[QUOTE=noooby;10303760]Completely covered. You need a ladder and a screwdriver and patience to get to the linkage.
I remember delivering a new EC135 T1 to a new owner, during a walk round of the aircraft with him he commented that the tail rotor seemed to be missing a fairing, I pointed out it never had one, to facilitate preflight inspection and daily maintenance. 2 years later I flew the new P2 version that did have a fairing covering the important bits. Being old school I'd rather be able to cast an eye and a torch over the Tail rotor components, the P2 looked tidier but I always thought it was an improvement that actually made things worse.
My only accident was a tail rotor drive failure, thankfully only from a high hover taxi, due to servicing error. The intermediate gearbox came off the tailboom with most of the drive shafts and tail fairings. I'd already completed 4 ground runs to track and vibe the Tail rotor which had had components replaced. The 5 bolts holding the shaft to the IGB had been replaced but the engineer had not replaced the nuts. The supervisor signed off the job and secured the fairings, from that point on the aircraft was doomed. I felt a slight vibe through the pedals for around 2 seconds before it went bang just as I moved forward after the post take off checks. Thankfully the non handling pilot got the ECLs back just as I got the collective down and we had rotated through a full 360 turn.
The missing nuts were still on the bench in the hangar, I've had a very wary approach to tail rotors ever since, particularly when they've been tinkered with!