Nice to see "Arm out the window" has got the correct handle regarding Army compliance with the Flight Manuals and in relation to GD's accident in the ARDU Nomad.
The Nomad was influenced/tampered with by politics throughout its 'checkered career'. Perhaps one of the lesser known instances was the friction between the RAAF who believed they were the only knowledgable entity with regard to military aviation and the Army. The RAAF were about to lose control of the battlefield helicopter/s to the Army and not surprisingly the RAAF were not amused. A senior RAAF Test Pilot at ARDU (not GD who was Army) wrote a particularly scathing report on the Nomad that perpetuated the the RAAF notion that they were the only people who new anything about military aviation. The military use was thus restricted as a consequence of this report, even some Army people believed its findings. Mind you the Nomad was not perfect (no such beast) but the aircrafts future was from that moment on severly tainted and pretty much set up for failure.
I would not be surprised if there was influence exerted by government entities for the Nomad to be taken up and operated by Army as an Australian home grown product.
I do know many who did not like the aircraft, mostly because of the way they were made to operate it and yes because of some of its own failings as well.
tipsy
who had a heart
flutter when he read the thread title, maybe it was just the tailplane
