Guys, I was the pilot. I have 62 hours on rotors. I was circa 300ft climbing above rising ground. 2 minutes into second leg of a first solo xcountry. Bang followed by continuous and loud clatter. Quickly followed by smoke in the cabin that was acrid, white and reminiscent of a car tyre burn out. It concerned me immediately that a fire could get started from friction (half a belt rubbing on a fire wall?). To be frank, I never considered an auto rotation, she was flying beautifully with no control issues, or vibrations, just a lot of noise and smoke. As some of you point out, procedure would have me shut down the fuel and enter a rotor glide. Given my speed (60 knots) and relatively low altitude above ground, and inexperience, I doubt that would have been a good outcome. I also needed to find a suitable spot between houses, power lines trees etc over undulating terrain. I'm guessing but I think less than a minute to put down. After getting out of the machine smoke turned into flame pretty quickly. Observers noted smoke in the cabin as I landed and not breathing any more carbon composite than necessary was top of mind. What still upsets me the most is that such a terrific machine got destroyed on my watch.