ORIGINAL: Jim Branaum
This is one of those gottcha's where all the good intentions of trying to protect me from Harry Hoverfortypercenter STILL nuke the average guy. I happen to think that needs to be looked at more carefully and maybe even reworded so that any manuevers EXCEPT take off and landings must occur some distance away.
So, what's to stop Harry from hovering his aircraft down to a landing ? Your suggested wording change may actually make things LESS safe, as those who want to hover up close would be encouraged to add a tailwheel-first landing or touch-n-go to their hover maneuver in order to make it "legit". Those who are least capable would be adding complexity and therefore danger to the maneuver just to observe the rule.
Gordon