Overreliance on the automatics is a well documented issue in modern aviation - the modern helicopter AFCS is very capable but sometimes you just have to fly the aircraft.
Exactly. It remembered me an old Bell's ROTORPROP publication (80's) about the concern about evolution of the automation and aircraft capabilities up to a point on the aircraft flight envelope above human manual handling habilities. And, if the automation fail, how the pilot will take control?
Of course I'm not raising any doubts on this crew airmanship (errors do occur and debriefings, reports, training and so on help to prevent them to occur again) neither we are flying helicopters beyond human capacity or the automation failed. Just the issue of overreliance in automation (and the concern about erosion of handflying skills in highly automated cockpits) on a very demand task have made this old article to come again.