Ice sculptor turns heads on Winnipeg's Aberdeen Avenue with replica of police chopper

A frozen, life-size replica of Winnipeg's police helicopter has landed in the middle of a street in the city's North End.

The giant, 300-kilogram ice sculpture is the latest creation of Leigh Keast, who turned heads on Aberdeen Avenue just before Christmas with his representation of Santa's sleigh, compete with reindeer.

Now the sled is gone, replaced by an nearly 2.5-metre-tall replica of Air1, which Keast has dubbed "Air2."

"To me, it's just a glorified snowman, really," he said.

There's no trick to Keast's sculpting technique — he says it's just a matter of wetting snow and moulding it into shape. He works off photos which he finds on Google, constantly referring back to the image in his mind's eye.

"I just keep looking at a picture for three or four days ... and it just imprints in my mind."

Real glass, moving rotor

Using materials he salvaged as part of his job as a building manager, Keast fitted out Air2 with real glass windows, bucket seats and a moving rotor.

Unlike Santa's sleigh, which took him about six weeks to build, the helicopter took only a week or so, thanks to the recent cold weather.

"When it's cold, it freezes instantly, so I don't have to wait. In this weather, you only have to give it a couple of hours and it freezes right away."

To ensure the helicopter doesn't crash, Keast reinforced its angled legs with steel rods. He said he's learned the hard way how important it is to build his creations to last.

"I make them super-strong because people will vandalize them if you don't."