Phil77, the first stroke of the manual RB lever primes the system, the second stroke and therefore the pressure applied is actually controllable by the pilot, depending how far he pulls the lever. The electric brake engagement of A model I flew in had a more violent effect than I could ever bring myself to match. (I was used to doing this in the 3000 hours or so I flew in the 76 models, A++, B, C and C+).
They always say never fly the 'A' model of anything - I did just the one day!
BTW, the B model requires one engine to be shut down before applying the RB, with the other engine at idle. Both engines can be started with the brake on. The C+ rotor can be brought to a halt with both engines at idle due to less residual torque - it's one hell of a rotor brake.
