I'm surprised that the AAIB (in the R-44 report) do not consider the effect of being asked to set a transponder code on a pilot who has just become lost in IMC. It is not a criticism of the controller, but I can't help but think that going head down for several seconds, whilst in IMC, could not have helped the poor pilot in his attempts to reman in control. His almost total loss of airspeed could very well have been the result of inadvertently applying back pressure on the cyclic, whilst concentrating on the TXPDR settings.