Shift of CG

[LARRYEBOYER]

It was suggested to me that my RAF was flying nose high. We decided to change the mast cam setting to #3 from #4. I took off and flew. The nose was lower plus because I shifted the mast back, I expected to have some ground handling issues. I got a bank bag and put 12 lbs of lead sinkers in it and put it in front of the passenger rudder pedals. It handled fine on the ground and seemed fine in the air. I landed and it flaired like I had hoped. (I was having problems in flairing to a full stop landing before.)

A friend showed up and he wanted a ride so we went up. All seemed ok. While flying the controls took on a heavy feel. I brushed it off as passenger weight. When we came in for a landing, the aircraft really flaired nice, but when I pushed the stick forward to taxi, the stick did not go as far forward as before. When I got over to the hanger, I got out and looked at the mast. It had shifted completely back to the #1 position. I have not pulled the magic bushing out, but I can assume I have had a failure. Some one posted that that can create a handling issue. I did not experience any thing scary, but the top push,pull control tubes were tight in the config and the stop settings were wrong and prevented the blades from being pushed forward to the prescribed settings. Not life threatning, but concerning.