“We would do what was called a “button hook’ fly above tree top at max speed, abeam the LZ, dump the collective, pitch up steeply, full rudder into the turn. The helo would pitch up steeply, the nose would rapidly come around, push the nose down on a very short final.
It was amazing.”
Thank you for the important reply! I have actually seen this done so can visualize it! But I do not remember if the maneuver also caused the whole craft to rise in elevation as a residual flight characteristic?
What I am getting at is could it be possible that at the last minute they did try to perform a maneuver like this but it rose up into the plane as a residual of that last ditch maneuver as a natural side effect?
In this maneuver, there is a significant pitch up to reduce airspeed and rudder into the turn to bring the tail around and descend. This is with no power until one is on very short final.
I do not see the value of this in a collision avoidance situation, in a former life I was involved in aviation safety.