Phil,
I talked with one of the utility guys where I used to work. Because the USFS requires a minimum of 6 hours of longline training per year per pilot, what he would do every spring is practice engine failures at 150 feet. He had been doing this for over 20 years and hasn't had a engine failure yet. His feeling was that the year he didn't do this practice would be the year he had an engine failure. Plus since he was working a 150 foot line, 150 feet would be the worst case scenario. And since engine failures seem to happen during or immediately after a major power increase, his thoughts were that he would also have a full bucket when it happened.
First of all he was in a 212, and as I understand it, he has refused to do fire work in a 412. His technique was to immediately drop the collective and dump the load. Try to get at least a little forward movement with the cyclic. Passing about 75 feet AGL, horse back on the cyclic to flare and build up the rpm level off and cushion the landing. He would do this to a full touchdown. The time I flew with him he always had enough energy left to pick the machine back up and turn it at least 180 degrees. His theory was that you keep pedaling until ALL the dust settles.