Nasty way to learn about development issues, Sasless.
Nick, before airbags were fitted to cars in Europe, steering column crush cans gave a suprising improvement to injury level. The UK data interpretation expert is a guy by the name of Prof Murray Mackay, who i think recently retired from Birmingham Uni - very helpful chap. Collapsible cyclics with rubber tips might offer a good retrofit for machines already in service.
Out of interest, what range of g factors would be expected for service landings?
Mart