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There comes a time in the career of every Aviation Technician when he or she will be forced by the boss to make the choice between your integrity and your paycheck. I have had this situation arise four times in the last thirty years and that is the reason that I am never complacent about what is going on in the helicopter industry outside my current position. I have found that it always pays to stay on good terms with former employers and keep in touch with friends throughout the business so that you never find yourself in a position where you have to sacrifice what you believe in order to feed your family.

 The most memorable of these occasions came in the early 90s while I was working for a tour operator in Las Vegas trying to spend more time with the kids and stay in out of the field for a while. One sunny spring day a Pilot came to me and asked me to come and take a look at something on the Bell 206L1 he was preparing to launch to the Grand Canyon with five pax on board.

 As we walked up to the ship the loaders were strapping in the sightseers and getting everyone comfortable. The Pilot had been doing his preflight and noticed something with the Tail Rotor that had made him question the flight.

 As we walked up to the ship, you could see the damage to the Tail Rotor Blades from several feet away. Both blades had impacted something solid enough to dent the leading edge about a quarter of an inch deep and separated the bond line where the leading edge was attached to the blade skin.

 I told the Pilot that the ship was out of service and that he needed to transfer his customers to a backup ship or reschedule.

 And even though I already knew what it said, I went and pulled the maintenance manual and checked the damage limits. Finding not only that the limit had been exceeded but that the type and location of the damage constituted a sudden stoppage as described.

 I removed the Tail Rotor assembly from the helicopter as required by the maintenance manual and was about to start the disassembly of the drive train when one of the owners of the company walked up and started chewing my ass for canceling a flight and trying to convince me (or himself) that the ship could have made the last mission and been repaired after it got back but I simply pointed out that the Hub & Blade assembly was laying on my toolbox, making it a mute point.

 I showed him the manual and explained what was involved; at this point in time he sort of lost his cool and began throwing out alternatives. This finally degraded to the point where he was poking me in the chest with his finger and telling me that He signed my pay checks and I was going to do it the way he told me or I could pack my tools and leave.

 So I handed him his hanger keys and pager and explained to him the danger he was in of losing that finger, and then exited the building and loaded my tools in my trusty old Ford pickup and went home.

 Two hours after arriving at the house I had another job that I reported to the next morning.

 I remained friends with some of the Pilots at that Operator and the following is the rest of the story as it was told to me.

 “The Owner of the Aircraft got one of the Pilots that was also an A&P to make repairs on the ship based on the owners opinion. First the blade bolts were so badly bent as to require being cut off and drilled out to be removed. The blades and bolts were replaced without any further investigation of the drive train, however they were unable to balance the T/R after installing the new blades because the T/R output shaft was bent.

 They then conceded and replaced the Tail Rotor gear box. During the next run to balance the new Tail Rotor on the new gear box the freewheeling unit began making chips.

 By the time the balance operation was complete the freewheeling unit was producing chips so fast that it was impossible to get the oil temps on the ship into the green before needing to shut down and deal with the next chip. This ended with not only the replacement of the freewheeling unit but required the main transmission being opened and inspected and the metal particles removed.

 During the ground runs for the installation of the transmission and the new freewheeling unit, the Tail Rotor drive shaft segment that contains the oil cooler blower failed catastrophically at the aft coupling damaging the fan and shroud, tail boom, cowling and the oil tank stand. I believe in karma!

 The moral is… never sacrifice what you know to be the correct course of action for the sake of someone else’s bottom line or your own for that matter. If this ship had made it back into service somehow, any of the failures that followed and presumably were caused by the Tail Rotor blade strike would have resulted in the loss of several lives.