Mentioned on here earlier was the accident involving G-BCOT whilst carrying out ground runs and hover checks after maintenance at SEN outside Hangar 2, the home of HH.
It was gone 5:30p.m, pitch black when the aircraft was wheeled out for David Voy to run.
Geoff Dentith and Mary (Can't remember her surname) were the engineers supervising the run and being a mere apprentice I was walking out to my motorbike which was parked by some cars alongside where "OT" was being run on my way home.
As I walked across, Geoff D was alongside watching belt engagement etc when the aircraft went light on the skids, tilted backwards then started to go over to one side and swivel round.
At this point I dived behind a car but heard the horrendous din as the blades hit the concrete. After it went quiet I came out from behind the cars to see "OT" facing the opposite direction, back on its skids, one toe section missing and GD sitting alongside the aircraft.
Poor "OT" was sitting there looking like a palmtree with the rotorblades curled around the mast in an odd fashion.
Geoff D had a thigh injury and IIRC limped for a fair while afterwards but was a very lucky man. David Voy was an absolute star (As he always was) to get the aircraft back on its skids.
As someone else on here said, the three control tubes which went up the mast were twisted I think due to mal-assembly of the swashplate. As the aircraft went light on the skids the control tubes tried to correct orientation giving a massive cyclic input with the end result.
Lucky escape all round, with the "BDKD" incident, BBRS with a couple of scares over London with David Voy and IIRC Steve Forde I never really had a great liking for the F-28A (Sorry Dennis
) I think we had a loan Enstrom F-28A for a while (G-BALT maybe) which when we returned it to Shoreham a Pitts or something similar taxied into it not long after.
Give me the Bell 47 anyday!!!