Aesir:
So in hindsight what would you have done differently? Did YOU learn anything.
No sir, Aesir! I mean, not that I didn't learn anything, but that I wouldn't have done anything differently. If I knew that the area surrounding the airport was not suitable for a forced-landing, I
still would have back-taxied far enough so that I could have gotten some altitude/airspeed before turning away from the wind. That falls under Basic Helicopter Flying 101.
You know, it's so silly. Some dumb guy puts himself and his passenger(s) in a really precarious position (200 feet agl, away from the wind with no good forced-landing areas underneath him), then has the dreaded Bad Thing happen. But somehow (divine intervention?) he manages to pull off a dramatic and precarious "save." Nearly everyone hails him as a hero. Those of us who know better -
which he should have as well - shake our collective heads and go, "Hey dumbass, consider yourself lucky." And then Mr. Superpilot goes, "B-b-but it wasn't *my* fault...it was ATC's fault! Yeah, that's it." ...And we're all supposed to nod in agreement and not say anything.
Maybe you geeks care more about the form of the response than the actual substance. Maybe decorum is more important to you people than anything else.
May God have mercy on your souls.