A heli of a way to do it

Fairly often in the afternoons lately we hear a lot of helicopter noise in the area. We’ve been able to just catch glimpses of them from our deck, so we knew it was some kind of construction thing.

Yesterday we walked down the road and got to see up close.

Turns out they’re restoring the parkland trails and bridges washed out in the January storms. The helicopter is hauling out debris and soil, while hauling in lumber etc.

The precision and confidence of the pilot and the ground crew were impressive. The chopper drops the canvas waste container onto a pile and then sort of bounces up and down (still flying of course) to release the harness catch somehow.

Then it flies that dangling line over to where the other guys have a load all strapped up and ready to go. We watched them put on a big pre-assembled footbridge section. Snik snak click, and away he goes.

It must be enormously expensive to hire a helicopter like that. But it would also be expensive to hike all material a mile into the bush, and take a heli of a lot longer. (See what I did there? Heli?🤣 When I’m 90 I hope I still think I’m hilarious)