Well, I had my first close call the other day. I suppose it wasn't that close, but it was definitely enough to make my heart skip a beat.
When I went through CFI training, we talked about these types of scenarios, but talking about it is quite different from the real thing. It is pretty well established that the most dangerous training maneuver is the practice autorotation, and I got to see first hand why. I was conducting a stage check for a private student who was having a very good flight up to this point. We had just completed a good clean normal approach and were setting up for a straight in autorotation to a power recovery. We were on high final at about 800 AGL with 70 knots, the student counted down 3 .. 2 .. 1 .. and rolled off the throttle while applying right pedal. The collective never moved.
Now, I have been told that this happens to everyone, but it still is a bit disconcerting the first time. The horn went off within a second and I took the controls, put the collective to the floor and eased back on the cyclic, saw the rotor tach bottom out between 90 and 95, then brought the throttle back up to power and recovered. We then went around, talked about it, then tried again with much better results.
One of my instructors mentioned this happening to him with a commercial student, so there is no room for complacency when conducting practice autorotations. Generally, I discuss high risk maneuvers with the student in the downwind before performing it, but on a stage check, I was minimizing my input. Should I have discussed the maneuver anyway?