MaxNg,
A very good point about distraction and vortex ring. It nearly happened to me as a newish PPL - flying into a Rally with a friend, she's taking photos, people on the ground waving and cheering, me wondering desperately where to land away from kids and dogs, and I nearly came to a hover at 500 ft without realising it.
Taught me just how easy it is, when there's a lot going on.
This thing about under-confident PPLs...When I started learning to fly helicopters I had a f/w licence, like quite a lot of us. And like quite a lot of us I felt comfortable in the air, far too comfortable for my ability in helicopters. I was at a school where confidence seemed to be especially emphasised and even praised (or maybe it was just with me, because we all know women have no confidence now don't we?). Anyway, it took a potentially disastrous and rather expensive incident (I'll tell you all about it some day, but not yet) for me to realise just how little I really knew about helicopters. The point I'm making is that people who fly helicopters are individuals, and all different, and should be treated as such. And over-confidence is probably far more dangerous than under-confidence, or so I would have thought.