"Stu Fields" wrote in message
...
Steve: The orginal method of tracking the blade on the Safar was to loosen
the pinch bolt on the pitch arm where it contacted the blade grip and slip
the pitch arm and re-tighten and torque the pinch bolt. The bolt got
installed and safetied but not properly torqued. We discovered this in a
post crash investigation. At any rate, there I was with about 30hrs Total
Helo time at lift off and about 40' and 40mph when the pitch arm slipped,
the blade went out of track(pitching up) and the ship began shaking hard
enough so that I couldn't read the tach. I decided to put it down and my
fixed wing training had me reducing the throttle. Almost instantly the
rotor speed decayed, the ship yawed left inspite of full pedal and rolled
left inspite of full opposite cyclic and became a Lawn Dart. The two
seconds I had to analyze the problem were not enough. I have since
ingrained it into my head (I hope) that when everything turns to crap:KEEP
THE ROTOR SPEED.

Hi Stu,

Thanks for the story. Keep the rotor speed? Amen to that!

I'm glad you survived to learn the lesson and were able to pinpoint the
problem so you could avoid it in the future. The one's I hate are the one's
that they never fully identify an overriding cause which just leaves
everyone guessing as to what happened. At least you can avoid this one in
the future.

Fly Safe,
Steve R.