Provocative stuff. Allow me to take the bait.. .Anyone who does a backwards autorotation is needlessly endangering his aircraft. You don't need experience of it, any more than you need experience of a 30-knot constant attitude EOL in an R22. One's about as foolish as the other. . .When I was younger I did a backwards autorotation through 360 under the hood in an R22 so the effects on the instruments could be demonstrated. The effect on me was a decision not to fly with that instructor again.. .The purpose of instruction is the preservation of life, and foolish risk should be avoided. You don't need to hot-dog to inspire confidence in a student - with some students, showing off will have the opposite effect. Despite all the bells and whistles we hang on Exercise 16 (here in the UK) I believe that 90 per cent of time spent doing autos (up to PPL standard) should be devoted to recognising the need for autorotation, getting into it, turning towards the wind and having a bash at the flare. In a real emergency, few low-time PPLs will have enough brain capacity for anything more.. .Dissenters form an orderly queue.