🚀 go-pugleaf

Helicopters are rocks with engines. No wings. The blades are subject to enormous stresses and any failure. any out of balance problem with the blades in flight guarantees disaster. The pilot can try to windmill down, but as I found out in a seminar put on by National Instruments on blade stress measurements in the air, that produces the maximum amount of stress possible. In fact, the way NI instruments the blades for stress measurements is to fly the chopper, then do a free fall without engine power from 10,000' or so, all the while collecting data. Finally, (hopefully!) the engine power is returned.

So long as a regular plane can stay above stall speed, it can fly. Witness the crash in the Hudson recently. He flew it into the water.

Helicopters are reasonably safe. What I don't like is what happens with power loss.

Give me a Cessna any day!