TT, you’ve been talking to some knowledgeable old heads, I think. The guy who finished checking me out in our 21 had recently returned from VN and taught that technique of gaining additional climb performance by swinging the rear rotor out to the side and away from the forward rotor’s downward flow field when taking off toward a tree line. One time and you get the idea.
You’re also on point re the SAS-off directional stability. We would practice that quite a bit, and it paid off one day when, returning from a trip out to Ft Bliss, the upper seal in the aft transmission failed in a quick, major league way, and the transmission lubricant came pouring down over the both AC generators in the back of that box, shorting both out, and along with it both SAS. The ship started out sideways very quickly indeed: blew in one window on the side that yawed into the wind.