Hello people.
Well I trained, and now I'm flying in Iceland and here we do full touch down auto's throughout our training. The chief flight instructor, at where I trained, insists that we do them before going solo and before taking the flight tests for any kind of pilot licenses.
Here we use the H300C for training and it is very forgiving. It has some more blade inertia than the R22 not to mention the shock absorbers, they add flexibility to yourlandings.
It came to my surprise when I found out that many other schools out in the big world never teach full touch down auto's.
However I think StevieTerrier has a lot to say in his post.
I personally like the following: "Why take the chance of bending a perfectly good aircraft? The risks outweigh the benefits."
Insurance is a BIG factor when it comes to this matter but if you are going to become a professional helicopter pilot why shouldn't you have had sufficient training in these kind of emergencies?
I have a little message for you who are still in training, don't do any of the serious stuff when you're flying solo, enjoy the freedom that the helicopter brings you. Your CFI will give enough hard time later.
Stay on top of things.