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Turning regular handheld radios into a fun and personalized tool.
As a pilot car driver one of the most important, if not THE most important piece of equipment is our radios. Both the mobile radios that are mounted in our vehicles and the handheld radios, commonly known as Walkie-Talkies, are used to keep in constant communication with the members of our Superload or Oversize load team. They have to work properly and be loud and clear to help ensure not only the safety of our teams, but the motoring public as well.
This job can be flat out dangerous. That’s all there is to it. The motoring public doesn’t care much for us being in their way and sometimes negotiating the nation’s highways and byways with 200’ plus superloads can be pretty stressful. It can also be very pretty boring and repetitive.
Anytime I get a chance to make one of my team members smile or manage to get a chuckle from them, I take full advantage of it. So when I got my new handhelds I thought; “I’m gonna bedazzle my radio’s!” That’s just what I did!
At the top is a “Jewel Picker”. Most of these come with sticky ends used to pick up and place the rhinestones easily on glue. E6000 glue should be in every household junk drawer as it can literally be used on anything. Flatback Rhinestones in size “ss20” or “4mm” were the perfect size for this project.
My CB handheld has a green accent stripe so I found some iridescent greenish rhinestones to go with it and my VHF handheld had a plain black plastic casing so I opted for a muted pink rhinestone for it. I had a tube of E6000 glue so I just ordered the rhinestones and away I went!
Placement of the rhinestones on your mic/speaker is very important. Look closely at the picture above and you’ll see the stones have been glued onto plastic strips and don’t block the open spaces where you’ll speak into and hear from.My CB handheld is a “President” brand. The mics are pretty small and the size ss20 or 4mm flatback rhinestones worked perfectly. They really sparkle in the bright sunlight. Once at night, A lady stopped to ask me what the little reflectors on my vest were. “Must have been my Rhinestones!” was all I could think of that she had seen.
I had to be really careful of the placement of the rhinestones as they couldn’t interfere with any part of the speaker, microphone or buttons/keys. I wanted them to stand out and look cute, but not too over the top.
I opted to try to stay as minimalist as I could, which with rhinestones is next to impossible. I think I found a happy medium. None of the embellishments interfere with any of the radios’ buttons, microphones or speaker holes and I get the greatest reactions from the rough and tough truck drivers and other pilot car operators.
“Only you Miss Sarah!”, “I wouldn’t expect anything less!”, “No one will wonder who they belong to!”. These comments are always combined with chuckles, shaking heads, smiles and sometimes an out right belly laugh.
A moment of happiness in what can be a very stressful and dangerous job does a heart good.
It’s so easy to take what I’ve done with my radios and a few rhinstones and make something special out of the things you use daily for work.
Make sure you aren’t going to dress up something safety related. For example: gluing rhinestones and other embellishments on to my “Stop/Slow” paddle I use for traffic control isn’t a good idea. *insert facepalm here. A name tag, thermos bottle, purse, lanyard all would be great examples of dressing up to match your personality.
If your going to be gluing embellishments onto something, I really do suggest using the E6000 glue. I’ve used so many types and they’re just don’t work as well. Plastic, glass, wood, diffferent textures of fabrics and even the enameled coat on my thermos bottle have all held what ever I glue to them. As far as longevity; I’ve got a light weight beanie I wear under my hardhat that’s probably 5 years old and a couple of the rhinestones have come off, but that’s about it.
Being the reason a person smiles is pretty cool and you just never know when that smile will be the best part of their day!
Just the right amount of bling-y wonderfulness that says “I belong to Miss Sarah”!
*sometimes the glue and jewel pickers can be a little hard to find. I’m including the amazon links below for the glue, flatback rhinestones and jewel pickers.
My 2014 Samsung Galaxy Jelly Bean tablet I bought from Costco.
