EXTREME JOBS: Eps 1 - Bridge Rigger, Venom Hunter, Jet Fueler

world's greatest disappear and a physically tough there's a rare job in Australia on it's a 1400 men ate yesterday hope in 1932 the longest synchros land steel arch bridge 160,000 vehicles crossing both directions and around 50,000 tons of steel rising above the highway the safety of everyone below for cement like the bridge 22 year old George Napier certainly has an unusual child all died any whether you'll find him 135 metres above the water there's sometimes my name is job as the basic salary is around thirty one thousand euros a year Richard do something you do come up we maintain it we paint it we cut the rust and we look after it and do any repairs that need doing to it can attach to anywhere on the bridge to stop me falling okay to three meters these are the leg strips they're kind of most important connectional they tight otherwise if you slip very painful with wires the skills of an engineer I left school at 15 I was a butcher I was a painter and decorator I do in the army I joined a commando unit and I came to Australia with the intent of just having a holiday life was good here so I just ended up staying even now after eight years I still enjoy gonna I still really I like to take my time underground if I didn't work on the bridge they would go on bridge when I was for sure that's one thing I always wanted to do was climb the whole bridge every day starts in the riggers loft agreeing the plan of actions safety is always top of the agenda Mavericks need not apply if you're working in a high-risk area make sure you got your mask on in this chat people on teamwork can make the difference between life and death yep George yes can you very enforce emergency procedures which to everyone hates a broken along just get in touch with the office yep and it's a straight long give straight off the bridge got you there center point ringing is also an expensive business from the annual cost of maintaining literature run into around five million Australian dollars well this is our riggers loft this is where we keep all our rigging equipment our ropes our slings our shackles anything we need for the day's jump the day's first task hoisting the national flag for that time it's over two vital repairs of some of the six million rupees to hold the bridge together okay well my job here today I'm here to mark up some of these rivets some of them are severely rusted so if I just mark them then the painters when they come along they'll know which ones have to be taken back to bare metal and and repainted before they rust completely and fall away so if I just carry on marking a few of these and any one slip could be funny detention the riggers have to look out for each other basically work on the bridge of buddy system where we get always two men go together on any job at all and your bond with a bloke as soon as you're you're out the door you know your life actually depends on the guy above you we all trust each other in the rigging loft we've all been through you know every job we can do and we all trust each other everyone plays their part it's kind of a joint thing you know without the riggers the painters can't get to work the three builder platform has no painters is pointless building it so it's kind of a group job despite all the safety systems they still test the nose and did you know Paula - of Crocodile Dundee strong stomach those ropes and puddings are to rigger through any rigor the Sydney Harbour Bridge cost six million euros to build and nearly 80% of the metal needed for the construction was shipped in from the United Kingdom today is foreign imports of a different kind of is a climbing to just over two years climbing the bridge only started in 1998 has already attracted over a million visitors to do this job you need to be fit and good with people as there's no knowing just how visitors will react she was determined to do the whole thing she was climbing with her two teenage children and they really wanted to do the climb but even up here on the arch she was hanging on to those handrails and he climbed the hallway I like this around the bridge she did it and she was very proud of herself on the top it's 240 steps down a unique 360 degree views over the harbour make it all worthwhile George it's the end of another day muscle stiff from having to hold his position for hours on end why does he do it tell people I'm joining the crew on Sydney's Harbour Bridge step this one from Sydney to northern Queensland did you do the job we have to stick your hands in two tubs of writhing venomous snakes a job where the possibility of the fatal bite is a daily reality risk your life for the sake of science this man dr. Brian fry is abandoned in this job you have to be a qualified scientist and his Australian wine experts have a number-one speciality see snakes it's their business to know how they live what they eat how the poison works for most people snakes are terrifying but for me there's something I like nothing better than going face-to-face with some of the most dangerous snakes in the world prior there's already been picked 24 times only on the spot anti-venom jabs have stopped him from dying today they're going out to see the field tighten wheat Reapers located in the northern part of the state of Queensland in Australia there's two big caves that form this vast shallow warm body of water called the Gulf of Carpentaria what makes weepest so special is that the animal life is absolutely amazing it is truly a serengeti of ever since the University there's 130 snakes that's proven elusive there's about 18 species that are found in this water in the years that we've been searching here we've caught ten our Holy Grail is to get a young Stokes a snake because this is the great white of the sea snake world's if we can get a small Stokes sea snake and get it established it's like getting a great white to live in captivity we need to search for the snakes at nighttime basically what happens is the snakes go down to feed at night when the fish are resting then they come up to the surface to digest and that's when we get them with the light scoop them up shove them in the bin is the biggest of all seasonings this time this is a male spying belly seesnake only the males get these heavy spines like this people often think of snakes as the bigger the deadlier it's not necessarily the case dad is dead can they find the mysterious stoke before the night is out species this is the species that almost killed me about two years ago same species but a little bit bigger I was paralyzed quite quickly and without anti-venom I would have died and it took me actually about eight months to recover from the bite of all the bytes that I've had this was by far