Photo submitted An aerial saw trims along a transmission line.

It wasn’t your imagination.

If you saw a giant saw hanging from a helicopter flying through the air in the northwestern part of Warren County recently, you aren’t crazy.

According to information from Todd Meyers with FirstEnergy Group, “People who gazed skyward in certain spots of northwest Pennsylvania over the past two weeks did indeed see what they thought they saw: a white and yellow helicopter equipped with multiple 24-inch rotary blades suspended from a boom, moving slowly along several transmission lines trimming nearby trees.”

A subsidiary of the company, Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission Company conducted trimming across four lines in Warren, Erie and Crawford counties. The saws and helicopters are owned by Aerial Solutions.

According to Meyers, the work was done in anticipation of winter weather.

“Maintaining proper clearances around transmission lines and electrical equipment can help reduce the frequency and duration of tree-related power outages, especially those associated with severe weather,” Meyers said.

In Warren County work was done on part of a line that runs from Youngsville to Wesleyville.

“The aerial saw is typically deployed along transmission lines in areas that are environmentally sensitive or inaccessible to bucket trucks and other vehicles,” Meyers said. “The saw cleanly cuts tree limbs eight to ten inches in diameter, which fall straight to the ground propelled by air blasts from the helicopter rotors. Ground crews move limbs that have fallen onto roadways, yards, agricultural fields or in streams into adjacent wooded areas.”