CHOPPERS CUT THE WORK
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DELEGATES to a helicopter symposium in Fort William last week were told of the helicopter's potential for road transport operators.
Major "one-off" civil engineering projects which require the construction of expensive access roads can often be handled more easily and more quickly by helicopter.
Don Courtney of British Airways Helicopters said that a project in Bristol which took two and a half hours by helicopter, would have taken three weeks by lorry_ Twenty-two air conditioning units had to be installed on a hypermarket roof and would have needed to be taken over two new access roads. No crane could have done the job.
BAH did the job for less than one third of the 05,000 estimated for the road operation.
There is also scope for their use in remote areas for electric pylon construction. In the Virginia Swamp in the USA, skycrane helicopters had in stalled pylons at a rate minutes each, including I time.
Such work allowed transport to concentrat more cost-effective work Captain Eric Brown a British Helicopter Adv Board and Dr Paul MacK of the Scottish Health I called for a helicopter-I civil emergency service.
This could follow the le a West German service v undertakes autobahn acc relief.
Operated by ADAC — valent of the AA — it is al fly over tailbacks of ti from serious accident reach victims. Often, ambulances have diffic by-passing road obstacle: victims die before help ct summoned.
German insurance panies placed a 00,000 r nal value on each humar and the ADAC helical were able quickly to pay their capital cost through saved.
The symposium was 01 ised jointly by the Highl and Islands Developr Board and the Br Helicopter Advisory B and attracted around 160 gates from many spheri Highland and transport li: