The pilot reaction to engine failure thing was a bit confusing - or maybe it was me.
As I understood it, the approved times were indeed one second in the cruise and 0.3 seconds in any other phase of flight. The rationale seemed to be that you might be doing other things in the cruise, but should be doing nothing but helicopter handling in any other phase of flight. Hmm...am I the only person who's ever been expected to respond to complicated instructions from ATC when on the approach? Be that as it may, it was implied that you only had a second to lower the collective, but ONLY if you did nothing else. In other words, if you flared, you had longer. With no types mentioned, and no times given if flaring as well, this was interesting, but not that helpful. The general feeling from the audience seemed to be that a second wasn't long enough, and Nigel agreed. But do we have any proof either way? If your INSTINCTIVE reaction to a low RPM horn is to lower the lever, you probably don't need a second. OTOH, the Robinson Safety Course now teaches that your instinctive reaction to the horn should be to open the throttle. The first sign of engine failure, everyone agrees, is sudden yaw, not the low RPM horn. And since throttle chops are no longer practised....
All this would have made a good discussion. But of course, there wasn't time was there?