A rooftop chiller does not fail at a convenient time. It fails in the first hot week of November, and the replacement can be on a truck in three weeks. The question is how it gets from the truck to the plant deck.
On a building with a loading dock and a clear kerb, a mobile crane is still the right answer. But a high-rise plant deck sits behind a parapet, well back from the building line, and the only place a crane can stand is the road. At that point the lift becomes a weekend street closure, a traffic management plan and a crane in the 100-tonne-plus class, and a helicopter becomes the simpler way to do it.
This guide is for the facilities manager, building manager, mechanical contractor or body corporate committee who has to organise that lift: the eight weeks before the aircraft arrives, who is responsible for what, the day itself, what it costs, and when to book the crane anyway.
Why rooftop plant is the classic helicopter job
Every helicopter lift comes down to what the site adds to the crane's floor. We walked through that in Helicopter or crane?; for rooftop plant it is usually two things.
Setback versus radius. A crane's capacity drops sharply with distance. A 580 kg chiller 9 m back from the building line on a 14-storey roof is not heavy, but it is a long way from anywhere a crane can stand, and the crane that can reach it needs half a day to rig and arrives on several trucks. A helicopter on a long line does not care about radius.
No street closure. The aircraft never touches the street. The exclusion zone is usually the building footprint and its forecourt or car park, held by our marshals for the 20 to 40 minutes the load is in the air. Add tenants trading below, a car park that cannot close, and a chiller that is already failing, and the helicopter is often the only option that fits the building's calendar.
The eight-week timeline, counted back from lift day
Eight weeks is comfortable. We have done it faster for a dead chiller, but most of these steps belong to other people and do not compress well. If you are starting from a failed unit, call us first.
Weeks 8 to 6: weights, rigging points and structure
Get certified weights and lifting points from the OEM. Not the catalogue dry weight: the new unit as it will be lifted, with options, and the drained weight of the old one, plus the certified lifting lugs or approved sling arrangement. Our working limit on the AS350 is 800 kg on the hook. A heavier unit is split into components or flown on a heavy lift aircraft up to 4,000 kg, but we need to know now.
Roof structural sign-off. A structural engineer nominates the landing point and confirms the roof can carry the unit plus the dynamic load of placement, and checks the plinth and the rigging pair's route from roof access.
Request a lift. Send the address, weights and a photo of the plant deck through Request a lift. We review airspace, populous-area status and obstacles before quoting, then attend the site to photograph approaches, measure the exclusion zone and confirm laydown positions.
Weeks 6 to 3: airspace, notices and the mechanical scope
CASA and Airservices coordination. Everything inside the Brisbane control zone, including the whole CBD, is Class C airspace and needs an ATC clearance and a coordinated slot, which we file with Brisbane Approach. Slung loads over built-up areas fly under CASA approval with a defined jettison corridor, so the flight path runs over the river, rail corridors, parkland or the site itself rather than occupied buildings. Allow five to ten business days on a first-time rooftop. This is our job, but it is why we need the address and laydown position early.
Laydown area. The new unit is staged and the old one lands inside the flight corridor. On Turbot Street that was a closed car park deck two blocks north. The corridor can move the pickup point several blocks, so do not promise a laydown position until we have confirmed it.
Body corporate and tenant notice. Tenants need the date, the window, the exclusion zone and the instruction to stay off the roof, forecourt and laydown area. For a strata building that usually means a committee resolution and written notice to lot owners.
Confirm the mechanical contractor's program: old unit isolated, degassed, drained and disconnected before the window; new unit connected and commissioned after it.
Weeks 3 to 1: documents and rigging
SWMS issued. We issue a task-specific Safe Work Method Statement before mobilisation covering downwash, exclusion zone control, hook-up and release, load release failure, communications loss and emergency landing areas. It sits beside your contractor's SWMS for the roof work.
Old unit decommissioned. Refrigerant recovered by a licensed technician, circuits drained, pipework and electrical disconnected, unit cut free and pre-rigged. A unit still bolted down at 06:00 on lift day costs you the slot.
Reserve day. From October to March, storms build from early afternoon in south-east Queensland, so we fly at first light and hold a same-week reserve day. Light rain is fine; wind above limits, low cloud and thunderstorms are not. Put the reserve day in the tenant notice.
Who does what
We handle everything from the sling upward; your contractors handle everything from the sling downward.
Helicopter Lifting: the AS350, pilot and loadmaster; a rooftop rigging pair and a street-level ground controller on a discrete frequency; long line, remote release hook and four-leg sling set; airspace approvals and flight path design; site assessment, SWMS, load plan and signed JSA; exclusion zone marshalling; and a close-out record of loads placed, cycles flown, hours and photographs.
Mechanical contractor: OEM weights and lifting points; isolation, refrigerant recovery, draining, pipework and electrical disconnection; cutting the old unit free for rigging; plinth and anti-vibration mounts ready; reconnection, charging, termination and commissioning after placement.
The building: roof structural sign-off; roof access and a safe working platform at the plinth; the laydown area; tenant, lot owner and neighbour notification; council arrangements only if the laydown area is on a road. Council is not the approver for the flight itself.
If a step is not on one of those lists, ask whose it is before week 3, not on the morning.
