Pumas rolling over after an EOL was due to the mechanical collective/yaw interconnect especially when close to zero speed. After the flare and whilst cushioning the collective would inpart a strong anti torque (Right pedal for Americans benefit) to the tail rotor that would be counterbalanced by the autopilot heading hold. When the alternators dropped off so did the autopilot so it yawed to the right.
The only way to counteract this was to banging on full left pedal this instant the alternators tripped. If you thought about it you were too late, if it had started yawing to the right you would never get it back but if you put too much on that was correctable.
I was shown how to and would demonstrate this in the mid 70s with two tanks in the back to ensure a proper needle split equivalent. Was not allowed to land it but without anticipators it would do the whole thing to a 3 foot sloppy hover with about 200 Rrpm.
THEN THE ENGINES WOULD WAKE UP.
On the yaw/roll divergence it was never noticed on pre polivalent aircraft. When we collected XW 209, the first one, we received concerned comments from Boscombe who were worried about it's aerodynamic stability with the increased area above the cockpit. We had other problems at the time so we didn't investigate it. The 332L has a forward plug in the fuselage and compared with an early 330 is is a pig to fly. The 332L has an extra fin forward of the skid to correct for the plug, maybe a Puma could do with the same.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 3rd December 2007 at 01:44.