Conference 7.286::digital

They'll be unavailable to the general net, but power is not going off in
building 3, as I read the announcement.  That island will remain running,
though cut off except for dialup.

/john

    
    
    	Huh?  I must have missed that announcement!  (?)
    

    .0 (after the UFO from the Comet comes and picks up all the dead 
    .0  programmers)
    
    The aliens will be busy - they are scheduled to come to CXO sunday 
    and monday to process.. - ZK0 will have to wait to be 
    assimulated  :-<
                  .
    	           . 
                   
    

    Assimulation? What's that, the south-bound end of a north-bound
    avatar?

    re: ZKO shutting down this weekend
    
    ZKO is supposed to be a waste-land this weekend.  They're doing
    part 1 of 2 in using cargo helicopters to move large air conditioning
    units from the parking lot onto the ZK1 and ZK2 buildings.  They've
    essentially ordered an "evacuation" of the building for the whole
    weekend (block off the driveway so no one can get in).  Plus, 
    they're shutting the power in ZK1 and ZK2 down to do the work.
    
    Soooo - ZK3 will have power, but noone can get to the building
    physically, many of the routing areas (that live in ZK1) will
    be down due to power out - so your only bet is to dial in from
    home if you need to work over the weekend.  If you work in ZK1 or 2 -
    find something else to do.........
    
    andy
    
    ps - talking w/security, apparently the helicopters circle the 
    building before landing, and if they find ANY physical activity
    around the building, they won't do the work.  Considering there
    are only a handful of these copters in the US, Digital would lose
    a few $$$$$ if this scheduled move were called off.
    

    
     I guess Fidelity won't by the plant without proper
    AC......
    
    (That was a joke)

>    ps - talking w/security, apparently the helicopters circle the 
>    building before landing, and if they find ANY physical activity
>    around the building, they won't do the work.  


Interesting.  A number of people (non Digital) tend to walk up the access
road, or through the woods, or through Oracle's parking lot on daily
walks.  Those people most likely will not have heard about this shutdown
and hence show up for their walks anyway.

-joe

    Yep, I was planning on talking a walk with my camera on Saturday just
    in case I saw a random helicopter crashing into the buildings.  I
    wonder if they will put barbed-wire around the perimeter and rent some
    guard dogs?  :-)
    
    				-John

    Nah, they'll just hire a couple of helicopter gunships to fly ahead
    of the cargo jobs.

	I can hear "Flight of the Valkyries" in my head now...


								mike

    "Ride of the Valkyries" ?

The Tara may be the best place from which to watch...

    Back around '84 or so I was part of the team that designed and built
    the clean room test area at the Hudson semiconductor facility. Part of
    the job required lifting two huge air conditioning units to a location
    near the center of the building. The distance from the edge of the
    building was too far for a crane to reach. One of those monster
    helicopters was the solution.
    
    The entire site had to be evacuated. Even the security guards were not
    allowed to remain inside. We were told that it was an FAA requirement
    for that type of overhead lifting. It was scheduled on a Sunday so that
    impact to the site would be minimal. Most of us that were working on
    the project did show up, just to watch from way out in the parking lot.
    The whole thing was actually rather disappointing. Those folks were so
    good at it that they had the entire job finished in maybe 10 minutes.
    
    Harry
    

	Well, a Sikorsky SkyCrane just landed in Parking Lot A. I
	truly impressive helicopter.

							mike

    I'm assuming there were no cars in parking lot A when it landed. :-)
    
    The wash from those puppies will generate enough sand being thrown
    around to give your new paint job a nice sand-blasting touch. :-)
    
    Bob

N-number                      : N163AC
Aircraft Serial Number        : 64093
Aircraft Manufacturer         : SIKORSKY
         Model                : S-64F
Engine   Manufacturer         : P & W
         Model                : JFTD 12A
Aircraft Year                 : 1970
Owner Name                    : ERICKSON AIR CRANE CO
Owner Address                 : PO BOX 3247
                                CENTRAL POINT, OR, 97502     
Registration Date             : 25 Aug 1992
Airworthiness Certificate Type: Standard
Approved Operations           : Transport

Lot A has been blocked off for several days.

Is the copter black? :-)

			Steve

RE: <<< Note 5230.16 by jammer.zko.dec.com::Jack "Marty Jack" >>>

For a picture of a similar ship (N172AC I think) owned by Erickson on the Web,
see: 

	http://www.greenheart.com/alexcalder/heli/erickson1.html

Aircraft N163AC here in Nashua has external ferry tanks and a large sling load
stabilization unit that N172AC lacks.
						-- Tom

    Lets see, made in  1970. That makes it an antique.

    A one year old server is older than a twenty-seven year old
    helicopter.  Or something like that...

RE: .19

	May have even seen service overseas in a small Asian nation..

RE: .18

	That one looks like it has the firefighting apparatus on it.

	Amazing the stuff you'll find on the web.

							mike

    RE: .15 Sand-blasting
    
    The entire lot A was cleaned with a street-sweeper on Tuesday for this
    very reason.  Lot A has been closed all week.  Right now, it has the
    copter as well as close to 10 or so air-handling units to be lifted
    to the roofs of the buildings.
    
    				-John

Not black.  Orange just like the one in the web picture.
Only a cab on it though.  No back half of the body.
Just a pair of 250 ? gallon tanks and a big lifting gizmo.
It has the same color coded rotor blade things.

There are 10 A/C units to be removed and 10 larger ones
to be installed.  (Presumably they'll use the other half
of the A lot to land the old ones).

