I'm sure this report will trigger some debate amongst A109 operators and maintainers.
The actual report by the pilot is extremely frightening and he did very well to walk away from it.
It also highlights the extreme nature of tail rotor failures at high speed cruise. I remember a report on one of the early Merlin crashes where they lost tail rotor drive due to a rotor brake fire and the description by the test pilot on how the centrifugal forces pinned him in the cockpit and how difficult it was to abandon the aircraft by parachute.
I don't think the reconstruction in the simulator was very realistic. The whole premis of an unannounced failure doesn't mean anything. They went into a simulator with the intention to failure tail rotor drive so they would have been mentally prepared for it. Why not during a normal simulator slot with an average pilot, undergoing some other training, get him to fly the profile flown during the accident and then fail the shaft and see what happens.
If they wanted to be realistic why not do it at 800ft with the AP engaged and have the collective friction on, which I assume it was as this seems to be normal practice. I think the proximity of the ground would have a substantial subconcious effects on their actions.
The recommendation to undergo simulator training is no good, they need to mandate it if a simulator exists. It doesn't have to yearly. Employers (non-offshore) sadly see trips to the simulator as "jollies", especially if they are in Florida! Mandate it and they can't argue.
I hope the pilot has recovered or is well on the way to full recovery.
FNW