I know a lot of people use that method and that it works well. But I couldn`t get my hand to fit between the horizon and the TPP and gave up after catching my fingers in the rotor.
"Steady state Airspeed in the end is related to cyclic position"
Not sure about that. An AFCS can make actuator adjustments in the background which affect disk attitude but leave the stick where it is. So how reliable is that rule of thumb?
And CofG and stick position: if you're snappy about explaining flapping and control range and your students can digest that whilst flying.... personally I'd go for the KISS rule (principally for my sake, I stress to add).