I am afraid I will have to reply to this,
my criteria for a self fly hire check is/was, would I send my wife or child up with them for a flight and if the answer was yes, then I was happy with them.
I think that someone who can legally fly round the country with passengers who may be my relations, should not be able get away with it on the grounds that " his brain turned to mush because it was an emergency"
because they have turned a benign indication into a potential fatal accident, after all there was NO OTHER INDICATION, and surely a qualified helicopter pilot should notice that :
1) there is no change in engine sound
2) no yaw
3) no red lights
4) no low RPM horn
5) no nothing except the needles
I think you lot are way to forgiving, I always wanted my trainees to be the best they could be not just dummies who dont even know the basics.
maybe controversial but I dont care, I was flying with a commercial pilot the other day who flew 1/2 a circuit with no engine RPM needle and a red light for Alternator and didnt even notice. I was be disapointed if a PPL didnt notice that but for a CPL that is well crap.
also a 109 pilot who after doing a charter asked the engineer on the apron while still rotors running why the captions were dim,
and the answer " well you never actually turned the generators on and I think the battery is a bit low now"
I made/make loads of mistakes but if you actually read the emergency checklist before you do a checkout, maybe it would go a bit better !