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Cool times thanks to ‘grasshopper’
How does a school district replace huge, rooftop evaporative cooling units at seven schools in two weeks?
By Tamra Monahan
Simple. It uses a helicopter that looks like a giant orange grasshopper.
That’s exactly what the Douglas County School District used to take the units, weighing about 10,000 pounds each, off the schools’ rooftops and replace them with new systems. And with year-round schools, the district had only two weeks to make the switch and have every elementary school ready for opening day July 10.
The task was accomplished with the help of Erickson Air Crane, a company specializing in using helicopters as cranes to lift large objects and accurately place them where they need to go.
The 88-foot, S-64 air crane hired by the school district features a rear-facing pilot station and has the capacity for a 12,500-pound payload.
Erickson has the only helicopters in the world specifically designed for this type of precision operation, said Erickson Assistant Operations Manager Robert Chambers.
The helicopters can accomplish tasks ordinary ground cranes are unable to perform.
“Typically customers hire us to do lift work for a variety of reasons, but usually it’s because we can reach where ground cranes cannot reach because the stick is just not long enough,” he said.
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