Helistat
SAS, the answer is no, with the information I had at the time, which was only that passed along by the Helistat pilot in the conversation reported in the earlier post.
You asked another question which pointed to discussion we had internally after that phone call. Specifically, it was our understanding that one pilot would fly the machine, thru interconnected controls. After the accident, it was reported that the four vehicles were manned. Perhaps those personnel were there to operate the engine and other basic S-58 systems? In any case the control runs were very long, and control slop and hysteresis, effects of frame structure deflection, statically and dynamically and a raft of related questions seemed to be open, again just our conclusion based on the phone call.
You may recall the CH-54 Twin Lift project, wherein the lifting power of two CH-54B's would be gained by utilizing a balance beam structure, the ends of which each of the two Cranes would pick up with their cargo hooks, after reeling out 50 ft or so of cable. While we did that manually, using the back seat controls, the plan was to link the two AFCS systems and couple up the control systems. We did one real flight with a load of 35,000 lbs, but it never went anywhere, as I believe that everyone realized that it was just too tricky to do on a regular basis in a tactical environment. I know that following that program, from time to time someone would ask me what I knew about twin lift, and I would plead absolute ingorance.