It's Tough in a Tuffa Tank

Clean water around here is provided by channelling rainwater off the roof into a storage tank, that's how we get our water. The plastic tanks used are called 'Tuffa Tanks'.

On the near, right side pipes take the water from our roof into the tanks.

Unfortunately they're just a little bit too bulky for putting inside your average light aeroplane. However, they fly quite nicely beneath the helicopter; once put together, that is. And the easiest way to put them together is to have someone on the inside who can position the nuts on bolts, etc.

Who would be silly enough to be inside a water tank when the lid's put on?

And it was just at the point when we had the lid on the first tank that it went eerily quiet outside and I began to wonder if this was a particularly amusing stitch-up!



Hello, is there anyone out there?

It turns out that everyone just went to discuss what to do next. That turned out to be: put together the second Tuffa Tank.

You'd think I would've learnt by now...

Then we rigged the tanks with chains and ropes to make them transportable by air. And thankfully substituted a bag of concrete for me (no comments, please, as to the relative usefulnesses of the two).

I am now, gratefully, in the helicopter rather than the tank!

And all that remained was to fly the tanks to their destination.

 



Which sounds so simple, but with 50kt winds at height and clouds well above 10,000' it took a couple of attempts to get them there. But we did; in the end.