The one that darted back and forth in the night sky was ensuring the reliability of the energy company’s supply, which affects the lives of almost every resident in the area.
Small a red helicopter zigzags back and forth in the night sky of Naantali. One can only imagine what kind of thinking is going on on the ground. Someone might get annoyed, another gets interested, a third doesn’t notice the sound at all.
This time, on the night between Thursday and Friday, it’s about photographing Turku Energia’s district heating network with thermal cameras in order to find possible leakage points. Precise measuring devices can immediately see if district heating water of around 90 degrees is leaking somewhere on the surface of the earth.
“Last week we were on an inspection flight in Kotka when the police called and asked what we were doing. One of us had called the police. However, we had made all the necessary notifications, so the matter was resolved and the police also apologized for it,” says the pilot of the Gridjet company Oskari Pylkkänen.
The descriptions of the district heating network are done at night. At that time, the heat of the day has already evaporated from the ground and there is little traffic on the streets to disturb the shooting. The vast majority of district heating networks run in the same street areas as cars.
GridJet pilot Oskari Pylkkänen cleans the frozen window of the helicopter with paper towels before departure. It is gentler than ice scraping.
The copter used by GridJet is not large. Pilot Oskari Pylkkänen (left) and thermal camera operator John Baker adjust the helicopter’s camera equipment before taking off.
Nocturnal ones helicopter flights are demanding for the pilot.
“The work is very challenging and not all pilots can do it. In that darkness, the pilot has to monitor the displays on the copter’s dashboard all the time, so that the speeds, altitude and directions are maintained. You have to fly exactly along the filming lines and not towards them,” says Gridjet’s CEO Pekka Ristolainen.
Especially tight turns are demanding. The shooting lanes are close together, so when one lane ends, the pilot makes a sharp turn.
“The turn is a 60 degree turn. We come to it at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour and make a quick turn in the eye of a needle so that we can get to the next filming line well,” says Pylkkänen.
Tight turns feel like grips in the bottom of the stomach. Pylkkänen says that when he is at the controls himself, he does not suffer from motion sickness, but if he is in someone else’s ride, he also feels bad during turns. People and their balance organs react to the conflict of position sense encountered while flying in different ways.
Crazy translations are almost necessary to keep the rhythm of the inspection clear, Ristolainen reasons.
“The work is simply the most efficient when done that way,” says Ristolainen.
In the filming of district heating lines, tight turns of 60 degrees are made, to which the helicopter flies at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour. The curve feels like a nasty grip in the bottom of the stomach.
Turku Energia’s network asset manager Jani Uitti says that about 90 percent of the people living in Turku, Raisio, Naantali and Kaarina are covered by Turku Energia’s district heating.
The company has a total of about 670 channel kilometers of district heating pipes. Since each channel has two pipes, the company has a total of 1340 kilometers of district heating pipes.
Oskari Pylkäne and thermal camera operator By John Baker it takes two nights to check this amount.
The helicopter’s takeoff can be prevented by poor flight visibility, such as low-hanging clouds, thick fog or strong wind.
The last time Turku’s district heating network was inspected was in the spring.
Naantalia from the air. On the right you can see the port area of Naantali, behind it in the distance the Naantali refinery.
Jani Uitti expects that around 50–60 suspicions about a possible leak point will be found in the filming. Suspicions are checked and obvious leakage points are repaired. According to Uit, they are found in Turku Energia’s area on average 3–4 per flight inspection.
“We find serious leaks ourselves, they always show up when a leak occurs. These, in turn, are the kind of leaks that would get worse if we didn’t react to them now.”
Uitti mentions last weekend in Helsinki as an example broken domestic water pipes.
“This kind of helicopter inspection is a small investment for us in order to catch any budding pipe damage in time. If the pipes burst properly, like in Helsinki, then it will pay off.”
GridJet pilot Oskari Pylkkänen (left) and thermal camera operator John Baker fly twice at night for a filming set of about two hours.
In Turku According to Uit, the oldest pipes in the district heating network are from 1976.
“The network is relatively young in Turku, as district heating operations started in Tampere in the 1960s and in Espoo and Helsinki in the 1950s.”
Helsingin Sanomat reported earlier in October how located on Brahenkatu, next to the Turku bus station Turku Energia’s district heating pipe broke leaving people without a warm morning shower.
“That part will now be renovated next winter.”
Uitti says that the inspection with the helicopter just before winter is important for Turku Energia.
“We’re now thinking about security of supply, we have to keep people’s heating systems in order even with security of supply in mind.”
In the Turku region, this week, the pipelines of the district heating network are photographed with a thermal camera at night and efforts are made to find leak points. The same inspection is also carried out in many other big cities at regular intervals.
By helicopters many things can be done at night, for example looking for a missing person, inspecting district heating networks or participating in rescue operations in a variety of ways.
Gridjet’s thermal camera operator John Baker says that the Flight Radar services found on the internet are a great way to gain an understanding of what the helicopter is doing at any given time.
“The service shows quite a large part of the airplanes moving in the air. When you click on the picture of the machine, you get information about which machine it is and who operates it.”
Screenshot from the Flight Radar service. The photo shows how a helicopter filming district heating pipelines makes sharp turns.
If, for example, a citizen who notices a chopper flying by notices from the service that there is a helicopter operated by Gridjet in the sky, he can check on the company’s website what kind of operation it has. In this case, it would also be clear that it is a question of the night inspection photos of the district heating network.
“I understand that the sound of the helicopter can be annoying if you hear it when you are trying to sleep. However, we are doing well. Our work will potentially reduce people’s energy costs, as unrepaired leaks can be very expensive,” Baker reminds.
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