Up
A helicopter pulled three condensing units off the roof of a company headquarters in DuPage County and set them on my truck, one at a time. The three units weighed 16,000 lbs together. The whole lift took about 15 minutes. Then they started hauling the new condensers up onto the roof.
We were on site at 7 in the morning, but the first unit did not come down until around 8:30. Meetings, paperwork and laying everything out take time. Our part of this job is the truck. We spot the trailer where the lift director tells us, keep the deck clear so nothing can blow around under the helicopter, and get chains on each unit while the next one is being rigged up on the roof. We do not touch the helicopter hook. That is a different crew and they are trained for it.
The pictures look strange because the cable under the helicopter is 100 to 200 feet long. You end up with a small helicopter at the top of the frame and a small unit at the bottom. The length is there for a reason: it keeps the rotor wash off the people working on the ground. The units went to the scrap yard, which is what usually happens to a rooftop unit at the end of its life.
