Originally Posted by Disguise Delimit
We broke a windscreen and got lots of paint damage by ground-taxying a 76 over gravel - surprising, considering that the collective was on the floor.
Actually not surprising, S76 is notorius for that, happened to me twice and I know of several others. Those heated windshields are expensive to replace and it only takes one stone chip, get a crack and it's scrapped.
Is S76 with full down collective actually at flat (zero degree) pitch? I reckon there's washout built into the blades resulting in some positive pitch angle there somewhere, but I don't know for sure. All I know is if you land on or taxi over loose gravel you are going to write off a windscreen or 2 before too long (not only that but you're going to put a few dings in the compressors, and that can be big $$ if damaged beyond blending limits).