Loose Nut -
Don't be too hard on yourself, and don't invite criticism, you were bitten by one of the few Gazelle "bites". Only those who have found themselves in that situation can appreciate how quickly concern develops into terror upon finding themselves in a helicopter over which they have little control and are within a few feet of the ground.
I have about 4000 hours in the Gazelle and have enjoyed every minute, even though some of them were scary.
I was prompted to investigate the phenomenon of loss of tail rotor control or effectiveness/fenestron stall back in 1987 when I was a passenger in the rear of a Gazelle which completed 3 full 360s in about 5 seconds, before the pilot dumped it on the ground heavily.
The incident happened at the end of a training flight. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say, the pilot's lead feet on the pedals started the incident and when he found himself in a high rate of left yaw, he applied full right pedal. I concluded, after subsequent consideration and research, that his sudden application of full right pedal stalled the fenestron and the aircraft simply continued to yaw under the influence of the torque reaction.
Aerospatiale joined in the investigation and conducted a series of tests from which they concluded that, full application of right pedal is the corrective action required, however, it may take some time for tail rotor effectiveness to re-establish.
This may work for their test pilot in a controlled situation where he was ready for the stall, but for the pilot who is caught unawares, it is a huge drama. The yaw in our case was exacerbated by the pilot applying collective pitch to get away from the ground (his natural reaction) and the aircraft then started pitching up and down, possibly as a result of increased downwash on the horizontal stabiliser and pilot cyclic input.
The bottom line was, it happened to this experienced pilot, it happened unbelieveably quickly, and he was not aware of what was going on. We all immediately suspected a tail rotor driveshaft failure.
The lessons that I pulled out of it were;
1. There is a tail rotor phenomenon associated with the Gazelle that requires some discussion/instruction (not practical) with every Gazelle pilot.
2. Any manipulation of the collective or pedals has to be gentle (as advertised), to save any requirement for large corrective pedal inputs that may cause further problems.
3. It is more practical to discard and replace fully soiled underwear, rather than launder them.
The Gazelle is a great aircraft, try not to be put off.
I am glad to hear that you all walked away from the accident.