This is a conversational closing segment from the YouTube video 'Helicopter Tree Trimming Saw Pilot [ LIFE ON THE ROAD ]' (Kenny Keller, July 18, 2022). Speakers (Jared, Kenny Keller, and a crew/support speaker) describe life on the road (typically 30-day assignments away from family), crew roles (pilot vs. crew chief/fuel transfer engineer), safety routines (daily pre-job briefings, end-of-day reviews), and operational constraints (they pause work at the start of deer season to allow hunters time). Tone is candid and practical, emphasizing safety and teamwork.
Questions this video answers
30 days
Chapters
We are at the end of our tour. Jared and I absolutely love it. It's time to go to the house. We have been away from our families for 30 days now, so the youngins and his wife and my lady are ready for us to come home. We've been away a little too long in my world, but in the utility world, that's part of the game. You gotta leave, you gotta travel. You're gonna have to. And we all kn. When we dove into it, a lot of us were single, A lot of us didn't have ladies, so we just lived on the road. It's 11 years into it now. I got young isn't a good girl, so it's tough to leave, but everybody's got to bring money in, and you gotta do what you gotta do to pay the bills, and we gotta do that. I got everything loaded up right now. I'm gonna put this thing in the hangar for the weekend. We got a little bit of snow coming, so I'm gonna get it to the hangar, roll it in, and I'm gonna jump in, Going to drive to the house and hug my boys. Nice. Yep. Can't wait. Can't wait.
All right, I'm gonna let you get ready to get home. I'm gonna follow you around the camera a little bit.
Yeah, that's fine.
Yeah, we could do that. People and, you know, a lot of my friends even think this is wild and that, you know, they don't understand it until they see it from, you know, certain views. You know, everybody says the helicopter world's dangerous. It's a helicopter world, you know, but it's more dangerous driving down the road. Absolutely. Anymore. Yep. We make it as safe as we can. We all. We all know what we got to do. We all know what we can't do. We all know our limitations. And I know my limitations is after my 30 days, I am done.
Yep.
I don't even want to see a helicopter again, at least for 30 days. You know, my crew chief right here, this is my field transfer engineer. When they say groundman, I laugh that or stuff. It's a fuel transfer engineer. It's my boy blue right there. We're team, though. I ain't kidding you. It's 50, 50 out here. Crew chief, fuel transfer engineer. Whatever he does, he's. He's the man. I just fly the helicopter. He. He is the operation. I'm just the guy flying the helicopter. I ain't kidding you.
They don't do it during these deer season, right?
Correct.
We take the first couple of days off just to give the hunters a chance to get out there, try and fill their tag.
I know that was one of the comments that on. There was. Oh, yeah, what about the poor guy up in his tree stand getting sawed in half by helicopter?
Sorry, but if you, if you're out hunting deer, you have ears to hear them coming. You should probably hear this thing coming. And you shouldn't be hunting on the right of way as it is.
Right.
Safety, I mean, all of you, everybody, you, Jed, Tim, everybody I've talked to, the word safety keeps coming up.
So, yeah, safety is the number one factor in what we do. Every morning we have a pre job briefing, talk about what we're gonna do in that day. We're gonna coordinate road closures, entrance and exits for pedestrians that are coming out of their driveways or side streets, roads, whatever. And then at the end of the day, we gather again and talk about what we did good that day and what we could do better tomorrow.
Tell us what you do to support the whole tree sawing.
I run a lot of coordinating. My main job is to keep the saw in the air, working, flyable, fixing it, drive the support truck around, fuel up, find places to land, talk to a lot of people. A lot of people. Meet a lot of cool people.
