Mate of mine had our engineer up for a larger maintenance on his R44. Towards the end of the day the pressure starts to mount as daylight is coming to an end and that final testflight still has to be done as said engineer is already booked on the morning flight out. So screws get all tightened, panels around the rotor mast put back on, they both hop in and fire her up.
A qick left hand circuit is performed without any abnormalities and the engineer in the passenger seat gleams; happy with himself that he managed to get the job done just in time. Right then during the last few feet of the final approach to the taxiway there is a sudden loud bang and the whole aircraft begins to wobble. My buddy barely manages to run it on from shoulder height to terra firma without balling it up and shuts down in a hurry.
During the ensuing in-depth post-flight inspection that should've rather been an in-depth PRE-flight inspection they finally find the culprit by way of discovering that the main rotor mast fairing has a large dent from inside out: lo and behold a certain someone had forgot to put the nut back onto the bolt that connects the control rod with the lower swash plate and a certain someone else didn't do a proper check of the work performed...
Last edited by Hawkeye0001; 8th Jan 2023 at 23:18.