Incident Overview
During a cruise flight at 800 feet MSL, a helicopter experienced a bird strike that sheared the cyclic push pull tube. The aircraft began shaking violently, and the pilot found that cyclic inputs did not correct the helicopter's attitude.
Pilot Actions
In response, the pilot lowered the collective fully and rolled the throttle to the idle position. The helicopter then assumed a near level attitude with a slight left bank. When the helicopter descended to approximately 15 feet AGL, the pilot applied full aft cyclic and pulled pitch to prepare for landing.
Touchdown
The helicopter touched the ground in a left sideways movement. It bounced once before coming to rest. The sequence of events relied entirely on the pilot's control inputs to manage the approach and touchdown after the control system damage.
Findings
The investigation determined that the cyclic push pull tube was sheared as a result of the bird strike. No additional causal factors were explicitly stated in the source.