Just wanted to say that as a low-time heli pilot I'm finding this thread very interesting and instructive. Of course I know that you *should* stay out of the HV curve - and in my case do - but if for whatever reason you can't it's jolly nice to have some idea what you could do to try and save your life!
In particular I would have thought - until reading this - that it would make sense to put in forward cyclic and try to get some forward airspeed. Useful to know this is a bad idea!
I do have one question... if you find yourself in this situation, at what height would you start to pull collective? 20 feet-ish would seem about right but it would seem best to get this right!
n5296s (or n9888s)