Student Lineman: NLC Week 2

So the second week of training at NLC is done. This was our first week of academics and learning in the field. The school and staff are extremely organized and the course work is very well thought out. The day is split into two parts; classroom and field/lab. Two hours of class room instruction in the morning and six hours in the field or in the lab. The classroom portion in the morning is a good thing, because if I had to actually use my brain to think in the afternoon, I would be in BIG trouble. This week we covered Linework Fundamentals #1 (LF#1) and Electrical Systems #1 (ES#1). LF#1 was focused on safety protocols here at NLC (which I’m sure will translate into the field as well) and on one of the more important topics of customer service. Surprisingly, nobody likes it when their power is off; whether it is a planned outage for maintenance or some type of emergency such as a storm or an auto accident involving a transformer or utility pole, the customers just want their power back on. Also, if work is being done in a customer’s yard, it should look better than it did before the work was started and appear as if the workers were NEVER there. ES#1 focused on the power grid from the starting point of power generation all the way to distribution to the customer. There are quite a few steps in the process and a lot of equipment that is involved. Some basic electrical terms such as volts, amps, conductor, insulator, etc. were also introduced. Thursday was our first tests, they seemed to go well. The field was great!!! Monday my group was in the climbing pit so we began with learning tool and equipment inspection/maintenance. Once that was done we went through putting all of our equipment on correctly. Good thing because there is always one guy in the bunch that wants to put his hooks on the wrong feet, to which an instructor will chime in “What, are you gonna climb out of a barrel, I thought we were here to climb poles! Fix your hooks!” It looks pretty funny though. Once we belted on to the poles we worked on proper foot position (climbing on the quarters) and adjusting our Bucksqueeze, which is the belt that goes around the pole and provides 100% attachment and fall arrest. Then we got to climb and work on technique and form. Unfortunately, the instructor had us hammer our screwdriver into the pole at about the six foot mark…So that’s as high as we went. Then we worked on going around the pole. On Tuesday we were in the distribution pit learning how to make up handlines for storage. Handlines are what are used to haul items up to the lineman working on the pole. We also learned how to tie insulators, crossarms and tools to the handline and prepare the items to go up the pole. We also learned how to communicate with the lineman working on the pole as we are raising and lowering the items. Finally we learned how to prepare a line truck for work, set out cones and signs and setting the outriggers. After all that was done I got to operate the boom. I wasn’t nearly as smooth as the instructor was, but hopefully after 30 years in the trade that will change. Wednesday, we worked on the underground secondary connections which is want brings power to the customers after the transformer. Finally on Thursday, we took our tests and went to the field for “county fair” where we rotate through all three stations. The BEST part of the week was being up on the pole playing some football. We were only supposed to be up about 6-8 feet, my hooks were set in at about 15 feet! It was AWESOME!!! We also learned about Up-Downs, not the kind I remembered from High School football though. If the ball is dropped...EVERYBODY climbs down then back up. I got to climb, play football and exercise all on one pole. Next week, we start getting our level 1 competencies signed off…WOOOOOO!!!!

Here is a link to the class Photobucket page

http://s1186.photobucket.com/albums/z365/NLC_EDISON_2011/

Here are some Week 2 pictures