, 2011 regarding an AC regarding the prosposed "suggestion" of the marking of met towers. These are the little 196', single pole, guy wired structures that are very portable and nearly invisible. With the proliferation of wind energy west of the Mississippi these little guys are popping up all over on buttes and ridge tops. A real danger to those of us out working down low and even for those of you that end up out playing around in the middle of nowhere down low.
Our beef with the proposed AC is the "suggestion" to mark them. We would like to see an actual law or rule to manditorily mark every one of them. If you see fit use the link below to read through and make comments on this issue.
http://origin.www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-01-05/html/2010-33310.htm
And be careful out there playing, these things are INVISIBLE and we unfortunately had the first documented fatality of anyone, an aerial applicator, due to one of these towers just this week.
Thanks,
G-
 
I'll send comments... actually I'm seeing some that have orange balls on the guy wires near the top (amen)
 
Tower marking bill

Last legislative session in South Dakota, house bill 1155 concerning met towers marking passed and was signed by the governor.
I have a met tower in my neighborhood..and the marking has been completed already.
Its a BIG improvement....visibility is really enhanced...before..unless you knew it was there...it was very hard to see.
I think this bill had large approval in the legislature....so your state might be the same.
I read somewhere that the energy companies did balk on getting the towers shown on a database...something about proprietary information.
Be nice if they would appear on the GPS information bases..
http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2010/Bills/HB1155ENR.htm
 
Randy,
Thank you, I am aware of the SD ruling as I have spoken back and forth with the President of the SDAAA in the past on this issue. Unfortunately we did not get things done fast enough in Idaho so now our Division of Aeronautics is going to see what plays out with this advisory circular.
Please make a comment on your experiences with the two types of towers, marked and unmarked, and encourage them to make it mandatory.
G-
 
These things go up in one day and are near impossible to see, it looks like they are made out of 4" exhaust pipe in 24' length with a slip hub on one end and some 1/8" guide cables, just under the 200" rule, 4 years ago I'm doing my last 20 minutes of the day flying around thru the farmers fields and jumping the fence rows on my usual run that I have done a hundred time before ( I know all the cows by their first name ) and go home and land, next day I'm driving my truck past one of the fields a few miles away and notice what looks like a big vertical scratch on my windshield in front of me and suddenly my mind accepts the fact that a tower is in the field that I have flown thru at 20' a couple hundred time before. I don't know how I didn't hit it the evening before, even after you know where they are they are very hard to see, their balls on the wires would be better then my balls on the wires in my opinion.

Glenn
 
Thank you too Cubdriver2,
These are the stories the FAA needs to hear to help REQUIRE marking of these towers. I don't believe they think these are a hazard to GA pilots, I believe they can be. We've got one guy dead already because of them, let's help it to not happen again.
Thanks.
 
Something I brought up over at BCP in response to a comment about mapping. In Idaho ALONE there are between 400 and 600 of these up right now.
 
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