Painting a Water Tower in San Antonio TX
Ғылым және технология
This video isn't about how the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) pumps, treats and delivers clean drinking water to the millions of people in the area. It is about chronicling the progress of a contractor who was apparently hired to repaint this 185 ft tall structure. I included a photo of the SAWS project sign, with the total project dollar cost shown, near the end of the video.
Back in May 2020, I started a series of videos called "flying in circles" around water towers in the area. I've collected videos and photos from around 30 water tower sites so far this summer. But one of the first water towers that I flew around, was a huge, ancient water tower in the Medical Center area of NW San Antonio, just off Fredericksburg Road. This big white water tower looms over the nearby hospital complexes, storing over 1 million gallons of water to supply at the proper pressure.
My thanks to various folks with SAWS and the contractor who answered my curiosity and perhaps pesky questions about how long a project like this takes, how much paint did it use, and other topics. This video was done for the fun of it, over 4 months, visiting the site usually at least twice a week to see if there was anything worth flying around the tower again for. Such flights were typically less than 15 minutes long and I never flew above 200 feet since there were at least 2 active heliports at nearby hospitals. Each drone flight was filed with the LAANC automated authorization system in advance.
I was amazed while watching these workers up on top of this tower, acting like they were still down on the ground. They all had safety harnesses on while on top, except for when they were in the railed off area on the very top where they couldn't fall. They did a great job repainting this tower and it now looks much better than it did before.
I learned that these size tanks can take up to 4 months to paint, with much of that time spent rigging up the safety equipment, such as the paint shroud and lifting gear for both equipment and personnel. I don't know how many gallons of primer paint was used, but they used 180 gallons of the blue overcoat paint, so they likely used more than 100 gallons of primer paint as well.
Please feel free to hit the LIKE button if you liked this, SUBSCRIBE if you want to see more, and leave a comment with your suggestions or observations. I always read and respond to comments.
I do like to get suggestions from folks that want to see different types of aerial photography / videos from areas they might not be able to access from the ground. I tend to avoid flying in residential neighborhoods because there are too many folks who see a drone and think it is spying on them. I'm not sure what they think would be that interesting, or how a relatively noisy drone could sneak up on anyone.
I flew the DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone for this video, recording in 4K / 30fps. The Video Editing software used was Wondershare Filmora 9.5. Music was from Epidemic Sound. Get your free 30 day trial from Epidemic Sound by clicking on this free referral link: www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
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That’s an awesome video. I have always wondered how they painted water towers. Now I know. Thanks.
A video about a subject matter I didn't think I needed to know until I watched this!
@CloudyCarrot
3 жыл бұрын
Pea green
@SageTheRage
3 жыл бұрын
@@CloudyCarrot Your comment put me in mind of homemade split pea soup with ham, bacon (fat and all), spices and of course either thick slices of coarse bread or hearty biscuits. Perfect weather for it today (NYE 2020) as it's been windy, rainy and cold here all day.
I live in a condo close to this and have been watching the progress. Looks like two men were painting the top poles today. I never spotted your drone. That would have been a treat! Oh, look! You got my condo!
@YellowRoseDrones
3 жыл бұрын
I will tell you that the guys that were up on top of the water tower the day that they had the big meeting down below, they did spot my drone flying around the water tower. some of the folks made a point of coming over to say hi to me. One of them was with the San Antonio water system and the other was with the communications company that's going to be installing the repeater on top. My drone is rather small compared to the big ones you see on the news. It's a Mavic 2 Pro, with a neon yellow skin on it to make it more visible while it's in the air. It makes it easier for me to see it further away as well. I'm getting ready to put a different neoprene skin on my older Mavic Pro drone that will make it weatherproof so that it can fly in the rain, believe it or not. there have been times when I wish I could get out during a storm or right after a storm but it's still sprinkling to do some video of flood drainage areas, etc. But I can't fly right now unless the weather is dry and it's not threatening rain. It's going to cost me a hundred bucks, but compared to the price of the drones, that's nothing. That's like buying spare battery.
@YellowRoseDrones
3 жыл бұрын
I am curious Penny, how did you find the video? Was it suggested by KZread? Or did you do a search for it? Thanks in advance.
@pennyabbottshinners2322
3 жыл бұрын
I found you originally when I searched for the Boerne car parade a few weeks ago. My daughter lives there and sent me her own video as her family was caught up in the excitement by accident. I sent her your video after finding it. We were amazed by your professional work. I subscribed and keep checking back to see your new work and was surprised to see the water tower. Like a big birthday cake for me! (To be more specific, I think I googled "Boerne Trump rally")
Nice video.
I was going to ask how they and their supplies got up there. How many men did it take? Hope they are paid well. They deserve it. Amazing.
@YellowRoseDrones
3 жыл бұрын
I hope they are too. They used that long platform that you can see in the video a times, that was like a window washer platform that could be raised up to the top and then lowered back down. That's how they appeared to get most of the equipment up there. I wouldn't want to be the guy that had to set up the initial hoist and safety equipment on top, when there wasn't any. You saw what the top of that tower looks like, before they started painting it. There was nothing up there that you can consider safe. That's why they took their time and did it right.
Nice footage, did you let them know that they left the hatch on top open?
@YellowRoseDrones
3 жыл бұрын
Yes, they've seen the video. They're getting ready to install some radio repeater equipment on top for the city of San Antonio. Part of the police fire and other emergency radio system. I chose not to delay the project any further, in order to include footage and then putting up the antennas. As a ham radio operator myself, putting up an antenna is boring. But that's why they left the top hatch open. They've actually got a big tube that goes up through that million gallon tank up to the top lids, with a ladder inside them. I joked with him about leaving the lids open on the top and they said that was to make it easier for when the radio guys showed up. The site is fairly secure and has 24/7 video monitoring of it, just in case anybody here gets a wild hair idea like trying to go up into the water tower themselves. You can't get there from the ground without special equipment and a way to unlock the hatches on the bottom. Those were locked when I was there yesterday.
San Antonio “FAT BALL” Water Tower.