Originally Posted by
helispotter
One of many questions now is whether both blades were already so fractured / delaminated in the air (and held 'straight' due to centripetal forces from the spinning rotor) or whether that fracturing was caused when they hit the water or during recovery?
I believe the blades broke on water impact or once underwater. They would have not been straight in the videos if broken. Plus have seen OEM blades break from water action once an aircraft rolled over after a successful auto into the water.
Originally Posted by
bryancobb
Three of the four nodal beams are the newer type with a + shaped cross-section. The last one (aft) is the original type that has a rounded-corner square cross-section and is painted gray. Are they allowed to be mixed on the same aircraft?
Don't quite follow what you're stating. From the pictures dont see much wrong with the nodal system except for one of arms appears distorted and a flexure appears to be broken which would be understandable in this sequence.
Originally Posted by
Chock Puller
Does that tell us the swash plate was working as advertised and the mast was turning the same rpm as the head and that at least part of the transmission was turning?
Nothing stands out. The missing main rotor pitch control link to the head is plausible. The swashplate drive link is intact, and all the big pieces are there. But since the servo web and servos remained with the fuselage I would have expected more damage to the bellcranks mounted on the front of the transmission. The yellow structure under the trans/nodal is the roof beam I mentioned earlier. Not seeing any smoking gun in those pics. To me, if it was a transmission seizure I would have expected to see the housing failed around the internal gear lines or at least the sw/plate drivelink sheared, but nothing. Regardless, still believe the loss of the MR drive/deck is a secondary result to some sort of failure with the tailboom group.