Oh! Oh!
Reading all the previous letters I see that there are two fields of opinion, those in favour and those against, obviously.
For those who avoid making EOLs you could well be placed in the position of answering to a court why your student was not capable of reaching the minumum standard of licensing upon attaining the PPL. If 50 hours is not enough then I sugest that more hours are required by that student. As an instructor you have the 'duty' to perform as an instructor to the requirements of the syllabus as laid down in whichever authority you are operating. If you are unconfortable doing engine off landings then I can only suggest that yiou requalify after suitable retraining.
The R22 is a poor training helicopter as there are numerous limitations in regard to safety to which as an instructor you ought to be able to 'tune' your EOL's so that the EOL is safely conducted. I say 'tune' as a way of deciding the best weight/weather/ground conditions to best attain confident and contro;;ed landings. I do not believe that closing the engine down completely is necessary, sufficien that the throttle is closed to ground idle/idle once the area of the landing can be safely reached.
It amazes me that students are given the impression that all they require is 50 hours flying time to attain their PPL/H. How on earth can anyone know whether that prospective student has the ability to achieve that goal. I suspect that the training for EOL's is avoided until far too late in the training sequence to give confident handling at the Flight Test stage. I would recommend that instructors feed in EOL's at regular intervals and certainly before the students first solo. OK at this stage the student has only 'followed through' but should have the method in mind should things go quiet during the first solo.
Experienced instructors ought to be able to perform EOL's onto grass surfaces within the sloping ground limitations of the type of helicopter flown.
It's all to do with training and technique.
For those making regular EOL's with their students, I commend you and would feel safer with their students flying me.