A question for the NS operators:
How thorough is your AP training? Do you cover such things as AP degredations (of which there are many and not always obvious) and practise them? Do you show your pilots the gotchas?
I am sure many of your new hires will have come through the standard PPL/CPL/IR route of training. None of those courses teaches use of autopilot, or didn't when I did my IR - do any "simple" twins used for initial IR's (AS355, A109, EC135) have 4 axis autopilots?
Many other new hires will be coming out of the military - again, do they come from a background familiar with sophisticated autopilots?
All of those above will have considerable training of single engine rejects and hand flown approaches, but little to no autopilot handling experience.
Where is the emphasis during conversion training with Bristow, Bond and CHC (+ NHV, Dancopter etc)?
My knowledge of the autopilot on my primary aircraft type was picked up "on the hoof" with no formal training that I can recall at all - despite type rating training with a very well regarded 3rd party provider (in level D sim). The "on the hoof" training was not done by the Company TRI/E but provided by other company line pilots while flying the line and each had a slightly different way of doing things (such as AS vs VS hold on 3 axis approaches)
Incidentally, use of the nav system was also only touched upon - basically the training generally went over the stuff that was the same or very similar to every other helicopter I'd ever flown, and barely touched on the bits which were genuinely new to me! I'm not suggesting that NS training is like that, but would be interested to hear.