Tis sad to hear that Mike has retired but, he deserves it!
I was lucky enough to do my PPL at Fast when Mike was the CFI there. Fantastic instructor and flyer, never left me with anything other than confidence and admiration. Most of my instruction was from Tom Saunderson but I took a handful of lessons, and my test with Mike.
He broke EOLs up into 4 phases for me which worked a champ. As he said, get it into auto in the first place and make at least a reasonable show of the flare and you won't die. For the last bit, he described it as a quick stop followed by an engine failure in the hover. That did it for me and on the few occassions after that I have taken it to the ground, it all seemed fraught but doable.
Mike also pretty much insisted that every lesson included EOLs and we usually finished a trip with one to the field, probably about 50/50 power recovery vs putting it down. I think I did 3 or 4 to the ground, always with Mike closely following through. Was never quite sure how much of a successful landing was down to me or Mike
He did do a real one at least once. He was giving an experience flight to a lady, I think in January with lots of moisture and nice and cold. He pulled in carb heat on the downwind and the knob came off in his hand! He figured that there was a high risk of a stoppage if he lowered collective so decided to come in over the field high and do an auto. Sure enough, when he dumped the lever, the donkey went on strike and he plonked it down for a 0/0 with no drama. I assume that the lady didnt know anything was wrong but often wondered what she thought when the blades stopped whirling and it all went quiet....
I reckon if anyone could get it down, Mike could whatever the scenario. Of course, the reason for this is yes, he's a brilliant flyer, but perhaps more importantly, he never put the ship somewhere he couldn't get out of if it all went belly up..
Cheers to you Mike. Happy retirement and thanks for everything you gave me. Not flying at the moment, cash flow doesn't allow, but do get the odd trip now and then...
Simon T. Thruxton.