Is a 90 more dangerous than a 50

[Westburton]

My club is introducing a rule that you can only fly a 90 if you have a BMFA “B” certificate.
As I understand it the head speed of the 90 is lower than that of a 50 and the 90 size helicopter is more stable. There are plenty of people that can fly very well but have not taken there B test. So my question is are 90 size helicopters more dangerous than a 50 and why

[wecoyote]

Can a 9 inch (228mm) knife kill you more than a 6 inch (152mm) knife? no.
Yes the 90 has a slower head speed BUT it has more inertia in the longer and heavier blades.

[Bond007]

I don't see any difference between the 2 :confused:

Either one flown in an unsafe manner could be catastrophic.

Would be better to have new pilots checked by a club examiner, or safety officer, before flying alone, or insist that they have an 'A' cert. I know a lot of flyers are not interested in gaining certificates, but this is seen as the minimum 'solo' standard by a lot of BMFA affiliated clubs, as it is geared towards the top priority, which is the safe operation and flying of a model helicopter.

[R1R 7humbs]

There's a blog post on this site where the guy said he was shot by a 9mm in the leg and 6-7 months later hit by a 620mm rotor blade (in the leg). He said the rotor hurt more than the 9mm and the recovery time was longer. If they're going to require a special certificate to fly 90s than they should have the same requirement for a 50 class heli.

[Squirrlybird]

The 90 is probably safer due to the increase in pucker factor (less likely to be flown as aggressive as the smaller birds).

Doesn't matter though. They will kill you just the same as a 30.:thumbup:

[wlfk]

Let's ask the question in a different way - has a T-Rex 450 every killed anybody? I don't know the answer to the question, but certainly they kill people less often than the big helicopters, despite there being far more of them (500,000 was a figure I heard the other day). Yet medically I can think of a number of ways in which they could quite easily do so.

The fact of the matter is that most helicopter hits don't kill people, even if they have the potential to do so. Bearing that in mind, the question becomes 'how likely is it that a hit from this helicopter would kill me?' and the answer has to be that the bigger the helicopter, the more damage it's likely to do.

K

[Finn Erik]

Say, sitting in your car; would prefer to be hit by a moped or an 18 wheeler?

I would just mention the word "momentum"

Besides, a heli is not dangerous, the guy stirring the sticks are.