In the military they are only allowed to carry out solo starts once they have flown solo. Seems very sensible to me!
Can't see the link of proficiency there, however that solo bit didn't seem to be the case on Lynx conversions where the first starts took around 45 minutes!!
Solo starts were allowed in order for the instructor to finish off his coffee, complete the days admin and add some extras to the flights spell checker auto correct, before joining his student at the 'release rotorbrake' stage of the sortie.
However, in this case the student continued with the checks beyond the point briefed by the instructor. The student also held a fixed wing Private Pilot’s Licence.
The simple matter is, it doesn't matter at what stage the student is in his or her training, if they cannot follow a basic instruction, should they even be allowed solo before being qualified? They might be briefed what to do and where to go, but who's to say they won't go off and do their own thing anyway?
Another big factor in this, is the last sentence in the above quote.
Lets say as a JARCPL(H) with many thousands of hours etc etc, I wanted to do a PPL(A). When I am under instruction I would do as I am told, regardless of the hours, experience, licence, etc etc of my instructors. I would not dream of doing a start, then taxi out for power checks. Why?
Because as happened in this incident, the rotor rpm was at flight conditions, it became airborne and the student couldn't control it and it consequently rolled over.