In my job as a Pilot Car driver or PEVO, I spent 90% of my time in my pick up truck and even sleep in a bunk built in the back where the seats were. I spend about 10 months at a time away from home and my office space is the drivers seat and center console. Space is tight so I choose to work on a tablet with a bluetooth keyboard instead of a laptop.
My old beat-up Galaxy Jellybean tablet from 2014 was gettin’ a bit wonky on me. It was time to replace it and I absolutely couldn’t stand the thought of it. I knew I wanted to stick with the Galaxy devices simply because of how much abuse my Jellybean had taken. I prefer androids and the old one had just been so great, even though I’d dropped it too many times to count, I’d used it way more hours at one time than I’m sure it was designed for and it was just plain abused. All of my computer work while I’m on the road is done on my tablet and I knew it was time to replace the old Jellybean that had been such a great little device.
The original Rose Gold tablet color had faded over the years from the case being on it for so long.
Unfortunately it takes me forever to decide on a purchase when I’m buying tech stuff. I have to check reviews, talk to people and research buyers guides. But after all that I decided the Galaxy was the brand I really wanted to stick with. I ended up buying one of the new Galaxy Tab A9+ 256g tablets off Amazon. They had the most reasonable price and returns are way easier than going to an electronics store. It took a while to get all my stuff transferred over from the old JellyBean, but I was so tickled to death with it! I’m a gen-xer and not very tech savvy. Like the Jellybean, the new one is easy to navigate and user friendly. I’ve already dropped it a couple times and about had a heart attack thinking “these newer ones aren’t gonna be as tough as the old Jellybean”. No worries though, it’s just as tough as the old one.
I already had a great little tablet holder that clamps onto my steering wheel and although the new tablet had a bigger 11″ screen it fit fine in the holder with a little room to spare. I put a pillow on my lap for my wireless keyboard to set on and I’m dialed in and ready to blog or get work done on my website.
This tablet holder was designed to go on the handle of a stroller. It fits perfectly onto the steering wheel in my truck. Here is my tablet set up when working in my truck. The tablet holder is clamped onto the steering wheel with the new tablet mounted into it with the bluetooth keyboard laying on top of an old throw pillow.
Of course I had to get a new case for the new tablet and my old bluetooth keyboard had the letters worn off of it. It was a folding model and had been duct taped on the hinge and it just wasn’t holding a charge like it had when it was new. I opted for a case/keyboard combo and found one that had a mouse pad on it. Wow! What an upgrade! I also got one which had backlit keys. I didn’t realize I could change the colors on it when I ordered it. So just like my pink hardhat, I chose the pink backlighting. But boy howdy! It was REALLY bright! I needed the lighted keys to be able to work at night, but not so bright as to go blind! I read through the instruction leaflet (actual instructions??? No way! Easy for my old brain to understand too!) and it was super easy to adjust the brightness.
Another thing I got a kick out of was the keyboard had magnets on bottom for attaching onto the base of the case/stand. I didn’t even realize it when I bought it. I don’t usually use it with the keyboard on the case flap, but when I do it sure doesn’t go anywhere. Those little magnets work surprisingly well! A screen protector is a must for me. My sister often calls me “Grace” due to my tripping over air or constantly dropping things. Between the heavy duty case and the screen protector; I know my new tablet is gonna be safe in my clumsy hands.
I’ve hung onto my old one and re-formatted it. Even as old as it is, I use it for my mahjong and solitaire games. I’ve also been able to stream my favorite channels on it as well. Sometimes people laugh about how ratty it looks, but I’m happy it can still be used and will use it until it finally sputters and quits working.
I’ll add links below to my new tablet and the products I got to go with it. It’s a nice feeling to be able to say this is a great product to my followers and these really are! Hopefully this post will save you some time in trying to choose your new tablet and give you some ideas of things to go with it for working while in your vehicle.
I was born and bred in SW Washington State, where we might see a weeks worth of temps over 95 degrees during the summer. As a pilot car driver, I sometimes work in the midwest. This summer, I’ve found myself working in both the midwest and southwest.
