Last summer I was lucky enough to fly an S-55 for a while here in the U.S. The checkout pilot was adamant about not pulling aft cyclic. Ever. But the S-55 was designed prior to the discovery of ergonomics, and the "normal" cyclic position can be quite far forward compared to modern helicopters even though all the helicopters owned by this operator hovered slightly nose-low.
Over the years my normal technique for lifting off to a hover has always been to automatically pull a little aft cyclic as I came up on the collective and then adjust as the ship became light on the skids/wheels. I did this routinely...until...one day in the S-55. Another of our pilots had his camera out and filmed one of my liftoffs - from atop of a motorhome so his vantage point was slightly above my helicopter. What I thought was just "a little" aft cyclic had the rotor blades down so close to the (drooped) tailboom that it was actually scary. I mean, it probably wouldn't have hit, but it was CLOSE! Why did Igor design it like that?? I understand it was 1949 and all, but please! (Needless to say, I changed my liftoff technique.)
The aircraft in the #1 post in this thread looks like it's parked very nicely on a pad. I suspect that some sort of mishap occured during liftoff or setdown - maybe it got into some PIO rocking or whatever - the collective can be *very* loose if all the friction is off.
It's not me in the seat, but it's the one I was flying in the Summer of 2010 (I must say, they look goofy without the transmission and oil cooler "doghouses" installed