Why I would give some posters a D- here on pprune, is the fact that if they have a different opinion on a theory, they can't help but chastise any good discussion... oh, but not without elaborating at length on the topic themselves to prove their impressive knowledge!
I haven't tried it myself no, but also no reason to question the chief pilots reports what happened on several checkrides - why would he pull that out of his a**? Anyway, I will inquire about the mechanical reasoning for the upset I was talking about.
Hoss: As If-all-else-fails said, I think we're not that far apart; except maybe that I could have used a better word than "snap".
You said
"The inverted flight comes later, from the pilot's inability to fly the unstable dutch roll mode", that is exactly what I was getting at: the pilots inability to correct the situation properly. Apparently there are a few people out here that think that the S-76 becomes pretty unstable without all her helpers. Again, I will try to quote the expert a little more detailed.
As far as the not practicing that behavior in the sim, I stand to be corrected.
Phil