After telling a few friends about my having to pilot super loads from Iowa to Arizona, I heard nothing but “Arizona’s hot, but it’s a dry heat.” What the hell?! Hot is hot, I’ve never cared if it was dry or humid. Boy, was I in for a steep learning curve!
Let’s start with Iowa. My first day in the South East corner of the state where the laydown yard for our wind turbine components were stored and along the Mississippi River the temperature was 85 degrees and I thought “that’s not so bad.” Then I got out of my nice cool car and tried to take a deep breath. The first feel of that humid and hot air took my breath away. It seemed my skin started to feel sticky within a few seconds. I could FEEL the sweat, starting to form on my neck and back.
That first experience with truly humid summer weather was completely overwhelming. For those of you who were born and raised there, I can hear you chuckling or sighing a huge, irritating sigh.
This was my first trip to the midwest during this type of weather. I had worked there in the winter and loved it. I was used to driving and living in cold weather. This was completely different than anything I had experienced. I tried to work on a doily I was crocheting and found the thread just wouldn’t glide through my fingers. My steel crochet hook stuck to my fingers and hands.
As the sun started to go down, a whole new bunch of experiences started to happen. Bugs that will eat the livin’ crap out of you in an instant! We have mosquitoes at home in Washington, but the ones that are in the midwest are on a different level. They’re tiny, don’t make a sound, and seem impervious to any type of bug spray. There is also some sort of “No-see-um” that will chew through any type of clothing right into your skin. After that first night of sleeping in my car with the windows down, I had dozens of bites all over me. Even my little road dog, Dakota, had bites all over the top of her head like little raised pimples.
Then I started seeing tiny little flashes of light that seemed to come off the stalks of corn in an adjacent field, which butted up against the parking lot of the truck stop I was parked in. Now I’ve heard stories from family members about Fire Flies or Lightening Bugs; whatever it is a person wants to call them. But to see them for real and the realization that those people who told you stories of collecting them in jars, pinching off their little butts to put on your fingernails or ear lobes as earrings were telling the truth! There really was such a thing as a bug that lit up; they did fly, and I was scared shitless of them. I just couldn’t wrap my head around an insect that really did this. I’m getting used to seeing them, but it’s taking me a while not to jump out of my skin when walking Dakota out after dark and these little streaks of light flash into the air.
So let’s move on to Arizona. My first experience with Arizona was this: at about 95 degrees my 2016 Subaru outback decided “screw this, I don’t like this heat and I”m gonna make your A/C go all wonky on you.” Which it did. I had it on the lowest temp I could go and the fan all the way up. Nothin’ it was blowing hot air. If I sped up it would kind of work. But I’m a high pole car, running about 3/4 of a mile in front of my blade and have to pace my driver with the load behind me so that I’m not too far out for them to hear me or too close for them to maneuver around an obstacle in the road or vehicle pulled over on the road when I call it out on the cb radio. So this means my speed stays at about 55-60 miles an hour.
I finally decided to shut off my A/C and put the windows down. It was horrible, but we had air flow. After a while, Dakota had drank all the water in her bowl. She started drinking it out of my water cup and it went ok for a while. Then she started to really go down hill, laying on her side and panting hard. Our load with the blade and the truck is over 200 feet long. We don’t fit in most places and just parking on the side of the road is a safety hazzard to the motoring public. We had about an hour to get to our destination in Arizona, so I told our blade crew of 3 that we’d just push through and onto our laydown site.
We got to the laydown yard and I rushed Dakota to a friend of mine who was waiting with cool, wet towels and functioning A/C in her pick up. I made a call to my Subaru Guru in Washington, who referred me to a Subaru Guru in Phoenix. It was 113 degrees while we were on our way there. We finally arrived that night and found a nice comfy truck stop to stay in overnight. It was a tolerable night with the temperature going down to about 80- 85 degrees. For whatever reason, it didn’t seem that warm.
