We had a guy at Ft. Hood, who was on the flt deck,, (when he wasn't supposed to be,) who walked into a tail rotor blade. I was flying back to the airstrip and saw the fire truck hosing off the deck,, from the aftermath.
I once did a full run tackle & knock down of a Master Sargent who was headed towards my tail rotor. He thanked me.
I had a bird Col. who was with (2) civilians, of which we were supposed to fly around for an observation flight, who approached my running Huey, without instructions. My Huey was parked, nose uphill, (making the rotor disc closer to the ground.) He was having a conversation with one of the civilians, and was almost under my disc. He suddenly threw his hands in the air, obviously agitated at whatever they were discussing. I knocked him on his rear end, and refused to allow him on my bird. He got huffy, demanded to see the PIC, and my PIC didn't allow me to be part of their conversation. All I know is my PIC also refused to allow him on our bird, and chewed him out for safety violations. Later that night, a Lt. Col. was visiting part of our group,, and not knowing I was the chewchief, was talking about the ballsy crewchief who'd knocked down the Col. He thought it was quite funny & said that knowing the Col. deserved it.
Nope,, a rotor system is nothing to ignore or lose respect for.
