Look, I'm not the best pilot on the planet, but I can say for damn sure that I can do a better autorotation than a high-speed, run-on, maybe crooked landing. Watch the impact of that Twin Squirrel and tell me you're not thinking, "Whew, that was CLOSE!" Close to tragedy, that is.
No tail rotor? Just auto. That's what they tell us to do: Land without torque. Is there an RFM that recommends otherwise? Why experiment with the unknown and unproven?
Get as high as you can while cruising to the AIRPORT you're going to land at. If you're in a twin, pull one back to idle as you're doing that (you don't need all that torque anyway). When you're over the field, enter a flat-pitch approach into the wind and pull the other one to idle. Stop-cock them on the way down. Flare, level, cushion, done. Aren't we taught to do this? I mean, aren't we taught to do this more than we're taught to be test pilots?
I've been blessed with two, yes TWO tail rotor failures, both with PHI. Both happened because mechanics didn't tighten stuff up properly during maintenance and the bits came undone later when it was just me and the machine. The first happened just after landing on an offshore oil platform. Horrible noise just after putting the pitch down. Thomas coupling had come apart. Thank the Lord it didn't happen 30 seconds earlier.
Second one happened just after liftoff to a hover on an oil platform. Bang! My left foot went to the floor and then the world spun sideways so fast I couldn't really believe it. Whoa-Nelly! To this day I am astonished at how fast the rotation was, and how you get thrown sideways and don't anticipate that part. Chopped the throttle and did a hovering auto back to the deck. Afterward, I was complaining, err...mentioning to one of our IP's at headquarters that chopping the throttle did not stop the spin. And he goes, "Why didn't you just go straight to cut-off?" Oops. Yeah, that might have worked....maybe...kinda...dammit.
Last year, the 206 Recurrent pilot I flew with spent almost the entire dang session doing tail rotor problems - stuck-left, stuck-right, stuck-right again and again and again - until I was thoroughly wore-slap-out. It, combined with my previous experience reinforced my opinion that with no tail rotor thrust, these things spin FAST if you pull any torque without sufficient airspeed. (And in Recurrent, for our stuck-rights we didn't even put the pedal to the floor - only far enough down to simulate it getting stuck during a low-power approach. And that was bad enough!)
No tail rotor? I'm autorotating, baby. I can do that. They don't pay me enough to be a test pilot.