Fun with helicopters...

[Mark A]

We replaced 3 cooling towers on the Regions Bank building in downtown Nashville on Sunday> helicopter lifts are always fun.

Mark

[poak]

Awesome pics!

[Jasongar8]

Cool pictures.

[willis68]

Very Cool

[TNRobocop]

Great pics.

Where were you at for the overhead one? In a different bird or a taller building?

[Mark A]

overehead one was taken from the top of the regions building. Pucker factor was a bit high but not too bad. I just had to figure out a tether for the camera as dropping it would have been really really bad...

the rest are here http://www.pbase.com/alexander_family/regions_lift_11-22

[TGO David]

This is one of the coolest things I've seen posted here.

[creeky]

I've been in printing for 20 years... I've never got to be around helicopters like that.

• Reason Number 412 that printing sucks.

You sir are cool!

You are the kind of guy that makes career day at my kids school a real pain in the butt for me! LOL!!

[Guest SUNTZU]

Very cool.

[oldogy]

Yep, big choppers are cool. Nice pictures, thanks.

oldogy

[bteague2]

Very cool pictures, the second one reminds me of a zombie movie for some reason. Maybe it's because the streets are deserted, and a helicopter flying down in the buildings?

[BigPoppa]

Great pics, Mark

That chopper pilot doesn't have much room for error, does he ?

An "ooops" in that situation would be especially .

[buck1032]

The H-3 airframe is a good aircraft. I cant tell from the pictures if it's a wet head with Biflars or not. Once the rotor head was upgraded it became a smooth helo. I will dig around and post a cool looking helo that was being tested to replace the Navy's CH-46 as the VertRep helo. It was a very interesting design.

[Mark A]

Thanks for the comments guys. Every now and then a boring air conditioning job gets to be fun.

This pilot was really good (they usually are) and I think some of the angles contribute to things looking closer than they really were but it was still some tight flying.

They set the sign on the new pinnacle building before we did our job. That was some great flying in tight quarters. I didn't know they were doing it until they were almost done or I might have gotten some good pics of it.

Mark

[Mark A]

Big Poppa, we have some pretty detailed pre-job briefings before the chopper hits the skies. We go over each lift in different stages. The pilot tells us what he will be doing and the route for each piece. Then he tells us where he will bail and where we should go if a problem develops (fancy speak for run like hell...)

They off load most of their fuel before the lifts start so that they can maximize lift. So, time is precious. Usually the job goes really fast once it starts. A job that might take 2-3 hours with a crane is done in 20 minutes with a helicopter.

Mark

[Guest Cole]

Here is a couple from the Pinnacle sign raising. On the first one you may need to look closely to see the helo and sign.

[Guest SUNTZU]

I'm surprised no one talked to you about taking pictures of buildings and bridges, especially with that sign in the bottom photo.

[strickj]

I'm surprised no one talked to you about taking pictures of buildings and bridges, especially with that sign in the bottom photo.

What sign...

(ok,not the best edit money can buy,but its all Im inclined to do for an internet pic)

Edited November 23, 2009 by strickj

[buck1032]

The Kaman K-MAX

Crap, I seemed to have lost my mind today. I finally get a video to post now I keep messing up the pictures.

http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll253/buck1032/TGO/

Edited November 24, 2009 by buck1032
messed up the picture

[Guest HVAC Worker]

Sweet,if you dont mind me asking what city and the name of the airlift team.Thanks.

[Guest Muttling]

+1 on the cool pics. Makes this one look like child's play.

[BimmerFreak]

Was Evergreen operating that aircraft?