Helicopter Patrols Of West Windsor Transmission Lines Begin: Cops

WEST WINDSOR TOWNSHIP, NJ — JCP&L will be using a helicopter to inspect transmission lines for the next two weeks, West Windsor police announced on Tuesday. Haverfield will use a black helicopter to inspect all 500kV and 230kV transmission lines. The helicopter will include red numbers- Hughes MD500 with tail registration: N9159F.

The patrols were expected to begin on Tuesday and run 10-12 days, weather and circumstances dependent.

A routine patrol is a general, overall look at the transmission line, right-of-way, structures, and all associated hardware where the inspection crew is trying to look for any obvious/outstanding maintenance conditions.

It is typically flown around 25-30 knots (30-35mph) but the helicopter may be seen hovering or circling structures or spans of a transmission line to get a better look at any conditions found during the patrol(s).

Haverfield 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.