Had a tail rotor failure crop spraying in Saudi Arabia back in the 80's in a Bell 47...... Just came out of a torque turn facing vertically down when ...Bang
Farmer witness saw something fly off the back end and spin off across the wheat crop...
Meanwhile back in the bubble, I rolled off the throttle, flared hard and "arrived" in the thick crop. The whole of the rear end from the fuel tanks aft was chopped off in the flair, but the skids were undamaged and thankfully so was I
Could I have done anything else/better?
No idea, you just react instinctively and hope for the best
Not a very nice thing to happen to a young pilot.... completely ruined my ZZ TOP track I was wired into....
