Pipeline Patrol—what exactly do they do?

RyanB

RyanB

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There’s a 172SP and an Airvan that flies low level around here all the time. I see them fly over and hear them on ATC frequently.

What exactly are they looking for or doing? Looks like Barr Air Patrol is the operator that does most of the flying around here. Seems like it would be a fun job.
 
They line pipes, or was it lay pipe. :popcorn:
 
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Ryanb said:
There’s a 172SP and an Airvan that flies low level around here all the time. I see them fly over and hear them on ATC frequently.

What exactly are they looking for or doing? Looks like Barr Air Patrol is the operator that does most of the flying around here. Seems like it would be a fun job.
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I owned acreage with an Embridge pipeline easement. They flew helicopters (you could practically set your watch to them). One time they were out working on the easement and I asked them once what they looked for. He said leaks, which it must either be: a) a large leak, or b) obvious, because the 'copter came by VERY fast.
 
Local pilot here flys powerline patrol under a contract with the Southern Co, Ga, Al, & Ms are his routes. Like 500' I think.
 
tawood said:
I owned acreage with an Embridge pipeline easement. They flew helicopters (you could practically set your watch to them). One time they were out working on the easement and I asked them once what they looked for. He said leaks, which it must either be: a) a large leak, or b) obvious, because the 'copter came by VERY fast.
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The leaks kill vegetation pretty quickly I think, they don't fly slow around here either! But, I don't think they have many leaks either!
 
tawood said:
I owned acreage with an Embridge pipeline easement. They flew helicopters (you could practically set your watch to them). One time they were out working on the easement and I asked them once what they looked for. He said leaks, which it must either be: a) a large leak, or b) obvious, because the 'copter came by VERY fast.
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They do. Makes me wonder how they even see anything worth looking at as fast as they zip by. Wings rocking left and right, >1000ft AGL I would guess. The other day I kept hearing a low flying single engine flying nearby and it eventually flew right over my head really quick.
 
tawood said:
I owned acreage with an Embridge pipeline easement. They flew helicopters (you could practically set your watch to them). One time they were out working on the easement and I asked them once what they looked for. He said leaks, which it must either be: a) a large leak, or b) obvious, because the 'copter came by VERY fast.
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The guys I know who have done it say that the leaks are usually pretty obvious. Not sure how big that makes the leak though.
 
Ryanb said:
They do. Makes me wonder how they even see anything worth looking at as fast as they zip by. Wings rocking left and right, >1000ft AGL I would guess. The other day I kept hearing a low flying single engine flying nearby and it eventually flew right over my head really quick.
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The guy I mentioned above has an observer that flys with him too.
 
frfly172 said:
They build time.
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Ha, a lot of them are older. Guy in Montgomery, Ed Long, has the Guiness record for most logged hours flown, up in the 60K mark. His logbooks are on display in a showcase inside the FBO at Dannelly airport in Montgomery. Passed away years ago but was flying patrol in a Super Cub well into his 80s.

Guy I mentioned above is in his early 60s.
 
Used to work the pipeline indistry (not a pilot though).

Yes they're looking for leaks, which do kill the vegetation and make rather obvious signatures but in most cases the monitoring equipment would sense a leak before they'd fly it.

They're also, mainly, looking for right of way encroachments. People digging on the right of way, trees growing up in it, repetitive riding of ATVs/ORVs on the right of ways cause erosion which could eventually expose the line, washouts/landslides, etc.
 
Todd82 said:
...People digging on the right of way...
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I once wanted to install a large drainage culvert across the Embridge pipeline. I called up Embridge, and told them what I wanted to do (this was before the big Embridge spill here in Michigan).
Embridge guy, "How deep you gonna dig?"
Me, "Four feet."
Embridge guy, "Ok, you using a backhoe?"
Me, "Yeah."
Embridge guy, "Ok, the pipe is 6 feet down, so stay within four feet and that's fine."
Me, "You're not sending anyone out or anything?"
Embridge guy, "No."
Me, "Ok, but what happens if I hit the pipe?"
Embridge guy, "You blow up your whole neighborhood."
Me, "I guess that's why you're not sending anyone out."
I actually was able to talk them in to sending someone out, but he waited in his pickup truck while I dug. Sometime later, they dug up their pipeline for repair, and it was actually probably more like 10-20 feet down.
 
