Please be advised that weather permitting on Wednesday, 2/12 or Thursday, 2/13, helicopter patrols will be mobilizing to the Ohio Edison region and will begin performing Comprehensive Visual Inspections (CVIs) on all Ohio Edison 138kV transmission lines.  These inspections are expected to take approximately eight weeks to complete but as always, inclement weather or any non-routine and outage patrols could prolong completion.

The helicopter to be used for these inspections is a black, Hughes MD500 with red tail registration numbers N721RP – photo attached.

A comprehensive visual inspection (CVI) is a slow, structure-by-structure, span-by-span inspection where the inspector onboard the helicopter gets a thorough look from top to bottom at each structure, associated hardware, and conductors of the transmission line(s).  The helicopter will be moving very slowly along each of the transmission lines and will often be seen hovering while carrying out these inspections.

It should be noted that the contractor has been authorized to patrol the transmission circuits in their entirety (i.e. "breaker-to-breaker"), so patrols on certain lines may therefore extend into the neighboring regions.  The flight crew provides information on their daily location to both Transmission Lines Maintenance and the FCC, and the pilot will be in communication with any local airports when in their airspace.