Anyone have a clue about why they're scheduled to do more
work in three weeks?

A. How many tons can the helicopter in lot A lift without straining ?

B. What is the weight of each of the HVAC units ? I saw ten in the lot.

C. What is the rental cost / day (pilot and crew included of course) ?

   Not that I'm planning to rent...

D. How many more years of useful service could this helicopter provide ?

   Assuming proper maintainence, etc.


Ed

> What is the rental cost

Enough that the shutdown/evac notices all say that the lift cannot be
rescheduled.  But it's cheap enough that using these copters is SOP
for installing ski lift towers (and possibly the concrete footings
at the base of the towers).

I presume that this is going to take place on Sat.
Anybody have any idea what time this is suppose to
all start?

    Given the weather forecast, there is a chance that they cannot
    do the work.  High winds and rain would certainly delay it.
    
    				-John

    I heard that it was going to happen at 2:30 on Saturday.

re: Note 5230.24 

>A. How many tons can the helicopter in lot A lift without straining ?

Stenciled information onth helicopter says maximum external load 
25,000 lbs.  I think this would include the external fuel tanks --
mayb 5000 lbs for them.  Leaves 20,000 useful load.  I think I've seen
that the maximum planned lift is a bit of 16,000.

>B. What is the weight of each of the HVAC units ? I saw ten in the lot.

16,000 + ????

>C. What is the rental cost / day (pilot and crew included of course) ?

The number being circulated is $4000/hour.  Don't know if this includes
travel time.

>D. How many more years of useful service could this helicopter provide ?

Don't know.

    re: useful life
    Essentially infinite.
    An aircraft can be completely rebuilt underneath the registration;
    in the eyes of the FAA it's still the same machine.
    K
    

    The crane operators will also be running with the minimum needed fuel
    to perform the tasks. Sometimes during extended operations they will
    perform a hot refueling with the fuel measured out in 5 gallon cans. 
    
    There was a sky-crane accident where the operator had to extend his
    hover time over the site and lost power. Crashed into the 10 story
    building. 
    
    Renis

    They've also got an order in for a large quantity of sand. 
    
    If the helicopter can't do the work, they're going to build large
    ramps out of the sand up the sides of the buildings, cut down a
    bunch of trees to make into logs, and round up a very large number
    of slaves (or programmers if other slaves can't be found) to push
    the air conditioners up the ramps on the log rollers to the roofs.

	This Old Software Development Site?

							mike

They should keep a helicopter hovering over all software development sites; I
hear the downwash keeps the bugs away.

						Brian

RE: <<< Note 5230.23 by DECCXL::OUELLETTE "temerity time" >>>

>Just a pair of 250 ? gallon tanks and a big lifting gizmo.

The tanks say 556 gallon capacity.
						-- Tom

A fuel semi-trailer truck of fuel just showed up for the big lift.  They
said the helicopter will use around 600 gallons of jet fuel an hour. 
They do not put any fuel in the external's during the lift, to keep the
weight down for the lift.  They must be for ferrying.  A 'tool'
truck/trailer also showed up with all the goodies they need to do
repairs.

There are stickers from customs and something about Mexico on it, so it
has been around.

Someone 'said' the helicopter is out of KY and flies around 115 knots.

It has room for 3 people.  2 facing forward and one facing backwards
performing the lowering/raising.

It weighs 22k and can lift 25k, we were told...

	- mark

    
>Someone 'said' the helicopter is out of KY
    
    
    	So soon?  You figure they would have brought enough for the entire
    	job.  What will they use to slide the HVAC units into place now?
    
    	Must be a pain in the butt to run out, I'd guess.
    

    Ok guys/gals (kids?)...I assume all of ZKO population is having a party 
    outside watching and keeping the workers from doing their job. Hope 
    nobody gets hurt trying to read the manufacturer label off of the HVAC 
    units while they're in the air. Btw...what's the label saying about the
    BTU?
    
    Guenther

    	My first job out of college was for a division of a helicopter lift
    company (Carson Helicopters, Perkasie, PA).  They were one of the first
    companies doing it and made lots of $$$, which of course attracted lots
    of competitors later on.  All of the pilots were trained by the Army in
    Viet Nam, got to hear lots of intertesting stories about there plus
    some of the stuff they did on the road here. (such as landing in a
    Holiday Inn parking lot and blowing all the deck chairs into the pool).
    
    	Fascinating stuff.

Watched them do the lift Sat. morning.  Impressive to say the least.
They were fast, took them 3 minutes per unit, less than 15 minutes for
the 4 units that I watched, and that included a landing to check
something on the helicopter.  Not a wasted movement.  Watched from the
parking lot so I couldn't see to much of the building operation.
But I think that what impressed me most the was the speed of the operation,
I timed two of the lifts and it was just under 3 minutes from the time
he departed with one unit until he was departing with the next one.

Bob...

    I'm sure they don't mess around. Burning a gallon of jet fuel every six
    seconds makes efficiency pretty important!
    

    .37 you have an evil mind. 
    
    Well done, though.

    
    	Some would say it's a gift.
    
    	But the sane among us probably disagree.
    

>>    	Some would say it's a gift.

That would be "Gift", and they were speaking German.

						Brian

    
    	I don't speak German, but I figure the odds are good that you
    	didn't just compliment me.
    

    Gift [German] = poison

    
    	Oh, then it's not as uncomplimentary as I thought.
    
    	8^)