A fellow poster clued me in on a very significant AAIB accident report that has a lot to say about pilot reaction time to a double engine failure. I am impressed by the thoroughness of the typical AAIB investigation. Check out Report 4/83 on the AAIB website. A Westland Wessex 60, G-ASWT, 13 Aug 81. It's a long read but well worth it. Check out paragraph 1.16.2 regarding pilot reaction time, and paragraph 2.3.2 regarding rotor speed decay. And throughout this detailed investigation there was no mention whatsoever of applying any aft cyclic at all following the failure of the two engines.
So how quickly did pilots react to the double engine failures: The minimum reaction time was 1.5 seconds. The maximum was 7 seconds. The mean was 3 seconds. THREE SECONDS before the flight controls were moved.
Pete
Pete