Geoffers
You are quite right, as always, it is very much an LTE issue. There were several incidents involving Gazelles in the 70s and 80s. I was "fortunate" enough to be sitting in the back of one such incident as it unfolded before my eyes, which, by the third revolution had already popped out of my head.
In the hover at 5 ft into a 20kt wind, the clumsy (Sea King) pilot applied a bootful of Left pedal (the wrong pedal for the Gazelle). As we came through 180 degrees, the huge fin became a sail and the wind whipped us around even faster. He tried to stop the turn with full opposite pedal immediately....and off we went.
We did 5 or 6 revolutions in a very short period. He had managed to hold it level until about the second or third and then his instinct was to get away from the ground. As he applied power, (I believe) the increased downwash on the horizontal stabiliser pulled the nose up, which he corrected with forward cyclic and lowering the lever. However, this set up fore and aft oscillations, what a mess. He then opted for lowering the lever more and accepting a heavy landing (as specified in the FRCs for Tail Rotor Failure).
To reinforce the point you are trying to make, I learned the following points from that incident:
1. The whole thing was over inside 30 seconds (approx). There was no time for detailed analysis and the situation was getting worse. Putting down was the only option and we should have done it earlier.
2. We were not ready and were completely caught out. Simulator practice is absolutely invaluable. If no sim available, Tail Rotor issues should be a topic of discussion at regular intervals.
3. Every helicopter pilot has a better method of dealing with failures that happen to other helicopter pilots........ffs just follow the instructions in the handbook.
4. Not all Sea King pilots are clumsy, I just happened to have that one.
Tam