Baling out? Used to be an RAF requirement to carry chutes in helis if going above a certain altitude (10,000ft?) - they once suffered a catastrophic fire in a helicopter (magnesium skinned Wessex I think it was) that burned out before it landed in autorotation.
However, I went completely off the idea of baling out as soon as I read the abandonment drill in the Flight Reference Cards for the Whirlwind 10.
There was a caveat at the bottom of the same FRC page which said words to the effect that "Warning: objects jettisoned from the aircraft in autorotative flight may contact the main rotor blades".
