I always liked that Bugs Bunny bit where he’s saved from a crash by the airplane running out of gas and sputtering to a halt just before it hits the ground.
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It takes ~10 hours to learn to hover in a helicopter, almost universally. So don’t feel bad! Once it clicks, though… Oh man! 
It most certainly does! But, if you are at adequate altitude, and within about 1-2 seconds get the rotor blades in the exact right position, you can achieve autorotation — which means you have a bit of lift going for you (thanks to the wind rushing up through the blades as you fall, which keeps them turning just enough to get some lift).
Whether or not you would call this “flying, but only down” or “controlled falling,” well, that’s semantics I suppose. But the chopper is only going in one direction, and that’s down, and quickly!
Even more fun is “settling with power.” Practicing that the one or two times I got to do it was definitely the most batshit thing I’ve ever done. Practicing autorotations is downright pedestrian in comparison! 
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These are very important and interesting points for which I don’t have an answer, I from my part am going to practice shot putting
What is that UFO-on-stilts building in the background?
After working on it for decades, engineers finally perfect the elusive manned unmanned aircraft.
Nah - this is the amaze about helicopters. They can autorotate all the way down to soft ground.
The pilot has a varying amount of time to catch the stall, point the nose down and basically glide in. harder than in a fixed wing, but entirely achievable and built into training.
I’m still awaiting my promised “anti-gravity” powered car/plane/drone, whatever…forget rotors, blades, etc.
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