I'm not a pilot, just someone who's been doing flight sims on and off for decades:

Here's a good take on what he could have done - gliding back to those fields clearly visible in the rear right quarter at the time of the "failure".

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VXaLiB70glE&feature=youtu.be

Author (not myself) also shows a simulated landing on the riverbeds below - heck, the 1940 Taylorcraft nearly landed there by itself! AFAIK the plane was designed to land off road, with a stall speed barely over 61km/h - it can land on a proverbial dime.

What a waste of a perfectly good aircraft.