It is my feeling that the governor in the 44 does a great job.
One of the weaknesses of it, (which is really poor pilot skill), is the possibility that a nervous pilot can override it without knowing. When they get nervous, they tense up and prevent the gov from working.
Something many forget is the job that the correlator does as well. It handles most of the change in power demand by automatically raising and lowering the throttle with movements of the collective. If you want to see how much, just raise the collective all the way up (while the ship is on the ground NOT running). Now lower it down and note how much the throttle is rotated.
I have had several people tense up at the bottom of an approach and set the horn off. You have to let the throttle do it's job. If this happens, you have to roll on throttle.
One way I like to surprise
students is load them up a little and have them set up an area for a nice confined area approach. When the collective is lowered on the initial decent, the correlator will roll down the throttle. I then grip my hand firmly, half way on the collective tube and half on the grip freezing the throttle in place.
This way the student never feels me roll off the throttle. In their hand they feel nothing because I am not allowing it to roll back up as they pull more collective at the bottom of the approach.
I start distracting them on the way down, asking questions about wind and obstacles in the area....the whole time I am watching RPM s..l..o..w..l..y drop each time they add a small amount of power. They never even notice as it happens so gradually and I am doing the best I can to keep them loaded up.
Right as we start to go down in the hole, their attention is fully focused on where they are landing and remaining clear of obstacles......then usually at about 30-40' agl........ RAAAAAAAAAAAAA, they will pull just enough power to drag the RPM down below 97%.
Here is where it gets interesting.... Most just totally freeze, some try to lower the collective, even worse....a good amount will ADD collective thinking they are going to abort the landing. We are way to deep into the power required curve for that to work! None roll the throttle up (on the first time ...)
After the flight we talk about how the gov in the Robbie works and that you must roll on throttle when you hear the horn. Most never figure out how I lowered the throttle on them, without them feeling it
... They dont feel it the next time either.....but most students make the right correction second go at it. They will not soon forget the sound of the horn and what the proper correction should be.
The reason I bring all this up, is I believe she froze on the throttle. Even if she lowered the collective after the horn, if her hand was frozen on the throttle, the correlator just rolls off the throttle as you lower it. You MUST roll on throttle.