WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- I got an email from an
energy company that said,

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"Hi, Tom. We own a wind turbine.
Do you want to go up to the top of it?"

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And of course I said yes,
but then I asked,

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could I leave by the emergency exit?

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And for some reason they said yes.

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- This is a 50 metre EWT
turbine, which is capable

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of producing 500 kilowatts
of energy.

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In blade repair, we have to repair
turbines all over Europe.

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So, every day you need to climb a turbine.

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You shut it off at the bottom.
You climb up.

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You pin the turbine

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and pin the blades that
you're going to work on.

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You're going to attach
to the top, abseil out,

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and do your repairs on the blades
that need repairing.

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- Anyone climbing or
descending this ladder

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has to be attached to
a fall arrest system.

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It's a clever bit of technology.

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If you move at a normal speed,
it'll move along with you.

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But if you fall, it'll notice
and it'll catch you.

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Fast enough to be safe,

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not so fast that it's as brutal
as hitting the ground would be.

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- On the ladder that we
climb up on the inside,

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there is a fixed steel cable.

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And on this, you attach a slider,

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which is a metal device and
you open up a gate inside.

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And this is where the cable runs

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and the gate then closes onto the cable.

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Shut the hatch, screw it together.

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And this attaches to your sternum.

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So as you're climbing up, this
will follow you up the cable.

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And then if you fell,
it would lock into position.

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It'll brake.
That's your braking system.

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You're always connected by two points.

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Personally, I believe it's a safer job
than anything else you can do

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because of all the backups we use.

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For instance, it's much more
dangerous to climb a ladder

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six foot off the ground

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than it is to work 50 metres up in the air

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when you've got all
your attachment points.

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In my opinion.

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- If you're climbing this
turbine, you need a fail safe.

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Which is one of the reasons
there's an emergency exit at the top.

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Right, here we go.

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- The emergency descenders
come in different guises

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but the one that's at the top there,

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we only train with it
once every two years,

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because it's always the worst case scenario
if you have to get that out.

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It's an inertia device.
If you just clip it to yourself,

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you'll lower down to the
ground under its own steam,

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and you can brake but, generally,
you'll just hit the ground at a safe speed.

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You don't train with it very often
because in real world

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you should never have to use it

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because you've got lots of
other things to fail first,

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before you even have to
think about using that.

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There's instructions written on it
as well, on how to use it.

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- So step to the left?
- Take a step round here, yeah.

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- To access a turbine,

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you need to do something called a GWO,
"Global Wind Organisation",

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and you can't access the turbine

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and use any of the equipment inside
without that training.

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That teaches about working at height
and how to use one of those devices

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to get the casualties down.

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And then to do what we do,
which is abseiling on the blades,

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You need to do something
called a IRATA qualification,

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which is rope access, basically.

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And so it's quite a lengthy process
before you're even out there.

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- There is actually an
emergency exit sign up here.

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I love that.

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- This is a direct drive turbine,
meaning that there's no gear in it.

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It's all just magnets up in that doughnut,
you can see right at the top.

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- So, this is the centre of the turbine.

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- That there is the whole rotor.
It's a giant electromagnet.

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There are very few worst case
scenarios where

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the turbine is going to be fine,
but the ladder down isn't.

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Now, if any of those happen,
then yes,

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the team here are all
thoroughly trained for it.

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They'll all be able to get down
on the emergency descender.

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But that's not why it's here.

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The most likely reason
for that to be used

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is for one person.

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Somebody who's twisted their ankle
or passed out, or for whatever reason,

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can't get down
the ladder on their own.

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- Yes, that's my understanding.
It would be specific to the injury.

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If we couldn't move the casualty,

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then they would have to
figure a way of doing that.

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You'd have to be something
serious.

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A heart attack,
you can always get someone down.

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But if someone had a broken neck,
yeah, it will be a different scenario.

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- Oh, look at that view!

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- We do medicals
to get onto the turbines

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and we have to maintain
those medicals bi-yearly.

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And that proves your fitness
to climb the turbines

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and medicals are quite in-depth.

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So if you knew you were ill,

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you would be fairly irresponsible
to go and climb a turbine.

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- Yep. That's okay to step on?

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- Yeah. Promise you! If you sit back,
legs straight and lean backwards.

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Keep going, keep going.

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Don't hold on.

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- Oh!

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- Don't hold on.

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- Oh. Oh, okay.

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That's the nerve-wracking bit.

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- That's it, keep going.

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- Yep. I've got two wires on me.

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I've got two wires on me.
I've got two wires on me.

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- And now walk, but
don't bend in your legs.

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That's it.

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Keep going.

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- Okay. I've got two wires on me.

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- And you can slowly bend your knees
a little bit if you want to.

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- I've got two wires.

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That's fine.

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Okay.

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- Happy?

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- Happy!

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- See you in a little while.

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- Okay!

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"One thing I should mention in voiceover,
because I forgot to say it

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"while convincing my brain to switch
from trusting my legs to trusting the ropes:

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"there is a way to get someone
onto the descender

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"if they're out cold or they can't walk.

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"It's just that I could walk.

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"So I did a standard abseil
down the first part."

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And that's it. I'm descending!

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Rigging this up required a
lot of skill and training

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from the folks up there.

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But to descend, you don't
even need to be conscious.

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And that's by design.

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All I need to do now is sit and wait
until I safely reach the ground.

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- When you actually work on a turbine,
the view at the top is always amazing.

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So when you have a look
around, you do remember that

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oh, it's pretty cool job, actually.

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- Thank you very much to all the team
at Octopus Energy and at EWT.

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You can find links to them
in the description.

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That's a wrap. Thank you very much!

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- Well done!