I heard of a good one regarding an RAF Chinook:
One of the droop stops on the forward head sheared off, and the heli was kept running while a solution was found. The problem being that if the head was shut down, the unlocked blade would have chopped the poor wokka in half. The mechanics were tasked with getting as many mattresses from the block as they could and a giraffe (hydraulic steps) was placed in line with the advancing blades against the fuselage, and the matresses piled aginst the giraffe to protect the blade….
As the rotor head was shut down, the rotor brake was applied with force, stopping the head in a single revolution. As the unlocked blade lost its lift and went beyond the missing droop stop, it hit the mattressed giraffe and skipped over the fuselage saving the rest of the heli.
How true it is, who knows….:D
It was one of the the aft head droop stops. A tradesman found it lying on the pan. A Puma was sent to Boscombe Down as it was thought they had a video of an American aircraft with the same problem and what they did as a solution. Unfortunately it wasn’t so so they made a giraffe as you stated with plywood to stop the blade. Video was taken and slowed down to find which droop stop it was then the engines were stopped and the blades were stopped within 1.5 revolutions. I was there watching it all happen. All true except the front head bit.
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