PRINCETON, Mass. - Ski season is long over, but there was still some big air action at Mount Wachusett on Wednesday as a helicopter pilot flew pieces of the ski area’s old chairlift off the slopes.

Alex Arcangeli, the ski area’s mountain operations manager, said the mountain is upgrading to a new lift with the capacity to carry six people per chair, marking the end of the Polar Express Quad which had been in service for roughly 30 years.

“It’s actually the least impactful means of doing this versus getting cranes and building roads and what not,” Arcangeli said. “It’s not every day you see a ski lift tower flying through the air.”

The helicopter was also used to help bring parts of the new chairlift up the mountain.

“Basically, the new concrete forming was dropped off in areas that it’s next to impossible to access without significant infrastructure work,” Arcangeli said. “We brought in about seven of those, and there’s still six more in the parking lot that we can access from existing roads or the base area here.”

The mountain is aiming to have the new chairlift open sometime in early December, and the helicopter pilot managed to complete his part of the project in one day.

“Logistically, we had about 30 different people dedicated just to this project, between Wachusett Mountain Ski Area, Doppelmayer, not to mention the folks at DCR and natural heritage that helped make this possible today. So  thanks to those folks for the permitting and making sure we were doing this with all the environmental concerns addressed.”