"Sla#s" wrote in
:

Has anyone ever run a AS 350 or 355 without the Main rotor blades
fitted? We do it all the time with our 315 but I've never heard of it
with a Squirrel / A Star.
It would make tail rotor balancing a lot easier for a start - i.e. no
pilot needed. That's what we do with our Lama and use to do with our
Alouettes. No one here wants to risk it - "The engines will overspeed"
- " It will over speed the gearbox" - " It will over speed/torque the
tail rotor" etc. etc.

Why don't you go ahead and try it and let us know?

Why do you need a pilot? Our mechanics (engineers) are trained to do
groundruns in skid-mounted helicopters, up to and including Bell 412s.
They do all the tail rotor balancing, etc themselves.

--
Regards,

Stan