I do feel sorry for the heli pilots amongst us, didnt realise that wasnt an option for them. Hope they have elephant memories instead
Thank you. I'm glad someone appreciates our memory load.
But seriously, maybe I should explain further. In a helicopter, you have your right hand on the cyclic, and left hand on the collective. In small helicopters such as most PPLs fly, there's no trim on the cyclic when you're flying, and it's very sensitive, so you can't take your hand off it. You can use your left hand for short periods, but that gives you the option of either writing with your left hand, or swopping hands on the cyclic, both possible eventually, but difficult. And in the hover, you need complete control of the helicopter and daren't take your hand off ANY control...oh, how I hate being given detailed instructions requiring a long readback just as I'm approaching the aifield and coming to a hover!!!
However, larger helicopters do have trims, and the types used by the police, air ambulance etc often have SAS (stability augmentation systems) and even full autopilots, so readbacks aren't a problem at all. But your average PPL doesn't fly one of those.
What I do - and I tell my students to do the same - is repeat back what I can, and ask the ATCO to 'say again' everything else, even if I have to do that several times. But it helps if those on the other end of the radio realise the problem and give us info in smaller chunks, please!!!