Regardless of the rules (and I expect we all want to meet the "spirit" of them).... I would suggest it is incumbent on all of us to ensure the safety of those involved in any operation.
As a student I have been taught (in the 300CBi, and yes I know it looks like a chicken carcass) that while cooling the machine down at 2500 RPM the machine is at Flight Idle and demonstrably capable of flight. And it is, at those RPM/RRPM a good turbulent gust could flap the disk etc. and cause an issue if you are not on top of it. If you can autorotate at the equivalent RRPM, the machine, given the right angle of inflow, can sustain flight even with collective down.
Whether you are 1, 3 or 15 feet in the air at that point, who knows? But at that point you should know how to deal with it.
Begs the question among the instructors ..... who jumps out and lets the students do the shutdown on a windy day?
None of this is meant to suggest that an Engineer/LAME cannot do a ground run. Of course they can if trained and certified to do so. They are likely more capable than the student left sweating in the cockpit with the checklist in hand.
p.s. There WILL come a day when I no longer need an Instructor, as far away as that seems. I have yet to have a day though when I do not need an Engineer/LAME and can't imagine a week when I won't.
