Don't know what to call this incident but I think 'lucky' will do!
A chief pilot was doing some sling work off the rim of a cooling tower in a Hughes 500 in Victoria. In order to not blow the hookers on the rim too much, he had a person in the back with a long pole to position the end of the strop over the load while the 500 hovered to the side over the tower. Unfortunately as they hooked on, a gust moved the 500 to the side, thus pulling the load off the rim allowing the strop to catch on a stud on the skid. With this heavy load well to the side, it put the 500 miles out of lateral c of g and being so heavy, the 500 started dropping down the centre of the cooling tower. A bit like Don Quixote, the crewman in the back fended off the cooling tower walls with his long pole. When the 500 reached the bottom, some 200 feet or so down, the load came off, so the 500 immediately shot upwards and out of the tower. On landing on the grass near the tower and switching off to go to the toilet, they saw the main rotor blades were some 6" shorter. Otherwise all was well.
Was this static or dynamic rollover????
