SilsoeSid,
As to your question about why the UK CAA have the sentence written in their check-forms, I must answer with a question; What is "lateral padding"?? This is a term I have never come across before.
It is followed up with "the landing gear functions satisfactorily". I would assume that the function should be: "keeping the helicopter fuselage a foot or 2 safely off the ground". After all this is a small helicopter with skids, not with hyd. operated retractable gear.
I have been asked once by a CAA-representative on an audit, how we would go by to change the tyres of our helicopter (when the gentleman did not see a jack in our hangar) when I replied friendly that I would take the ground-handling wheels to a tyreshop and have it done there, as we were operating 206B's and L's....
So, the note on the checkform, could maybe be along those lines..
I'm not sure if it fits your stamp, but I went back to my old Helicopter-books to confirm that I had forgot my aerodynamic knowledge.
The vibration you get in GR, is when you get an offset center of mass in the main-rotor. This has a few causes, but mainly due to lead-lag dampers in the head being weak in combinations with shocks from the landing gear (skids or wheels). usually due to; main-gear dampers being faulty, incorrect tyrepressure, hard landings, slope-landings (partial landing, loading pax from steep slope etc.)
From "Basic Helicopter Handbook": In general, if groung resonace occurs, it will occur only in helicopters possesing three-bladed, fully articulated rotor systems and landing wheels. (however, the term here should be undercarrige, as it also involves skidded helicopters)
From "Principles of Helicopter flight": Rotors that have substantial in-plane stiffness and that are not fitted with lead-lag (drag) hinges, or their equivalents, are not susceptible to ground resonance and so require less damping in the rotor head or undercarrige"
Have had a few onset encounters over the years in diffrent machines, all being 3 bladed rotorsystems, skidded gear. In which MR or landing-gear dampers have been replaced shortly after.