Too late to edit, I now see I failed at high-school physics. Trivially, a helicopter in a hover is producing the same lift force as a helicopter flying forward

Too late to edit, I now see I failed at high-school physics. Trivially, a helicopter in a hover is producing the same lift force as a helicopter flying forward (with zero vertical speed). Being stuck in a downdraught means the hovering helicopter must use more power to generate the same amount of lift force.