but in a heli, the thought of engine failure above 15ft, to me, just feels.........anyone who would choose to have engine failure in a heli over a fixed wing light aircraft has a death wish in my opinion. a light aircraft has wheels, after landing you can roll on to lose speed, in a heli you will simply come to a halt.
A common misconception. Let me see if I can explain this.
If the engine fails in a helicopter, it will go quiet, the low rotor RPM horn will blare at you, and you will get a sudden yaw to the left (right in Russian and French helicopters, depends which way your rotors turn). As for f/w aircraft, you are likely to have had some preliminary warning that all was not well, but let's suppose you didn't and it happens suddenly.
You lower the collective lever. That is ALL you have to do quickly. Now you have time. You will be in autorotation, which means that as you descend, the air from underneath keeps the rotors turning - like a windmill or a sycamore leaf. You will be descending at about 1700ft/min, which is relatively fast, but at 2000 ft gives you over a minute to sort things out. That is enough time. You can turn, speed up, slow down; the helicopter is under control.
You set up at 65kts or so, and start to look for a landing site. All you need is a flat area; it doesn't need to be big. You turn into wind, or approach your site from a base leg; as for f/w, there are different ways of doing this. I prefer to adjust my speed; if you slow down, you will cover less ground, and can work out exactly where you want to land...a bit like using air brakes in a glider. But in a helicopter, you can slow down as much as you want and it won't stall.
You're now at 40-50 ft, and back to 65kts, and you start a flare to arrest your rate of descent. You flare, then level at about 5ft or so, still with some forward movement. As the helicopter reaches the ground, you raise the lever; this cushions your landing. A run-on landing is quite acceptable, and easier than stopping with no forward speed. We have skids, remember; you can run on fine with those.
Now, if you do it right, you can apply the carb heat, lack of which probably caused the engine failure in the first place, turn the switch, and fly again. I know an instructor who did just that on a demo on a trial lesson; his student never knew they'd had a real engine failure. But suppose you get it wrong. So long as you lower the lever, keep the helicopter under control, and find a flat landing site, you should walk away. So long as you land vertically, the seats and skids are designed to collapse to protect the occupants. And helicopters are replaceable.
Whenever I get trial lesson students who think if the engine fails in a helicopter you die - usually f/w pilots - I demonstrate an auto. They're usually surprised at how un-scary it is, and how much control you have.
Here endeth today's helicopter lesson...as I now have to go teach this stuff for real!