My apologies for an earlier post, I took offence at your last comment but then thought better of it. I fear you have been brutalised by poor sim instruction which is sad but I know it goes on. If you wish to PM me with some details I'll add it to my list of horror stories. It is a shame that so little auditing of sim instruction goes on For that reason this kind of abuse goes undetected. I'm thinking of becoming an auditor when I retire
The objective of the 'screens-out' exercise is to familiarise the student with an unusual instrument that he has probably never come across before. The ESIS is not just an AH. It's also an IAS indicator, a VSI, an Altimeter and a compass and is also capable of providing VOR/ILS data/guidance.
When the student is forced to use it as the sole means of reference he/she appreciates just how straightforward it is so the concept of a total screen failure becomes less intimidating.
I don't teach that exercise to recurrent students unless requested. I take your point about using the ESIS as a referee but there is only so much time in a TR course and so many pilots require some remedial IF training during that segment of the course. Perhaps we can talk about that kind of thing on another thread. Right now I am trying to create a good enough argument for EHEST to at least add a correction to their booklet to say that their list of 'good tips' applies only to the EC225 for it certainly doesn't apply to the AW139. Maybe they would also reconsider advising pilots to rely on the stabilisation system to deliver recovery during a 'fly-through' manoeuvre. It is an archaic concept now that we are discussing the mismanagement of automation in the context of the latest generation of complex helicopters.
G.