I have heard that they look for circling turkey vultures since turkey vultures will often congregate around natural gas pipeline leaks, drawn by the smell of ethyl mercaptan.
 
tawood said:
I once wanted to install a large drainage culvert across the Embridge pipeline. I called up Embridge, and told them what I wanted to do (this was before the big Embridge spill here in Michigan).
Embridge guy, "How deep you gonna dig?"
Me, "Four feet."
Embridge guy, "Ok, you using a backhoe?"
Me, "Yeah."
Embridge guy, "Ok, the pipe is 6 feet down, so stay within four feet and that's fine."
Me, "You're not sending anyone out or anything?"
Embridge guy, "No."
Me, "Ok, but what happens if I hit the pipe?"
Embridge guy, "You blow up your whole neighborhood."
Me, "I guess that's why you're not sending anyone out."
I actually was able to talk them in to sending someone out, but he waited in his pickup truck while I dug. Sometime later, they dug up their pipeline for repair, and it was actually probably more like 10-20 feet down.
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Clearly it’s easier/cheaper to scare people into being careful (or deciding it isn’t worth it) by saying scary things and lying about depth to create a huge buffer than it is to send out staff to monitor every situatiom like that.
 
JScarry said:
I have heard that they look for circling turkey vultures since turkey vultures will often congregate around natural gas pipeline leaks, drawn by the smell of ethyl mercaptan.
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Most natural gas lines that are being patrolled are not residential. The oderant you mention (mercaptan) is added near the end user, not it the main and large distribution lines. Leaks do kill vegetation though.
 
They're here all the time. Idk where the pipelines are, but they are obviously somewhere. Hard to miss this lol
748se.jpg
 
ktup-flyer said:
They're here all the time. Idk where the pipelines are, but they are obviously somewhere. Hard to miss this lol
View attachment 66789
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I’ve never seen or heard of that type of aircraft and it has an IO-580 according to the registration, another engine I haven’t heard of.
 
Ryanb said:
I’ve never seen or heard of that type of aircraft and it has an IO-580 according to the registration, another engine I haven’t heard of.
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Yep, 315hp. They went out of business a few years ago
 
tawood said:
I once wanted to install a large drainage culvert across the Embridge pipeline. I called up Embridge, and told them what I wanted to do (this was before the big Embridge spill here in Michigan).
Embridge guy, "How deep you gonna dig?"
Me, "Four feet."
Embridge guy, "Ok, you using a backhoe?"
Me, "Yeah."
Embridge guy, "Ok, the pipe is 6 feet down, so stay within four feet and that's fine."
Me, "You're not sending anyone out or anything?"
Embridge guy, "No."
Me, "Ok, but what happens if I hit the pipe?"
Embridge guy, "You blow up your whole neighborhood."
Me, "I guess that's why you're not sending anyone out."
I actually was able to talk them in to sending someone out, but he waited in his pickup truck while I dug. Sometime later, they dug up their pipeline for repair, and it was actually probably more like 10-20 feet down.
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Kind of shocking and kind of not. The company I was with were very strict about digging, but they were liquid prodicts and were in pretty developed areas on the east coast. Some other operators were pretty lax back in the day compared to us, but the cost to pollute one waterway or drinking water source with product was astronomical compared to paying guys to babysit excavation.
 
ktup-flyer said:
They're here all the time. Idk where the pipelines are, but they are obviously somewhere. Hard to miss this lol
View attachment 66789
Click to expand...
When you're flying, and you see a cut through the woods just wide enough to land in, but it seems to go for miles and miles zigging and zagging all over... That's the pipeline.

And when you're driving down the road and see what looks like metal candy canes sticking out of the ground along the side of the road... Also the pipeline.
 
Todd82 said:
Used to work the pipeline indistry (not a pilot though).

Yes they're looking for leaks, which do kill the vegetation and make rather obvious signatures but in most cases the monitoring equipment would sense a leak before they'd fly it.

They're also, mainly, looking for right of way encroachments. People digging on the right of way, trees growing up in it, repetitive riding of ATVs/ORVs on the right of ways cause erosion which could eventually expose the line, washouts/landslides, etc.
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:yeahthat:

Yep. Looking for obvious signs of leaks, but also indications of activity along the line that could impact its integrity. A lot of pipelines in the Midwest here and they are flying them any day we are VFR.
 
