I'll give that a try, Nick. Sounds much more believable than what I posted. I guess in the steady state we're able to use less power than required for hover OGE, but overall we need to use excess power to initiate that vertical climb.
This brings me closer to a theory I have on vertical takeoffs. We check power at 4' and then lower to 1', smoothly but rapidly increase to a high power setting. I believe that at 1' we get the maximum benefit from ground effect, obtaining the most excess power to initiate a climb, and then maintaining a high power setting we obtain the maximum vertical rate of climb possible. It may be that this technique allows you to climb to an OGE hover even when you don't have enough power to maintain the hover (although the rates of climb would be incredibly slow and it would require exceptional skill and luck to see it).
I think the 1' makes more sense than starting from a 0' hover because there would be fewer control inputs and more efficient use of available power.
Matthew.