Similar situation with risk and training versus cause of accident
A meeting was held at FAA Headquarters in March to address the shortage of qualified FAA Inspectors to administer helicopter CFI initial tests. It appears that as a result of that meeting, touchdown autorotations will soon be eliminated as a requirement on the Helicopter CFI PTS. Due to the inordinate number of hard-landing accidents that have happened during the conduct of touchdown autos on check rides, evidently the NTSB had previously recommended to the FAA that touchdowns be eliminated from the CFI practical test.
It appears that instead, there may be a requirement similar to the CFI Airplane spin endorsement, whereby an applicant for a helicopter CFI will be required to have an endorsement from a CFI stating that the applicant has successfully demonstrated proficiency in performing and teaching a touch-down autorotation. This change will mandate that some touchdown practice and proficiency still be conducted during CFI training, but no demonstration of an actual touchdown will be required on the CFI check ride - only power-recovery.
This should all become effective and hit the street in the form of an FAA Bulletin or new CFI PTS release in a matter of weeks or maybe even days. The good news is that this change will free up some FSDO Inspectors who were not previously National Resource Inspectors, to now administer CFI initial check rides.