TAG - neither of course!
To try to fathom out "what its doing now" whilst plummeting earthwards would be foolish and inappropriate, and possibly fatal.
To disconnect the autopilot would be equally stupid because you now are flying a helicopter designed to always have artificial stability operative, but have removed that artificial stability and are now flying a twitchy and unstable monster.
The correct response is to drop down a level or several of automation - ie go from whatever upper modes were coupled, to basic stability (normally based around attitude and heading retention). Raise the collective to arrest the descent, select a sensible attitude etc. No point in making it much much harder by disconnecting the autopilot unless your macho-ness is more important than your's and the passengers' lives.
Last edited by HeliComparator; 13th Sep 2013 at 23:17.