Really questioning the "downwind" bit - he would not have been able to reverse away as quickly as he did if his tail was into wind, particularly as he was running out of T/R power.
That second video is even more scary.
And for Ned's question as to why he didn't land straight away, it is obvious that landing at that altitude wasn't going to work, so going somewhere a lot lower was the option, and he probably had spare underwear back at base.