The day itself
A single-unit swap is a short, intense hour. The crew is on site about an hour before the slot. A Job Safety Analysis is completed with all parties before the first pick and signed by the pilot in command and the loadmaster, then everyone inside the exclusion zone is briefed on frequencies, hand signals, abort calls, load path and ground positions. Anyone can call a stop. The rigging pair confirms the old unit is free and rigged. The ground controller sets the exclusion zone, typically 60 m on a CBD building, and the marshals hold it.
The aircraft arrives from Archerfield (18 minutes to the CBD), picks the old unit off the deck and flies it to the laydown area, then brings the new unit back to the plinth. The pilot places it onto the mounts within centimetres, the rigging pair releases the hook and the aircraft departs. Flight time on task is about 20 minutes for a one-out, one-in swap. With a 06:00 to 09:00 slot the exclusion zone is lifted before most tenants arrive, and the contractor has the rest of the day for reconnection and commissioning.
What it costs
Our AS350 is $3,500 an hour on task, billed in six-minute increments, with a four-hour minimum of $14,000 ex GST. A site factor is applied: 1.00 clear site, 1.18 suburban backyard, 1.30 steep or remote, 1.36 island or over water, 1.42 CBD rooftop. The CBD factor covers controlled airspace coordination, populous-area flight path design, site assessment and the larger ground crew.
A single-unit swap on a Brisbane CBD rooftop therefore starts at about $19,900 ex GST ($14,000 × 1.42). A suburban or industrial rooftop with no airspace complication starts at $14,000. Typical south-east Queensland jobs land between $14,000 and $25,000.
Weight does not change the price. A 260 kg condenser and a 780 kg chiller module are the same lift; 800 kg is a go/no-go line, not a rate step.
Multi-unit days. The four-hour minimum covers far more than one swap, so batching is the biggest saving available. Turbot Street flew two modules out and two in, four cycles, in 48 minutes of flight time, well inside the minimum. Six air handling units at 8 to 10 minutes a cycle is still one mobilisation. Past four hours, time is billed at the hourly rate in six-minute increments, usually still cheaper than a second visit. Regional work is driven by ferry time from Archerfield rather than the lift itself; send the address and we will quote it.
Case study: two 580 kg chiller modules, Turbot Street, Brisbane CBD
A 14-storey building on Turbot Street had two chiller modules failing on a plant deck 9 m back from the building line behind a parapet. The only crane position was a two-lane arterial road: a full weekend closure with traffic management, a three-day program and a quoted $41,500 to $55,500. Building management could not give up tenant access on a weekday.
We flew it in a single Sunday window. Replacement units were staged on a closed car park deck two blocks north. The contractor had the old units cut free and pre-rigged. Riggers worked inside a marked 60 m exclusion zone with a ground controller on a discrete frequency. The old units came off first to clear the deck, then the new ones went on. Four cycles, a 45 m line, a six-person crew, 20 minutes of helicopter time on site, 48 minutes of flight time, no road closure. The deck was signed off before the CBD reopened on Monday. Full write-up on the project page.
The pattern scales. On a Whitsundays island resort, 14 villa condensers at 410 kg were rotated in 28 cycles in one changeover day, trades following the aircraft villa by villa so commissioning finished that evening. No crane could reach those roofs at all.
Pre-lift checklist
Print this and tick it off with your contractor at week 3.
- OEM certified lift weight and dimensions for the new unit, as shipped, with options
- Drained weight of the old unit
- Certified lifting lugs or OEM-approved sling arrangement identified on both units
- Structural engineer's sign-off: landing point, plinth, roof capacity including dynamic load
- Crane-free route from roof access to plinth, safe working platform and edge protection
- Laydown area confirmed with Helicopter Lifting, with permission for the lift date and reserve date
- Airspace approval requested (allow 5 to 10 business days for a first-time CBD rooftop)
- Body corporate resolution or owner approval obtained
- Written tenant, lot owner and neighbour notice issued, including the reserve day
- Contractor's program shows isolation, degas, drain and disconnection complete before the lift window
- Electrical isolation and lock-out confirmed
- Old unit cut free from mounts and pre-rigged the day before
- Plinth and anti-vibration mounts fitted and ready
- Contractor's SWMS and Helicopter Lifting's SWMS both in the site file
- Attendance list for the morning JSA and pre-flight brief
- Reconnection and commissioning crew booked for the rest of lift day
When a crane is still the better call
We would rather you called us for the right job than the wrong one.
The plant is over 800 kg as one piece and cannot be split. Most cooling towers and many chillers fly as modules; a 1.5 t packaged unit the OEM will not let you split is crane work, or a heavy lift aircraft job if the site justifies it.
The unit needs to be held for connection. A helicopter places precisely and then releases. It does not dwell. If the unit must hang while flanges are aligned, that is a crane. The usual fix is a plinth with locating pins so the unit is bolted after release.
A crane can reach it from the loading dock or kerb. If the plant deck is near the edge on a low-rise building, or there is a service road behind it, a 50 to 100 t mobile crane on firm ground will do it for a fraction of our minimum. Setback is what makes the helicopter cheaper; without it, book the crane.
No vertical clearance. The load comes straight down on a long line. A covered plant room, or a deck boxed in by taller buildings, needs a different approach.
If you are not sure, send us both quotes and we will tell you straight.
Parker Aero operates helicopter lifting across Queensland from Archerfield under the Air Operator's Certificate of Bekaa Air Pty Ltd (CASA.AOC.0537, Part 138 aerial work CASA.138AWK.0510). Request a lift or call 0418 878 707.