Okay helo drivers, keep on ranting. I'm learning something useful here.
Reminds me of the day that I was cleared to "line up and wait", which I did, and then nothing happened for a minute or so. Just in case the tower guys had gone to lunch or so, I reminded them "ready for departure". "Yeah, we know, but the helicopter is first". Apparently the police helicopter had a scramble, didn't talk to the tower but only to ground (and I was on the tower frequency - never heard them) and took off directly from its parking position.
So I, for one, think it's fascinating to hear what helicopters can, can't, will and won't do. Helo performance and flight operations are not in the PPL(A) syllabus, but we do mingle with them in the same airspace. Might as well learn about them.
And this might sound stupid, but I've always understood that helicopters are inherently unstable. So you've got your right hand on the cyclic (if that's what its called), left on the collective, feet on the pedals at all times. I've seen (in an R22) that your radio/instrument stack is severely limited as compared to even a basic VFR aircraft, but still? How do you set radio frequencies, squawks, QNH and so forth? Do they require you to grow an additional limb (and if so, where is it attached :-) ) or are helicopters not *that* unstable?