It's a nice summer day and you are cruising along over open farm land. All of a sudden everything goes quiet. Looking down you have 2 choices, a field of tall corn , or a field of waist high soybeans. Which would you choose? Thanks.

I would take the soybeans. I actually did make that choice in a gyro. I can think of a few reasons why.

Soybean hands down. The corn can be pretty stiff.
You want as much kinetic energy absorbed gradually instead of a sudden stoppage.
Not to mention the height of the corn can catch a spinning rotorblade if your landing was less than leveled.

Not being a farmer; I'd probably have no idea with was corn and which was soybeans.
I'd be looking for cotton, maybe wool

The soybeans grow together and act like an arresting cable. If you have any forward momentum the beans wil grab you and likely flip you over. If you can come to a complete stop over the beans and let it drop in you will probably be okay. I'd take the corn. Corn can be knocked over as you go in. Even if it damaged the blades that would be cheaper than a complete rebuild if a soybean landing was botched.

That's personal preference.
I would avoid my blades come in contact with anything on landing.
But that's just me. Apparently.
I still chose soy.

And there in lies the problem...having speed to arrest. Many gyro pilots land way too fast and don't practice how to really get that gyro slowed to next to nothing.

I would stop and drop over either soybeans as my first choice ...and over tall corn as well. The problem with tall corn is it is tall..
10 -12 feet where I come from. You have to do a much higher stop and drop in corn and this makes the vertical descent rougher on your machine and back.

Then you have the issue of the rotorblades in all that corn foliage, and I am not even mentioning the big ears of corn.
Do you know the procedure when dropping in tall corn that will increase your chances of not breaking your neck?

Now, as you mentioned...soybean foliage is like an arresting cable. Years ago I had a forced landing in very tall dense green soybeans with my Quicksilver MX. I slowed it down and barely skimmed the leaves until I stalled and settled in. Just as soon as the wheels greeted the foliage, it drug it to a halt in like 10 feet from 20-22 mph.

Had that been my gyro...
I would let the rotor arrest the speed like its supposed to and drop in at the most 5 mph if I wasn't on my game...and close to 0 if I was.

But....if one wants to land a gyro at 20 mph in soybeans, yes...it could be a trashed machine with injuries.

I would obviously take the third option....

What third option I hear you ask?

Well, when flying a gyro, fixed wing ultralight.... or even a spam can.... one should always try to fly where there is somewhere to land within gliding distance shouldn't one?

Stan is dead right.... a stop and plop landing is the way to go.... I would personally prefer the corn.... for this reason:

The average height of the rotorhead is about 2 yards these days.... so, doing a vertical descent onto waist high soy beans, the wheels will hit the ground and the rotors will be a yard above the crop as she touches down... so the only cushion is the wheels first contact with the soy and the rotors will still be spinning (fast)

With the corn, the rotors will grab the corn about the same time as the wheels touch the dirt, which, to me, suggests that the rotors will cop some of the impact as opposed to the undercarriage copping it all.... as the rotors grab the corn, the gyro will try to turn the other way, but the corn will restrain it from doing so. The corn will stop the rotors quickly along the entire length of both rotors, which will dissipate the energy along the entire length of both rotors, which should protect the airframe and rotor heard, whereas the soy, the airframe (and your back) would cop the sudden stop of the wheels on dirt, then the tips of the rotors would come down and grab the soy, prolly resulting in the tips stopping and the rotor continuing, resulting in twisted rotors... If you are one of these people that insists on landing a gyro at 25 mph.... well, it was nice knowing you.... you should have learned to fly a gyro like a gyro, instead of like a fixed wing because no matter what you land on, the machine is always going to roll itself into a ball...

So, I think I would be far better off in the corn, both for my health and to have more parts left useable from the gyro.... but as I keep an alternative landing within gliding distance, I would just choose that

Or even better, cotton wool

This will be my last comment on this as anymore wont matter. My first choice is to stop and drop from 4 feet over soybeans, keeping the rotor out of the foliage...rather than dropping in from 10 plus feet over corn and definitely having the rotor in all kinds of foliage... Corn foliage is also a lot and something I wouldn't want my machine going down in,so why submit yourself and your gyro definitely getting messed up in a corn landing. Just learn how to slow that gyro down to near 0 and plop it in.

My soybean engine out was a simple carry it out of the bean field. Had it been in the middle of a corn field...

Anyway...no damage...not even a green smudge on my rotor.

I ended my flying career with 18 forced gyro landings and 2 in a helicopter. Not a scratch to me or my machines. I always laugh saying it shows I am a lucky pilot and a terrible mechanic!

I'd rather land in a cow pasture, I have had good luck so far.
Northern Corn would be really bad to land in since you don't know where the ground is..8ft, 10 ft, below?

I would try the beans with a nice Chianti......

The worst I ever landed in was on a runway where a parachute school operated out of.... I saw some people there so decided to drop in.... I could see the grass wasn't mown, but I didn't realise how long it was.... it turned out to be about 2 - 3' long and because it was a DD Subaru, the mast was only 5'5" or so.... so the rotors left a nice trimmed corrugated strip of grass behind me and they said it looked like a flying chaff cutter

It didn't matter for the landing because I plopped in.... but it made taxying hard, and the takeoff was fun..... that was the day I lost a main wheel on takeoff.... dragging thru the grass.... I had favirable wind straight down the runway, but the grass was leaning towards me, I wanted it leaning the other way, so I taxy'd up and back a different way a few times to leave the grass laying in my direction of takeoff.... then lined up, got the rotors up way over the hump, lifting the nosewheel off the ground 6" with my foot.... then off I went and as I horsed it off, I looked and the left main wheel had fallen off They saw it and grabbed it, I flew over at about 50' and was trying to yell "leave it at the gate" and dived at the gate a few times pointing at it.... then flew back to Lake George and landed .... then drove back and got the wheel....

That was when I decided I wouldn't hollow axles out... leave them solid

Muz- That reminded me of one time during the takeoff roll in my RAF2000...the right tire blew out and followed by an abrupt turn ...I had enough flight speed to pull it off the ground before I ground looped it or tipped over. I remember thinking how lucky I was to not have crashed, and could enjoy flying with a flat tire before I crashed after the flight! I just decided to do a good job of landing into the wind,,as slow as possible..and right in front of my hanger. The landing was uneventful....soon had a new tire and tube and was flying again. Had I landed at 20 -25 mph ...and even over 30 mph like I see happens way too often, I probably would have a damaged machine.

Stan that is a great example of practicing for the event of ..... fill in the dotted line.
I remember the time when I had a flat on my right skid on the Schweizer300....
Man.... that was something....

Gabor- I can top that! I had two flat skids on my Helicycle.