Almost 50 years ago I flew with an ETPS (Empire Test Pilot School) graduate in a RN Wasp. He demonstrated fully developed VRS - and I do mean it was really fully developed - we started at 9000ft, commenced the recovery at about 8000ft and recovered at just above 4000ft with the ROD having been pegged to the bottom of the dial. No way can you recover from fully developed VRS within 50 ft!!!!
They did recover from a FULLY developed VRS, which is quite different from a incipient VRS. I personally have never been there and don't want to go there, neither sit in that helicopter but let's give the man - a test pilot - credit for knowing what he was doing, since he started at 9000ft.
And as you can see in post #4 the technique isn't even new. Your hero just gave it a name. One wonders, why it did not become the standard technique.
And again from the old timers:
On learning to fly over 50 years ago, we were taught to do VRS recoveries. When the rate of decent was around 4000 to 6000 ft/min we would initiate recovery by lowering collective & pushing stick forward. When the air speed came alive we would pull the stick back & apply power to initiate a climb.
The point was made very strongly that the tail rotor hadn't stalled, only the main rotor, so if the cyclic was too sloppy & wouldn't nose down, we would put in a boot of pedal as all you wanted was airspeed & it didn't matter in which direction you were going. Worked every time!
I just have a problem with the stalled rotor here. Does it stall in a VRS? I miss something in that picture. Anyway, since building up 5000ft/min ROD takes a while or even 2000ft/min, probably longer than the rope that is still dangling from the belly, the whole discussion is moot since either way HTG will have happened by now in the above described low level situation. The whole thing is about incipient VRS (the real world. If you can develop 2000ft/min ROD in a vertical descend without hitting the ground you are certainly trying to fly down a mine shaft).
Here we have a problem. It would take quite an effort to prove any advantage, since even a slight variation of wind speed, weight or sensitivity of the pilot could tip the balance in one or the other direction. I personally have flown out of an incipient VRS with almost now height loss, just because I caught it in the first moment of sluggishness of the controls. Easy when you know that it is coming. A centimetre of forward stick and you'r out of it. No "lowering collectiv". That's modern helicopters for you. They do not tend to suddenly fall out of the sky with no warning. That is probably the reason, why much more helicopters are bent by SWP (that terrible sudden power loss) than with VRS.
By now we have made a mountain out of a molehill. VRS accidents happen but one has yet to prove that the recovery procedure is the key to prevent them. My completely unproven feeling is, that the recognition of the situation is the problem. "Early enough" as FICH stated. And I go with crab. In an incipient VRS during an approach, stick forward and pull power is the easiest way to save the day. If you want to put in some pedal, be my guest.
Both methods work apparently but this rediscovered technique is harder to learn.
Just a thought, if one is slinging stuff slow and heavy and gets into incipient VRS, pickling the load should solve the problem in a heart beat. Customer might not like you afterwards.