The next morning we dropped my car off at the home based shop of my Pheonix Subaru Guru mechanic and took off in my friends pick up. We found a gorgeous park and went for a walk to look at flower beds, the small lake with fountains in the middle of it and for Dakota to run around. I realized there wasn’t the hot and sticky feeling I’d experienced in the midwest. My skin wasn’t soaking with sweat. It was very hot at around 10am. I think it was upwards of 90 degrees, but it honestly didn’t feel that hot. I just can’t explain it, I know it wasn’t just me, my friend mentioned it too. As we were looking at flowers growing in outdoor flower beds that I can only grow in my house where they can sit in a sunny window; we also realized we hadn’t been chewed up by bugs overnight. Not a single bug bite! We slept in peace all night with our windows all the way down too!
The only real bug I saw were huge bumble bees flying unbievabley slow between flowers in the grass of the park. We saw warning signs of scorpions and rattlesnakes, but thankfully, we didn’t see any of those.
We spent most of the day in the Pheonix heat, but it seemed like I adapted to it pretty quick. Weird huh? It was about 105 dgrees, but with out the added sweatiness of humid heat it was bearable. I picked my car up in the late afternoon with working A/C and we left town about 5ish to head back north to Iowa for another load.
I have to say I know exactly what people are talking about now when I hear them say, “it’s a dry heat” when talking about the southwest united states. There is truly a difference between humid heat and dry heat. After being in both with in such a short period of time, I have to go with the dry heat of the southwest. For me, it isn’t as miserable as the humid heat we experienced in the midwest. Even though I live in the cooler climate of the Pacific Northwest, I found that I adapted to the dry heat of the southwest much better than the hot and humid climate in the midwest.
In 2017, I found myself without a good source of income and thought “Well crap! What am I gonna do now?”
I was driving on Interstate 84 just east of Portland, Oregon and came up on a long, white, skinny thing on a trailer with regular looking cars in front and back. The semi truck hauling this trailer looked like a regular old semi truck, like the ones who have the big boxes. But the cars that were escorting this load had amber lights on the tops of their vehicles. They also had yellow signs with “OVERSIZE LOAD” printed in black letters on them. They both had CB antennas too. I recognized them as Pilot Cars I’d seen before with Mobile Homes.
I changed lanes into the fast lane and started around this weird looking and massively long load. As soon as I started to go past it all I could think was “If that guy comes over on me, I’m dead”. I don’t mind saying it spooked me a little. I didn’t mean to slow down, but that’s what I did. The Pilot who was behind the load switched over into the same lane I was in and flashed his headlights at me. I had no clue why he was doing this, but I mashed on it and got around that load as quick as I could!
I think all of us have seen the Pilot Cars who escort Mobile Homes. These were just like those. I had a basic idea of what their job was and I thought to myself; “Self, you could do that!”
Over the next few months I started to see more of these huge white things heading up I-84 and they seemed to come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. Finally I stopped at the truck stop in Troutdale, Oregon and asked one of the drivers of the “regular” sized semi’s what they were. “Wind Turbine Components” he answered, just a bit on the gruff side. Before I could think, I asked “What’s a Wind Turbine?”. The expression on his face spoke loudly and I got back in my car and left the truck stop.
During the 1970’s, there were a couple experimental Windmills up in Goldendale, Wa. Their blades were red and white. As a pre-teen kid I thought they were HUGE! They made a “Whoosh, Whoosh” sound and it seemed like the ground vibrated a little bit. It was crazy cool! After a conversation with my sister, I realized those old windmills up in the gorge were early versions of Wind Turbines.
An old photo of one of the Wind Turbines in the Goldendale, Wa hills circa 1978
I started looking around on the internet and found out what a modern day wind turbine was, how they were made, what the parts were and most of all, how they transported them. Then I started to research how to become a Pilot Car Driver in Washington State, where I live.
