Hey VFR good to see you pop up again.
If you're talking UK forces, there aren't any 'front line' singles out there. Gazelles are being used in the rear.
So having both donks stop from ground fire would take some doing. Sufficient damage would have to be done to flame both out and I would suggest other problems would manifest themselves very quickly in addition
If however, there was some reason to land from a low altitude profile without power, then yes, I would attempt to trade speed for height to give me time to manouevre for a landing. But in a war scenario, I would do everything possible(provided I still had Nr) to depart the scene as far as possible before being forced to land in the hope I didn't get taken Prisoner
If that meant flying in the red with my engines for a short time, then so be it...it's not my machine!
I still wonder what caused that Apache to land intact (on TV). Why didn't he bleed every last ounce out of it to get as far away as possible from the enemy? Where was his top cover too? Why didn't a couple of his colleagues strafe the area while another went in to rescue the crew?? Not criticising just curious??