I agree with Nick about landing on rocks, its alot easier with tires and oleos than on skids. It is very easy to break skid gear; especially on Bell mediums.
John: The 76 pictured didn't run into trouble with clearance, it succumbed to a large vertical acceleration. On a happy note; it is flying again.
When I used to go to FSI for 76 training they had a couple of instructors which espoused the values of aerodynamic breaking. Aerodynamic Breaking in a 76 is VERY BAD, the boom will make contact with terra firma at appx 15 degrees nose up and any combination of downward collective accompanied with aft cyclic could cause the Main rotor blades to contact the vertical pilon, with expensive results.