Going back to the certification issue, reference delays in lowering the collective, the JAR requirement for response to engine failures is given as 1 sec 'or normal pilot response time, whichever is the greater'. Hmmm, very useful if normal PRT is not defined! It isn't.
I have been canvassing opinion on the flight test forum regarding the JAR 'normal pilot reaction time'. I don't have a copy of BCAR here, but my extracts from AvP970, the UK Defence Standard for certification, gives an intervention time of 2 seconds for engine failures 'as a realistic reaction time for the average pilot to identify a total power loss under unfavourable conditions and then to lower the lever'; elsewhere 'active' response time for stability/flight control failures is given as 1 sec and 'attentive hands on' pilot response time is given at 1.5 secs.
Interestingly, my learned friend Genghis The Engineer points out that the fixed wing chaps are allowed a 2 second delay time after engine failure under JAR: we've been done down!
Since JAR are very close now to FAR, I suppose the FAR standard may be followed, but 1 second should be regarded as the maximum delay for the R22, where even a planned 1 sec delay in the climb at 60 KIAS is, to say the least, exciting.....