the worst I'd rather take another death out of bite than get another bite by a sea snake the average snake researcher can expect to earn between thirty and forty five thousand euros a year but II know for a job where your life can hang in the balance when Brian got bitten I was down at the doctor water changes the first thing I heard was Brian yelling at me legs and I knew immediately I ran out to check that he wasn't suffering from an allergic shock the most immediate problem for us I got the pressure bandage on wrapped it up his arm I got Brian straight to the car to get to the hospital the most important point of a venomous bite Brian's lips we breathe the space was white I could see the venom working on him until Brian is through the first 24 hours there's no certainty that he will live it's clear that this is not a job young Brian as a by experience in the single-minded passion through signs oh and it helps you if you like homework Benham is a specialized chemical cocktail that the snakes inject to you when they bite you what it is is they take in an ancient saliva gland and evolved it into this chemical Arsenal Factory and it pumps out some of the most virulent poisons known to man what I'm doing here is I'm taking this piece of plastic a laboratory pipette and I'm sliding it over the hollow hypodermic like needle fangs that the snakes have and then they inject the venom into this this way we capture all of the venom which to us this is basically the great white this is the biggest sea snake the fangs on an adult are almost a centimeter long and it can give a hundred and fifty milligrams of a venom but it takes only three to five milligrams to kill you of it's just the ultimate sea snake if you are after around 10 years of higher education in a competitive and deadly environment job one slip of the jaws day explosive the man who refused fighter planes in the sky is alive and well and living in the UK the English countryside hi to Nick for submit are you trained in cutting-edge military weapons and able to deploy at a moment's notice this is a US Air Force fleet of fighter jets and there's one thing these planes need more than anything they can't just pull into the nearest gas station these guys Mandy kite is the boom of writer it's a refueler aboard a tanker area this must be one of the coolest and most nerve-wracking jobs in the airforce Randy works on a kc-135 as part of the 350 first the plays he refused are the Black Panther f-15s belongings to the 490 4th Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath in the UK the Black Panthers are in high demand just two weeks after helping the trouble over northern Iraq 494 took part in operation Allied Force fine more than 4,000 combat hours was largely due to the heroic efforts of the maintenance troops including boom operators like Randy he received nearly a year of schooling to prepare for the job everything from survival skills to weapons training is needed before he could get the thumbs-up to fly the boom on his own works alongside a crew special callsign silent warrior is at the helm of the filling plane a top pilot with 14 years experience my name is Jamal Khan Air Force pilot currently flight commander I'm just I'm the luckiest man in the world I get a go take a kc-135 and go every feel somebody somewhere and work with wonderful people whether it's the crew the maintenance folks that you have to deal with it's a great team effort he's now been doing this job for 12 in case of an emergency decompression test American using this regulator a typical day for a boom operator is long-lost anyway we are applying gas station if that was to catch on fire you're talking to giant fireball are underway already close to the rendezvous the mission would be what I would just call a receiver exercise we scheduled there to take our 38:57 locals milton hall in one time got refuel 12 f-16s and two f-15s refueling 14 aircraft could take up to 10 hours Randy gets ready to go through certain the first thing I do when I get back there is run a couple of checklist items and then I'll are the insured miss applying the bomb now on my left hand I control a telescope over my right hand I control the rudder Bader's take your elevator stick is basically what controls the two black renovators that are on the boom give me a light switch at 10 feet I start flashing the light timing hey you should start slowing your rate of closure so at 10,000 meters traveling at 800 kilometers per hour and facing backwards you have to guard the boom into a target hole no centimeters across only the apply for this job if you can stay cool under pressure and keep absolute concentration as they're coming in they can be coming in there too fast and under run the boom and get up underneath us underneath hopefully recognize that and we would say breakaway breakaway chopped up the plane carefully maneuvers r1 is getting caught in the slipstream of the huge tanker to send the fighter out of control one down 13 to go part of a boom operators job is to constantly check the position of the fighters relative to the tank I want a most important requirement serve and apply I try not to think about crashing if you got wrong with a plane or anything like that pilots are flying with for the day also in our skills and anything that should happen that we might be able to overcome and I like to think positive anything positive hopefully nothing Bad's gonna happen accidents a mechanical failure a constant threats and should anything not go exactly to plan the emergency response team is on hand to deal with the situation fortunately this time it's a fossil when you're flying this close to the edge nothing to be taken for granted despite the dangers this is a unique and exciting career with new challenges every mission and we trust the team a part of everyday life there's a boom operator there he's my eyes and ears this aircraft is coming in high speed and he's making that contact making sure that we're all safe I know he's a hundred percent I am confident in Randy I plan on probably doing another 18 years or so when it comes to having an unusual job we reckon a boom operator can visit three rough trails all needing insight amounts of bravery and dedication

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 20,867

Rating: 4.2380953 out of 5

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, BBC documentary, Work, Extreme Jobs, Jet, Engine, Sydney, Harbor Bridge, Harbour Bridge, Snake (Animal), Venomous Snake (Cause Of Death), Venom, Airplane, Flight, Job, Flying, History, Plane, Aviation (Industry), Australia, National Geographic (Magazine), Bridge Rigger, Hunter, Fueler, Fuel

Id: dYW6OW_Ez7w

Length: 24min 49sec (1489 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 20 2015