In reply to:

There was some story awhile back about some guy that temporarily fixed a helicopter by using it to pull on one of the rotor linkages.


Unless he was stuck on the North Pole, I'm afraid it's urban legend. The fact that helis fly at all is a miracle - of all the heli pilots I know, none woud take off in one that wasn't signed off by a qualified machanic. And some of the heli pilots I know are pretty reckless...