Burr
Good account and I had a similar experience flying night EMS in Sussex.
BO105, hover at night to recce landing site on FLIR , then commence usual steep approach down the Nightsun beam. Started 1500 feet. Eyes out of the cockpit too long looking at the site. Slack wind and realised that with a high collective setting we were starting to descend rapidly. The usual Bolkow hover vibes were more than normal and glanced inside to see the VSI not looking healthy. Same recovery procedure; dumped the lever and nosed forward. recovered below 500 feet and flew away to re-position. A few seconds more and it would have been a different story.
We were shown incipient VR on Whirlwinds in 1977 at Shawbury. Up to 10,000 feet, quick demo. As others have said "There it was, did you feel it?!". Followed by an autorotation back to the airfield from the overhead. Everyone undershot for some reason despite the easy starting height!
I don't believe I gained much from the demo but a good briefing and having the frighteners put on you by an instructor has to be good value
