Originally Posted by
helimutt
Im fairly certain that anyone who flies an S76 will tell you, flying with the AFCS disengaged is most definitely noticeable. You'd have to be unconscious to not notice a disengaged AFCS.
But, and here comes the what if.....He was in SAS instead of ATT and when things started going pear shaped he tried to couple and may have added a further distraction trying to figure out why the AFCS would not couple up.
While that scenario is speculation, I have observed crews in the sim trying to engage upper modes in the 412 after take off and before punching in only to realize they missed a step. Between 2 of them they figure it out