One of the most prominent helicopter pipeline/powerline helicopter operators uses FLIR
 
2011 FOUND AIRCRAFT CANADA INC FBA-2C3.. what a weird name for a plane

Little Wikipedia sleuthing shows it was founded by Bud Found ... neat!
 
My brother flew an entire career as a pipeline pilot. I went on a couple of runs with him. He had 300 hours when he started and a little over 35000 hours when he stopped. He mainly flew Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Louisiana. He flew 150 and 172 to start and after that went through four 182RG's. He knew his lines so well that if someone changed the oil in their car on top of the line...he knew it. I was with him when he found a gas leak that was less than a foot across because the grass was a slightly different color than the surrounding area. His airplane was equipped with various devices for contacting his company, ATC and people on the ground via CB radio, loudspeakers etc. Flying low in slightly undulating terrain afforded him the ability to "sneak" up on unsuspecting people. He told me he popped over a small hill and kind of surprised a couple on a blanket in the middle of no where. His time over them and the way the terrain was, his time over them was less than a second or two and then he disappeared behind the hill. He said he just shook his head and circled the hill below the crest and did the run again....but this time as he popped back upon them (and he said they had continued their previous activities) he turned on his very LOUD siren and spoke with the voice of God as he passed them....sometimes you just have to have fun!
 
Ryanb said:
I’ve never seen or heard of that type of aircraft and it has an IO-580 according to the registration, another engine I haven’t heard of.
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Lycoming, low compression for Mogas, per Cessnas request for the relaunch 206. But the heads kept popping off them, so no more.

Paul
 
tawood said:
I once wanted to install a large drainage culvert across the Embridge pipeline. I called up Embridge, and told them what I wanted to do (this was before the big Embridge spill here in Michigan).
Embridge guy, "How deep you gonna dig?"
Me, "Four feet."
Embridge guy, "Ok, you using a backhoe?"
Me, "Yeah."
Embridge guy, "Ok, the pipe is 6 feet down, so stay within four feet and that's fine."
Me, "You're not sending anyone out or anything?"
Embridge guy, "No."
Me, "Ok, but what happens if I hit the pipe?"
Embridge guy, "You blow up your whole neighborhood."
Me, "I guess that's why you're not sending anyone out."
I actually was able to talk them in to sending someone out, but he waited in his pickup truck while I dug. Sometime later, they dug up their pipeline for repair, and it was actually probably more like 10-20 feet down.
Click to expand...

I think you mean Enbridge?

Paul
 
I did some work for a guy who flew helicopters on power lines and they used an infrared camera to look for hot spots. That seems far easier than looking for dripping oil on the bottom of a pipe at 100kts.
 
I would take one of those jobs in a heartbeat.

...one of the prerequisites for aerial firefighting pilots is lots of low level ops time. I have zero desire to be a flying bus driver but THAT is my dream job!
 
One of the co-owners of the flight school where I did my private training had done pipeline patrol to build hours when he was starting out. I believe he said he used the same C150 I was using for my private training. He echoed what's been said already, look for dying vegetation, look for people doing construction etc. He said it wasn't a bad way to build time. But he did say the only downside was that you were obligated to fly the line X times per week no matter what. He said because of that, he ended up doing a lot more scud running than he'd have liked.

No idea what it pays but I could see it being an ok job to build time for a year or two. Much longer than that I suspect that just like a lot of other flying jobs, it'd get to the point where it was just a job like any other boring repetitive job you could have. I know banner work certainly got that way for me. It wasn't fun, it wasn't interesting, it became just boring hour after hour of mundane low alt flight and me wondering what I was going to do with my life because I certainly wasn't going to be able to retire on what I making. Part of the reason I got out of the biz I suppose.
 
Shawn said:
I would take one of those jobs in a heartbeat.

...one of the prerequisites for aerial firefighting pilots is lots of low level ops time. I have zero desire to be a flying bus driver but THAT is my dream job!
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Funny thing I used to say the same thing. When presented with the opportunity I passed.
 
tawood said:
He said leaks, which it must either be: a) a large leak, or b) obvious, because the 'copter came by VERY fast.
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I asked one guy and he said that leaks are easy to spot from above. The first sign is that the vegetation changes its character. It does not take much and works for both oil and gas.
 
So here's the $64k question. What's it pay?
 
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