RivieraPool History 1986: "The Flight of the Polyester Pool"

"Keep the chickens in the coop for now, they'll get the jitters," said the pilot as he inspected the target area, "...and the horses too, of course." Accustomed to flying heavy equipment for the Maltesers' disaster relief service (such as a desperately needed heart-lung machine, for example), this was an emergency of a more harmless nature:

The owners of the Rheinmühle in Großkarlbach wanted to purchase a new polyester pool, and in one single piece at that. For the small village in the Palatinate, this became an event that, firstly, doesn't happen every day and, secondly, provided talking points for many weeks. For the Rheinmühle is a stately estate of four acres (now 1.62 hectares), which is divided into three levels by retaining walls meters high. In what was once the "lower pleasure garden," horses now graze, and the "upper pleasure garden" is to be built upon. One should not be misled by the name "Rheinmühle" (Rhine Mill), as the Rhine flows quite a distance away. Formerly, it was the mill on the ridge ("Rain") and drew its power from the stream by the mill - namely the "Mühlbach." Due to transmission errors over the centuries, the Rainmühle has achieved its current status, while the Mühlbach has remained.

The entire site is sealed off from the access of larger objects by a sturdy, also meters-high wall dating back to the late Middle Ages. The only possible entrance for a flatbed trailer was sacrificed in favor of the riding arena a few years ago. And yet, a swimming pool was already located between the mill buildings and the lower pleasure garden. This had been assembled around 15 years ago from 1.20-meter-wide polyester segments. However, over time, the joints had detached from the gaps, so that "we constantly had to keep the hose in because the water level kept dropping."

Gradually weary of the constant refilling, a renovation was decided upon. The owners could not warm up to the option of a liner, which is usually possible in such cases, and a second concrete basin inside the existing basin was also ruled out: too much damage to the ground. When they believed they had found the cleanest solution for themselves, the problems truly began: another polyester pool, but in one single piece, was to go in there. But how? The idea came out of the blue: in Switzerland, the swimming pool specialist casually remarked, such pools were frequently flown in by helicopters.
With so many mountains... the mill owners liked the idea.

They made some phone calls, but neither the fire department nor the federal armed forces, who thunder over the Palatinate potato fields at low altitude in their Tornados, saw themselves in a position to help. Finally, they came across an air transport agency. This agency has several helicopters stationed, which are mainly ordered by travelers in a hurry. "A swimming pool? No problem," they said. However, there was a catch: the agency's flyers can carry a maximum of 750 kg into the air, but a full-sized polyester pool, including the pilot, weighs almost a metric ton. After some back-and-forth discussion, the flight agent then chartered a helicopter one size larger. This one, however, had to fly in from Cologne. The project was thoroughly prepared: the pilot and two navigators inspected the takeoff and landing sites as well as the flight route a total of three times, because they were not allowed to fly the pool directly over residential areas. On a dreary April morning, everything was ready to go: the flatbed trailer with the swimming pool had rolled in the evening before, not without accidentally almost getting stuck in the narrow alleys of Großkarlbach. The pool was unloaded on a site slightly outside of town.

Before the start, differing opinions among the various participants were once again extensively exchanged. The pilot eventually got his way. He wanted to place the pool precisely into the excavation pit using four steel cables attached to the corners, from which the old polyester segments had been painstakingly milled out. But the pilot had miscalculated. Although his helicopter could generate more power than necessary for the 900 kg of glass-fiber reinforced polyester, he couldn't get the pool into the air at all: the large tub acted like a huge parachute. The man in the cockpit didn't want to change his mind so quickly and kept trying again and again. In the meantime, half the village had already been alarmed by the rattling sound. It was no use: the pool could only be flown hanging from two corner points, which had also been discussed the evening before. But the pilot only had fuel for eight minutes left in the tank, and that was too little for him. He wanted to fly to Worms first to refuel. So, a break.

What happened next took place in the blink of an eye: the helicopter took off, the pool did too, and off they went in a wide arc over the fields. And the whole village stared at the sky with wide eyes, speculating what on earth this was supposed to mean. Even a farmer with his tractor turned around in his field so as not to miss the spectacle, or so it is reported at least. Right on schedule, the heavy machine hovered between the trees over the Rheinmühle with the pool swaying slightly and placed one edge of the pool onto a prepared wooden ramp. A helicopter close to the ground like that makes quite a whirlwind, so that clumps of dirt were flying everywhere. The eight helpers had to grab hold firmly until the pool was positioned in the pit through pulling and tugging so that it could be unhooked. A difficult maneuver for the pilot, since he could hardly see anything in a slightly tilted backward position and had to steer based on the navigator's radio messages.

Once he was rid of the ballast, he veered off briefly and, to everyone's surprise, landed above the retaining wall on a small patch of grass that is separated from the horse paddock as a seating area. He simply had to see how things stood. It seemed that he was satisfied with himself and his work. When the exciting whirlwind of the helicopter had settled, the new pool had been installed, and water was splashing in it, the owners were satisfied too. And if at some point in the annals there is talk of the "helicopter mill," only a few will know how the Rheinmühle came by this name. . .

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Manufacturer of the polyester pool:
Riviera-Pool Fertigschwimmbad GmbH,
Industriestr. 2, 4478 Geeste 1-Dalum
Installation and assembly:
Esslinger Schwimmbecken- und Kunststofftechnik GmbH,
Postfach 149,
7300 Esslingen