Originally Posted by
Dave B
If we are talking 214STs on skids, don't ever,ever, go underneath one without it being supported on jacks. One of the most frightening incidents of my 40 years in aviation maintenance, was the collapse of an St at Redhill when the rear skid beam broke as we were attempting to get the thing out of the hangar. The crack, and the resulting sound of the cabin hitting the deck shook the whole building. BHL never had them on skids, this was a client aircraft.
Alan Bristow took one look at the demonstrator, and said "anyone who puts a thing that weight on skids wants their heads examining" He probably used more colourful language than that.
We had the king of Saudi Arabia"s 214 through at one time, as you can imagine, it was like a flying palace, it was up for sale, but the main blades were near timex, and cost of a new set was $1/4 million each (20 years ago), and Bell said they did not have any anyway.
It never sold, and as far as I know, returned home, and is still sitting in a hangar somewhere.
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Dave B, Even allowing for a bit of 'literal licence' in your tale of the fate of HZ-RH1(or 2), but in reality both have had subsequent careers with Evergreen.