I have 820 hours piloting these. Superb military aircraft, especially with a pair of 0.5 Brownings pointing out of the door. I also flew more advanced variants of the Super Puma as a civilian. These days I can only reminisce and remember fondly over 20k hours flying helicopters. My 1,200 or so hours fixed wing just isn't remotely as challenging or enjoyable.
Vibration and helicopters are a bad mix. The mechanics try their best to smooth out the vibrations through Rotor smoothing. Some aircraft fly super smooth and others will just not cooperate and fly rough.
It measures torque at the transmission. Since the rotor always rotates at the same rpm it is a power gauge. (torque x rpm = power) In a hover the engines have to do everything, hence the maxed out gauge. While in forward flight the airspeed helps create lift. If a helicopter is descending it can sail just like a sailplane while using zero engine power. In a climb the helicopter needs power to maintain speed so the torqe goes up again. Anyways hover is the least efficient state for any helicopter so they use the most power there.
