But any pilot HOGE would be primed and waiting for that yaw and change in engine noise. Unlikely just freezing on the controls...
Done any long lining....Forest Fire fighting....fertilizing with a bucket....fish hauling....construction work.....Cherry Drying?
Pilots do not go about their business day after day....hour after hour....sat up on their seat with their mind alert and focused upon responding to an engine failure....that just doesn't happen unless something alerts them to a problem beforehand.
You focus your attention on the immediate tasks at hand and hopefully your training and experience is such that you react properly when the time comes and you do so in a very timely manner which requires that initial response to be instinctual and correct for the situation.
Crab,
The US Army did the same as the Germans on that.....as when flying very close to the Surface at or above 90 Knots....you did have to "Pop" the Collective first....then apply a large amount of Aft Cyclic to Climb to about 300 feet before reaching 60 Knots and initiating a "normal" autorotation.
Yes....the old Huey has lots of Inertia in the Rotor system....which has saved a lot of lives over the years. The transition to the Huey from Low Inertia Rotor Systems takes some understanding and acceptance, in the past I have found some reluctance to that when doing Conversion training.
Usually it takes doing a Hovering Autorotation....landing to the ground....then picking the aircraft up and repeating the maneuver while turning the aircraft 180 degrees without using any throttle, to get the point across.
Don't be trying that with your Gazelle.