The Cat arrived this week...
We made a 16' spreader bar to lift with the machine out of 3" steel pipe, with a truss and hook lift. The bar probably would have worked if the tub was sitting on the ground, not still in the ground with lots of surface area drag on the soil around it. We lifted it about 2' before it turned into bent horizontally. We reinforced it with some L channel, but it wasn't enough. We made another spreader with two 16' 6x6" RR ties bolted together and evidently that worked. (I wasn't present at the actual pool removal because I was working).
We were still pumping water out of it in the first picture. We used the water to float the pool up about 8".
This was cut with a sawz-all, it just shows the pool floating up
This is as far was we got with the metal bar, about 2-3' up.
The pool is totally out of the ground and sitting on the lawn right now. We have to re-prep the hole and then it goes back in and the patio re-construction begins. My dad says he made a video of the removal, I'll see if I can post that at some point.