My experience on the 412 was that the ATT mode was easily flyable at all times, even hovering and touchdown. You had to get used to flying against the forces in the stick, which took a bit of adapting.
But every system is different!!
Shawn,
Please correct me if I am wrong but I believe that in the 412 with ATT Mode selected, the ATT Mode is disengaged whenever the Force Trim button is pressed and the AP reverts to what is known as "Modified SAS Mode" therefore you are actually not really flying in ATT Mode. Also earlier SASless said that the cyclic does not move when Beep Trim is operated in ATT Mode.
I believe that this also is not strictly correct and the cyclic does actually move to allow the control actuators to recenter.
In ATT Mode the cyclic and force trim are used to set the Attitude datum in the AHRS (or TARSYNS on older models) and effectively the cyclic position becomes an integral part of that set datum. Moving the cyclic against the force trim in ATT Mode although it works to move the flight controls is once again abusing the designed use IMHO!
Learn what it is supposed to do, and then try to learn to use it to best advantage.
Agree 100% - I constantly see people unecessarily screw up by fighting a system that they do not fully understand even after they have been flying it for ever!
But I wait to be corrected!
Trog