I tried it yesterday and it went well. Did it from way high up, 2,000 ft. Got my Groundspeed up to 20kts going backwards (0 indicated) and then entered the auto. It totally spun me around but thats the idea right? Glad I got to experience that. 

Back-up autorotations were taught by the Army in the sixties.

trained to use back up autos in the UK.  Best not get going too fast though because of the horizontal stab.  Go too fast and ur nose is likely to pitch downwards, a lot.  Not good for Rrpm maintenance.

FWIW, while I was working for FSI a while back, I had a pilot from Peru going through recurrent who asked me if I could set him up facing into a mountainside at about 2 or 3 thousand feet and fail the engine.  We had an area modeled in the sim that would work.  He flew close enough to the mountain that a 180 degree turn wasn't and option, then hovered for a bit and asked me to fail the engine.  The first thing he did was aft cyclic and, as soon as he got moving backwards, lowered the collective.  After a few seconds backing up, he the the nose swing around and wala, was running downhill to a perfect autorotation landing.  When he landed, he looked at me and said, "I thought that would work!"  He then explained they did a lot of that kind of flying where he was and he always wondered what would work "if."

He did a couple me and I tried a couple too.  They worked just fine.  You can learn something from everyone, even if it's what NOT to do!   

On a somewhat related note.....It's from 2014...but still pretty good watching.  Not really flying backwards in the auto, but rather turning backwards for the flare.  I don't have the courage/confidence to try it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wFBUAZi5XU

As for that video...  Mikhail "Michael" Farikh was a Russian rich guy who loved flying.  He was very much like that Most Interesting Man in the World character from those old Dos Equis TV commercials.  I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times.  He never said exactly what he did in Russia to get all his money, but he obviously had a lot.  He was very vague about his background (other than that he was in the Russian military), and we knew to not ask a lot of questions.  He was fearless.  He wanted to fly a Robinson up to the North Pole and wanted Robinson to support him.  They said, "Hell no, and we're not even going to acknowledge you. You're on your own."  He did it anyway.  He did all kinds of crazy expeditions.  He told us many of his flying stories - not in a bragging way, just very modest and matter-of-factly - like about teaching himself how to climb and descend in absolute zero/zero conditions (not in the U.S.). One night, we were in a pizza/beer place in Washington State. Michael ordered vodka. When informed that they did not serve alcohol at that place, he pulled out a wad of cash. In other parts of the world, that's what it would take to procure something that was (ahem) "not available."  He was surprised that it didn't work in America.  He was a pretty good pilot, in skill if not judgment.  He did - and filmed - all kinds of crazy stuff with Robinsons.  Like those backward-flare autos. Eventually, his hubris caught up with him - he crashed and killed himself and two others flying in zero/zero conditions on one of his epic flights. Great guy...but kind of crazy.  RIP, man.

Mikhail Farikh - Wikipedia

Did it once with Roger Sharkey in an Enstrom.  Hell of a pilot and I learned a lot from it.  

line moves on!