Originally Posted by
Robbiee
That's how I've been doing it for years. I still keep a couple fingers loosly on the throttle so I can still feel it moving.
,...so what's wrong with that?
There are two reasons I discourage it with our students.
One is, as you might guess, that I prefer people to be able to twist the throttle without having to first reposition their hand, for instance in order to do a hovering auto ( if the tail rotor fails in a hover ). You also can't turn the governor off without first having to reposition your hand.
The other reason is that the R44 collective is already sensitive and moving your hand onto the metal tube makes it even more so. If that's not clear, I mean that the more you slide your hand toward the attachment end of the tube, the less mechanical advantage you have. This means you have to use more force to move the collective, while trying to move it a shorter distance. It's my personal belief that this can cause (student) pilots to over control the collective. It's a small difference, but I think noticeable.
In the end, you should do whatever works for you. It's just a personal preference, but those are the reasons I don't like our students to be taught that method.