Flying in the Bell 204/205/UH-1....most pilots that had gone through the US Army Flight School seemed to be of the notion that "all" friction was to be removed from the Cyclic and Force Trim turned off.....for their flying.
I always liked a bit of friction on the Cyclic and flew with the Force Trim ON....as I liked to be able to take my hand off the cyclic if needed (especially in the Left Hand seat) and not have a loose noodle feeling in the cyclic...or some feed back caused by the bouncing of you hand if the Track and Balance was not smooth.
Later on...Sperry Installs required a Friction Collar to be set to a minimum setting to prevent that same feedback affecting the performance of the Sperry Helicopter-Pilot system.
Your point about the amount of actions it would take to go from Force Trim OFF....HP's in SAS to Force Trim ON....HP's to ATT...and slewing the HDG Bug around, and then engaging upper modes......lending itself to distraction and worse....is very possible and in this case probable.
There is much talk about the Transponder Ident Request from ATC...but nothing being said re what you point out.
If one is familiar with the switchology....it should not require much doing to get the Autopilot up and running and flying the Helicopter. If not familiar it becomes more burdensome as the fingers just do not take themselves to the right Buttons as they would with good Monkey Memory helping out.
One real benefit to a Third Party training arrangement is if that Third Party can offer specialized courses in team with the Factory so that the best sources for accurate information is close at hand.
I saw that in action at the West Palm Beach AATC operation when the 76 Training was done by them at the Sikorsky Completion Center way out in the swamp.
We had Sikorsky Design Engineers that were available and often shared dining tables at the cafeteria with us at lunch time.
Also...that Third Party doing independent assessment of the Pilot's Performance can aid in identifying problems or weaknesses in performance that might not go reported otherwise.
I worked at one such training school that required us to fully document and assess our Trainee's Performance....provide them a complete de-brief...and provide copies of it all to their Employer.
I failed the Chief Pilot of an Oil Company Operation and the Management stood behind that action when I showed them some video's of the fellow's performance.
We gave him a change of Instructor and some remedial training and in the end he thanked us for how it was handled and that when presented the "evidence" he had to agree with our evaluation.
He did not however appreciate my having broken his Pipe that was causing the distraction from his learning in the Simulator.
I do not fault him for that lack of forgiveness.
I never did get a job offer from that outfit....for some unknown reason.
Last edited by SASless; 3rd Jun 2021 at 03:13.