Why turn the engine off? Well we were at 1500 feet or so right above open farmland - grazing land so when the extremely violent loss of collective occurred I had no idea what had broken and I had no idea if I was going to be able to pull the collective up when I got to the bottom. I was pretty sure that we were heading for a real nasty and because the terrain was benign I got the engine stopped and the fuel turned off pretty quick. The safe landing that followed was an unexpected relief and once we had gathered ourselves I inspected I checked (G-BBRI) over and could find absolutely nothing wrong. I managed to convince myself that Norman had sat on the collective somehow even though he assured me it was ripped from his grasp.
On the way down I asked Norman to send a Mayday as I did not have a Tx button on the dual controls of this newly refurbished G5A. Norman - who was now as white as a sheet pushed his Tx button and said 'Mayday' - a man of few words.
I did a ground run and then a low hover and all was perfectly OK so I figured I was right about Norman sitting on the collective. He had a new PPL gained on our 206 but other helicopter chums told him he could never be a 'proper' chopper pilot unless and until he had a 'hand-throttle' machine on his license. Hence this training/nav flight from Elstree down to his Wiltshire pad.
There followed the most extraordinary exchange on the radio that had to be heard to be believed. When established at a comfortable cruise height I asked Norman to call London Information (we were working them outside the London Zone) and cancel our Mayday. The conversation went something like -
RI - London Information this is G-BBRI please cancel my Mayday.
A.N.Other - Silence on the frequency somebody is calling Mayday
RI. - No its me we want....
A.N.Other - QUIET I SAID there is somebody trying to send a Mayday
RI - This is RI we are ...
A.N.OTHER - SILENCE I SAID let the guy send his Mayday.
London Inf - G-RI go ahead
RI - Did you receive our Mayday call about 30 minutes ago?
London Inf - Negative
RI - Roger, we are now proceeding en route estimate...... bla bla bla
We got to a hilly part of Wiltshire whereupon despite both our hands being under the collective the same fault reoccurred, this time I left the engine running and landed on a sloping pasture close to a farmhouse. We left it there and I called the company and told them what I thought of their beautifully restored helicopter and that they had better send somebody to collect it as I had enough thank you very much.
Turned out that the teflon bearings in the head were so tight that when they set up the 'rabbits ears' (pitch balance weights) the tightness kept the blade pitch constant so it was never balance properly. When it threw off pitch it was so violent that every grain of dust plus our overnight bags (in front of the instrument console) hit the ceiling along with our arms and legs.
It was a memorable event - at least for me. Maybe Norman will put it in his memoirs, on the other hand .........
