Meet the maintenance man who walks the Space Needle's halo

June brings the start of Seattle's tourist season. Perhaps the busiest camera-clicking location in town is hundreds of feet in the air: the Space Needle's observation deck. Up there, visitors' eyes will open widest when they spy one of the rooftop crew that keeps the Needle looking sharp. Here's a look at "How It's Done."

Fifty years ago, in 1959, a Seattle businessman and civic booster named Edward Carlson drew a bulbous shape on a restaurant place mat — the first imaginings of what would become the Space Needle. Ten years ago, this icon of the Northwest became an official city historic landmark.

And in 2006, Valeriy Palanchuk, who had emigrated from Moldova to Seattle, joined the Needle's maintenance staff — a crew of six that has grown to 10.

By doing so, he became a member of an exclusive club. These are the people who plant the 12th-man flag at the top, or the Stars and Stripes on national holidays. They are the ones who string holiday lights 600 feet off the ground.

The only thing between them and their maker is federally approved equipment, including a harness, nylon lines, ropes and sundry clips.

So, it was with squeamish fascination that I watched the 43-year-old Palanchuk venture outside to the "halo" — that flying-saucer disk surrounding the Needle's observation deck. Nonchalantly, he clipped in and walked the entire circumference on a sloping platform that is just a tad over 3-feet wide.

He walked as if on a Sunday stroll, snapping his lifeline through each junction. He walked backward, forward, sideways and did a small, playful hop for the tourists who gasped and snapped pictures. Wayne Hennecke, from Houston, was shocked. "What is he doing?" Told that the man on the halo was a professional at work, Hennecke said, "Well, that's remarkable. People who do that have to be emotionally equipped. I'm not."

Once Palanchuk came back inside, he answered my questions with boyish grins and pleasantly accented English.

Q: You come all the way from Moldova and end up working on the Space Needle. Does that surprise you?

A: I grew up learning this kind of work, mechanical things. My father could fix anything. I studied refrigeration and electronics. I was in the military and even had a watch-repair shop at 16. When I came here, I studied refrigeration and electronics in a two-year program. But I did it in one.

Q: Including learning English?

A: I had no choice.

Q: How did you get this job?

A: I saw a newspaper ad for a facilities engineer.

Q: But you never worked so high off the ground. What prepared you for that?

A: I've worked on construction jobs and here is safer than some of those, I think.

Q: Were you afraid the first time you went out on the halo or the roof?

A: No. I was always comfortable.

Q: What do you and the other facilities engineers do?

A: We take care of the Space Needle from base to top. If anything breaks, we fix it. We replace the lights — 48 on the halo and 24 on the roof.

Q: Which puts you back outside. How much weight do those OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)-approved lines hold?

A: (looks at the label) Five thousand pounds.

Q: How much do you weigh?

A: 165 pounds.

Q: OK, that's good. What's the most difficult job?

A: I think replacing the airplane-warning light at the top. That's not so comfortable for me. One time it went out at night. I was the only one on duty, so I had a security guy watch me just in case.

Q: What makes that job so hard?

A: The beacon is at the very top [605 feet] and sits inside a disk. It's like a big wok. I hook up at the bottom, go through all the lights, then, at the top of the mast, I have to pull myself up about 8 feet higher to be in the "nest" and change the bulb.

Q: That sounds really scary.

A: It's part of the job. It doesn't happen too often. I got lucky. You never know who will be on duty when it goes out.

Q: Lucky?

A: You're up there by yourself and there is nothing over you or around you. It's like flying, like in that movie "Titanic" on the bow.

Q: Did you yell, "I'm king of the world?"

A: No, but I stayed a few more minutes just to enjoy it.

Q: What's your favorite job?

A: I like working out on the halo the most. And when I do this job, people enjoy it. They take pictures. I let them take pictures for a little, but then I need to work.

Q: You must be in millions of photo albums all over the world. What else?

A: This winter, we had icicles and snow on the halo. One person held a bag under the ice and the other cut it. We used 15-foot brooms to sweep the snow off.

Q: Was it slippery?

A: We're careful where we walk.

Q: What about wind?

A: If the wind is 70 miles an hour [sustained], we close the elevator in the direction of the wind and the other elevator runs at half its normal speed. We can't go out on the halo if it's 35 miles an hour.

Q: What's your favorite time of the day out there?

A: Sunset. The buildings get red and shine. I like the views most of all.

Q: One of the Space Needle marketing lines is "live the view."

A: Yes. I live the view every day.

Connie McDougall, a Seattle-based freelance writer, is a regular contributor to NWWeekend.