I have also heard that they were busy with a base check and had completed the autorotations and were looking at Tail Rotor emergencies. (To the best of my knowledge, that is a normal course of events)
I am aware that there are lots of discussions about tail rotor effectiveness in the Rotorheads forum. There is major discussion about the Bell 206 series and LTE. Does the fenestron in the EC-120 suffer from a similar effect?
I am aware that in hot conditions the heli ambulance pilots have reached the limit as far as directional control is concerned when heavy and out of confined areas. What are the feelings about the control in a fenestron design and in particular is there a situation where you can end up with very little tail rotor effect from the fan?