"What does the digital electronic control unit actually do? Is it a digital FCU?
Why wouldn't you just avoid drooping the rotor in the first place i.e. during a hover to offload pax I reckon Nr would be pretty handy to have? No idea about special forces tactics but I'm sure someone can enlighten me."
A model blackhawks, and the Aussie blackhawks, use an ECU instead of a DEC on the -700 series engines. L models and others with the -701C engines have the DEC. The ECU relies much more on mechanical means to control engine power than the DEC does... and the biggest nasty that bites back is the dreaded transient rotor droop that was a factor in the Fiji accident. It's not hard to avoid getting transient droop, but when you fly to the capabilities of the aircraft, such as in combat operations, its very easy to find. When the collective is on the floor and the engines are at a very low power setting, pulling in power in anything but a very gradual pace will cause the engines to "lag" coming back on-line and RPM to drop. The -700 engines have a mechanical "anticipator" linkage that tries to keep the engines ahead of the game, but it does a sorry job when it comes to rapid power changes. US Army guys are taught to "lead with power" when in a low torque situation, but I've seen it many many times where it's just too slow catching up and rotor droop is the result. Bam, there goes the buckets of power a -60 pilot is so used to having, and thats when a tailwind or high gross situation will really bite you in the arse.
As for being cowboys... Those kind of manuvers are REQUIRED at times when in combat, and thinking that the only time they should be performed is during an actual guns-a-blazing situation is rediculous. It's sad when accidents happen, but insinuating that the ceasing of aggressive training will lower accident rates is absolutley wrong... the crashes will happen more frequently, and during the real thing, which will have far larger ramifications.
Mike