Shytorque - good post.
To have access to a sim would be a god send to us all, I could only dream of getting my hands on one.
Just to clarify - the tail rotor auto thingy was just a scenario. A thought provoking question really. There was no intention of trying to use it to help in a T/R problem. I know for a fact that I would instictively try to boot in opposite peddal if I lost the T/R drive - that alone would be the end of the conversation of T/R auto.
I did throw in a comment on whether you could overspeed a tail rotor by having it in the 'auto' pitch setting (zero pitch) with a drive failure. Could there be a risk of exacerbating the problem if you threw off a T/R blade without even knowing it was going to happen?. Once again just a tongue in cheek thought. No need to do the tests.
I am going to have to back peddal a little now cos' on a previous post I talked about using a small amount of engine power on descent and landing when confronted with a T/R drive failure. As mentioned previously it is very important to know how each aircraft responds to various problems. I wrote the response with the B47 in mind. It was not my intention to use it as a generic answer to tail rotor problems although I guess it was centred on collective mounted, throttled helicopters. I was 'lucky' enough to work with a bloke who had a short shaft failure in a B47 whilst mustering. To this day he does not know how he flew away but I presume he had just enough residual forward speed and a hell of a lot of crossed controls. Anyway he was able to fly back to the station which had a gravel strip. When he rolled off the throttle completely to enter auto he found that the aircraft yawed to the left by a considerable amount. In the end he had the engine ever so slightly past the idle all the way to the ground and as he leveled he wound the throttle off completely and landed. All of this to the benefit of us young blokes.
To this date I have taken the example as gospel but always wondered whether the tail rotor had some residual thrust or if the position of the free wheel unit in the transmission played a part in the outcome. I don't know.
Reading the posts I have come to the conclusion that I could be in varying degrees of trouble if I use the same thought process for different aircraft. I am therefore following the thread with renewed interest and an open mind.
Shytorque's experience in the sim may be invaluable. Please note, as mentioned earlier there really does need to be a distinction between collective mounted throttles and power levers. The rules do change.
keep it coming.