Hi Lu,
In reference to the above entry, I thought it would be a good idea to give you a pilots point of view with regards to the stick position of the Robbo'. You were right in saying that the 'cyclic floats' but really the cyclic grip actualy rests on your right leg. The design is quite good for the pilot as it alows you to rest your arm on your leg making control inputs alot smoother. To be honest the instructors have the hardest time, due to the fact that they must hold their hand up in the air when staying on the controls with a student. Obviously only the 'T' section of the cyclic setup can move like that. The point being, it dosn't get much better with regards to knowing where the cyclic position is as it rests on your leg.
I also want to add a little note to my earlier entry. The reason we were told to centre the cyclic in a low or zero 'G' situation after the aft cyclic input was, I believe, to maintain a degree of separation of the head from the mast (preferably 90 degrees). In other words when the fuselage rolls to the right the pilot instinctively tries to correct it by putting in left cyclic. Now, the rotor system is still being controlled by the pilot through the swash plate. Any input by the pilot will be reflected in the rotor disc. As I mentioned earlier the rotor system and the fuselage are acting independently of each other in a low or zero 'G' situation, so if we put in the left cyclic whilst the fuselage is rolling right the disc and head all do the right thing and tilt left relative to the fuselage, but the fuselage and therfore the mast are all tilted to the right. keep going and they contact each other. Thats bad.
By centering the cyclic and holding it there the swash plate and therefore the rotor system will be 'following' the fuselage as apposed to the fuselage following the rotor system when under positive 'G'. As the fuselage rolls to the right the rotor system is made to stay at '90 degrees' to the mast if the cyclic is centred. The neutral position you talk about may have an effect on the positon of the head in relation to the mast but the whole idea of what they talked about was the guaranteed displacement of the head from the mast.
I took it as gospel at the time and I find the idea easy to understand - whether its right or not I don't fully know.
The mustering example I used earlier in the thread may need extra input. I might have mentioned that at the top of the 'pull up' and subsequent low 'G' situation, the airspeed is next to nothing. This point is important. Because the Manual says put in aft cyclic - we do it!, but because of the low airspeed the result is bugger all (we used the last of our airspeed getting the low 'g' in the first place). In actual fact the disc tilts backwards (18 degrees aside Lu) and can mast bump just as easily as if it was to the left. No doubt other pilots have possibly had a machine in a very nose down attitude after a pull up or torque turn and have felt that pulling back on the cyclic gives them a bad feeling in the gut, as if you could chop your tail boom off if you went too far. Same idea.
The ability to gain possitive 'G' only comes with airspeed and for that we have to head back down, this usualy means going with the roll and waiting for gravity to help us out.
I think every one so far has the right idea just varying ways on how to explain it.
cheers.