My .02 pence (trying to be currency-correct here - how much is .02 pence worth in US coinage these days?) is...
1. I have more home PC-based simulator time than I care to admit to. As such, the "cyclic" is a joystick mounted in my desk's right drawer - a rough analogue to the sidestick in the Comanche and possibly the Cobra/Apaches' front seat. In Flight Simulator and X-Plane (as well as other, older sims such as Longbow, Comanche-Hokum, etc.) I mostly manage not to make a virtual hole in the ground with this setup.
2. I have about 130 hours in actual helicopters, most being with center-mounted cyclics (e.g. 300C-C/B) and maybe 30 hours in the Robinsons. Haven't made a hole in the ground in those either.
3. I have 200-ish hours in (real) airplanes that have the unfortunate trait of having "yokes", or steering wheels as I like to call them. Still kicking and breathing for the moment, I am.
3. I have about 20 hours in the Cirrus SR20 airplane, which has a left-mounted "sidestick" which is essentially the same as the yoke but offset to the left sidewall. (Very nice and convenient by the way - no interference with my kneeboard or charts.) Again - no hole in the ground thus far.
So my conclusion is that the physical location of the control is not much of a big deal. A bigger deal, probably, is the amount of "force feedback" that the control gives - and/or the amount of movement that it provides. I remember reading that the early F16 fighter's sidestick control had bare 100ths or 1000ths inches/cm of movement, which resulted in some overcontrolling incidents/accidents, so they increased the physical travel of the stick prior to the production run of that aircraft.
And that, my friends, is the .02 pence of a newbie helicopter pilot
Dave Blevins
San Jose, CA