The answer is dependent on who the pilot is, exactly. Is he a hot headed 14 years old that thinks he's a great pilot without hovering for 5 seconds straight? If he is, he will crash no matter what the machine is and in such case the smaller the heli, the better (even a 450 is way too dangerous).
Now; if he's a more mature guy (by age or mentally) who spent his hard earned money and has respect to the machine and the patience to learn, starting around 550 size is ideal (in any case no smaller than 425mm blades and no larger than 600mm). Remember in the past all beginners had were .30 machines, which are essentially 550mm of today and everyone was fine. I do feel much safer with the larger helis as I always fly them much farther and higher than I do with the small ones and they don't "get away" from you as easily.
Now it's not only the heli size, but the setup as well. It has to be setup stable and low-ish headspeed, and of course perfect mechanical and electronic setup.
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We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane
Trex 700N, Furion 6FBL, (lots of fuel and some batteries)
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