When I went to the RHC Safety Course, I got about 1.5 hours flying time in the course. Each new machine must be run through the paces by a Test Pilot. Often, students in the Safety Course will ride one of these new machines during training with said Test Pilot / Instructor.
It's not a big deal, and we don't beat up the aircraft... everything is done within the POH. In fact, when I flew with Tim, we discovered the CAT gage was a little loose (black cardboard background rattled inside the instrument gage). He said, "that's why we do a test flight with every aircraft."
Before everyone jumps on the safety issue about students being "test pilots," bare in mind that each ship goes through an extensive QA process before it even gets to that point. Also, both the Instructor and student pre-flight the aircraft. I'm sure Copter Driver can describe more details.