I seem to rememebr that when lifting to the hover and the weight comes off ( the microswitches associated with) the rear wheels, the longitudinal cyclic control re-datums itself through subtle length changes, via screw jacks, of the control runs. And AFCS Off, the stick gradient is reversed translating to and from the hover. (Now that's inviting the purists to put me right!!)
But that said, an R22 pilot should still have little difficulty hovering a Chinook.