The biggest thing I learned, and damned quick, is there aren’t any classes ANYWHERE that a person signs up for and takes that teaches you HOW to become a Pilot Car Driver. This industry is based literally on the “School of Hard Knocks”.
The first thing I had to do was to get a certification to operate a Pilot Car. In Washington State the only place to get one was located north of Seattle. I was able to sign up and pay my $300 fee online for the course well in advance of when I had to actually attend it. I received a study guide in the mail and started studying. Now this was in 2018 and before “On-Line classes” or “Zoom” meetings were even a thing. Needless to say if you needed to get a new certification or renew your old one, you had to find a place to go to a class and not every state had a testing facility.
I live near the Columbia River, which is our state’s southern border and had to go within about an hour of our northern border. This meant I had to travel some 200 miles to get to the testing facility and spend a day in class. At that time, 200 miles was a long way to drive so I decided to head up there the day before, get a motel and be ready to go the next morning.
I arrived early and there were already a few vehicles there. More people started to arrive in all types of Pilot Cars. Passenger vehicles, Pick-ups, full size and minivans of all conditions were pulling in and parking. A few of these Pilots were getting out of their vehicles as though they had stayed the night in their rigs, right there in the parking lot! It kind of took me aback and made me a little curious. There was time before class where people greeted other Pilots they knew and pretty much every one visited with everyone else. I stood there listening and soaking in as much info as I could.
Then I noticed the license plates. Very few were from Washington State. They were from all over, there were even rigs with Texas plates. I actually laughed about it and said something to one of the gentlemen standing next to me. He nonchalantly said “Oh yeah, we’re from all over.” He asked if this was my first time getting my certification. Now, I’m sure by the expression on my face and the way I was gawking at all the rigs, I didn’t have to say yes, but I did. He chuckled and said “Welcome to the game!”.
What an understatement.
Somewhere in a state that I didn’t need to run with my top signup.
The class lasted about 8 hours. There was a test that had about 50 questions on it. They went over required equipment, safety, flagging basics, Oversize Load Permits etc. It was all super basic information about communicating with your team and how to keep the “Motoring Public” safe when traveling near and around an oversized load.
I really learned more about the job and what I needed to do to be ready to hit the road from listening and chatting with people who were in the class. There was a chapter in the study guide listing the basic equipment I needed to buy. There was also a little blurb about insurance. Standard car insurance wasn’t gonna cut it. In fact if I didn’t have commercial insurance, there wouldn’t be any of the heavy haul companies who would even talk to me.
After taking and passing my Pilot Car Certification test I drove home. The next day I started researching where to get my needed equipment for the vehicle and try to figure out what my options were for the insurance.
I was able to order most of the things I needed through Amazon. My first amber light bar was 18” long and plugged into my cigarette lighter. It had magnets to hold it onto the roof of my truck. I ordered 18” orange flags on wooden dowels, an 18” stop/slow paddle, A yellow high-viz construction vest, first aid kit, a handheld cb radio, a set of 3 collapsible triangles, 2 “OVERSIZE LOAD” banners and 3 orange plastic cones. About $300 later I had most of my basic equipment to get me going.
I picked up a fire extinguisher at Costco and I had an old beat up CB radio and antenna up in our family’s shop. I was shocked when I hooked it up in my truck and the damn thing actually turned on. As a CB’er in the ‘80s, I had a pretty good working knowledge of how to get it set up and how to use it.
My current CB, a “President Bill” by President radios. Above that is the controller formyamber lightbar. To the left of that is an external speaker for the CB.
I fiddled around with it in my driveway talking to local logging and construction truck drivers. It got out really good for its age and I was able to hear the drivers who were responding to me pretty well too.
Thank god for Google! I started looking for Commercial Insurance Companies and making calls. After a morning of phone calls and a couple pots of coffee this is what I found out.
