Rumour network, indeed!
Shawn, what's this about the Australian military finding significant problems with the hydraulics off handling?
AS350Bs and BAs were operated for years with few dramas and lots of practice hydraulics off landings. Very predictable and easy to handle, once the 'fault' was detected and the hydraulic isolate switch operated.
'Jack stall' was a discussed and demonstrated phenomenon in training courses, but I never experienced it or heard of it being a problem in normal aircraft use, and they got a bit of a caning manoeuvre-wise, much more so than the teetering-head types that were also used by the Aussie forces, because they could take it!
To paint this phenomenon (which certainly does exist but is only in my experience a problem if you like to throw the controls around like a gorilla, although to be fair, I don't know much about how they respond in extremely cold conditions) seems to be hysterical over-reaction based on a lot of hearsay.
Over...