Wrench 1 wrote:
“At least with a nose wheel you didn't ride over on the nose and rip out your pitot tube....”
Indeed an issue with some machines. Once upon a time in a place called Camp Holloway, I had a side job as unit Standardization Pilot and gave the newbies a local check ride/local procedure ride, which included some power recovery autos. The point of which was simple: the Central Highlands had a lot of red clay and in dry season the coefficient of friction of that stuff was a very big number, thus in any real auto, one wanted to get as close to zero speed as possible in the flare. One young aviator just out of Ft Rucker was really not getting it slowed down, so at the end of his flare and rock over to level I told him I had the controls and began a takeoff from say 20 kts. Put the nose down, raised the collective and got to maybe 50 ft when the T-53 stalled and the Nr drooped. Managed to get it level and used what potential energy still in the rotor to cushion, but we were going maybe 25 or so on flat red clay. Ship rolled up on its nose and broke the chin bubbles but I kept the cyclic centered so the tail was ok. New engine, plastic and skids and it flew the next day. Wasn’t quite sure it wasn’t going to nose over to be honest. The main rotor was very close to hitting the ground directly in front, but didn’t.