Have you considered using Adobe Premier CS6?
It has the capability and the robust power needed to edit raw AVCHD and does so rather well. Here at RIT, many students swear by the GHpoo (much to my dismay, but that is a different) and editing the footage in Premier has always been a breeze.
As for hacks, Powell’s FlowMotion is pretty solid, big fan.
Hope this helps!
-Jordan Westhoff
Rochester Institute of Technology
BS Digital Cinema/Motion Picture Science 2015