Finding insurance companies who cover Pilot Cars were few and far between. They were also ungodly expensive. But I finally found a company up near Seattle that worked with a lot of logging companies and they insured Pilot Cars. I had a 2003 Ford F150 Crew cab and the commercial insurance for the year was over $3500. I found out later that amount was pretty cheap. I was in my early 50’s and had a perfect driving record.
I then learned I needed to have a business license. OIY! I was really overwhelmed at the amount of paperwork it took to get it. I worked for 3 days solid and had finally figured out a name I wanted for my business, got my business license application turned into the state and filed for my IRS tax ID number. About $500 later I felt good about my accomplishments.
But WAIT! I had no one to work for! I looked up a few companies who transported Oversize loads and they all said they went through “Brokers” for their Pilots. So I naively started my new entrepreneurial endeavor working for an unscrupulous broker I had met while taking my Certification Course. What a nightmare THAT turned out to be! He charged me a 25% broker fee, gave me absolutely no guidance and ended up owing me over $2500 after 3 months of working. I decided right there and then I wouldn’t be working for any broker based on this experience.
A great example of an overheight load with its pole car out front. *Thanks to one of my O/S drivers, Scott from Indiana for the image.
So once again, I had no one to work for. Well, Martha shit the damn bed! Back to the truck stop in Troutdale I went. There were quite a few Oversize loads parked behind the store and If I saw the driver was sitting in their seat, and awake, I’d ask if I could pick their brains about Piloting. I can’t remember a single driver turning me down when I asked them about the Oversize/Over Dimensional trucking industry. Sometimes it was the opposite. I could hardly get away from them!
I started taking notes and writing down the Company names from the sides of these trucks. Then I saw a weird looking trailer that had a sort of half round and lumpy thing on it. It was covered with white shrink wrap and as I drove over to it I saw the word “Goldwind” printed in blue letters on the plastic and realized this had to be a wind component. Turns out it was a “Hub”. This is the part that the turbine blades are bolted onto.
That one driver, who took time out of his day to talk to me about Piloting Wind Components literally changed the course of my Piloting career and was a key part of my becoming a Pilot Car Driver for Wind Energy. I can’t remember his name or who he drove for and I’ve never seen him again.
Since then, I’ve been as far as Western Tennessee, Escorted Blades out of the Port of Houston, Texas, ran with components into Alberta, Canada and all over the midwest. I’ve made a pretty good living out of Piloting and met/made friends with some really extraordinary people from all walks of life and from all over the United States and Canada.
Getting ready to head out for a night move. The lighted sign is a Canadian style top sign. The white pole is my “height pole” or “high pole” set to 6″ above the height ofthe pole.
I’ve been Piloting pretty much just in Wind Energy. It’s not that I’m opposed to Piloting other types of Oversize/Overdimensional loads; I just really enjoy wind loads. Most of them are classified as “Super Loads” which are most commonly over 16” wide, 16” high’ at least 125” long and 200,000lbs or above.
No matter how many times I see these monster sized component loads, I’m blown away by them. Just the logistics it takes to get them from one place to another is mind-boggling. When you add the amount of people involved in getting them transported, the crews and equipment it takes to not only load them on and off the trailers but the people involved in actually putting all the pieces together and getting them set up in the wind farms, it’s really unbelievable.
Wind Turbine components on a wind farm sitting at the foot of a tower waiting for the blades to arrive so the techs can finish the Turbine installation.
I got side tracked there and all that mess will be saved for another blog post. Piloting is definitely not for everyone. I’ve learned how to save my money for lean times. I’ve had to learn how to pee between the open doors on my rig as with these loads there isn’t always a restroom readily available. I’ve learned how to deal with different types of personalities which has made me a much more tolerant person. The endless waiting for permits has taught me patience. But I think the biggest thing I’ve gotten out of piloting is this: it’s truly a way of life. When people ask what I do for work, I tell them I’m a Pilot Car Driver. Most people look at me a little on the befuddled side and say “Oh”. It always makes me chuckle.
Miss Sarah Etc. 