Originally Posted by
Pilot DAR
Something very similar was done to a 500D I flew a number of times. Pilot took off with the doghouse cover in place (bright red cover on bright blue helicopter). The straps broke all the pitch links, and the resulting crash was a four fatal. I have kept one of the pitch links, with the red fabric still wrapped around it to remind me to do thorough preflight inspections. After that the operator had red ribbons sewn to all the covers, so that the ribbon would go from the cover, in the door, and around the cyclic. We flew baskets on the sides of the 500's, and the rule was that no tiedown rope was permitted to be longer than five feet, in case it came undone in flight.