Advice for a frustrated Noob

[Jay23]

Hi all,

This is my first post on this forum (hopefully not the last), i have been lurking around for a while thought, and i need some advice. I have a HoneyBee v2 that i got back in the air a few months ago after a hiatus of about 5 years (my daughter came along the first time i tried to learn to fly). Im getting a little frustrated, when flying indoors i can hover tail in and both sides, move around (as much as you can indoors) and pretty much place the heli anywhere i want. Now.... im in a the fortunate position to have open fields to the rear of the house i can fly in whenever i want, but if there is a mere hint of a breeze the Bee is dam near uncontrollable! I seem to be doing really well with my flying then a gust catches the heli and its crash time. I do repairs go back out and low and behold the tail motor goes, or its a bent flybar, or its stripped servo gears, and HoneyBee spares aren't the easiest to find. I have neXt sim and can fly rudder turns, stall turns and Hurricanes, as well as some inverted hovering, though admittedly i do crash from time to time.

Am i wasting my time with the Bee? is it time to move on? I don't want to fly indoors anymore because there simply isn't enough room to do the maneuvers i want to practice but flying outdoors has its limitations too (namely a slight breeze). I feel im taking one step forward and two steps back. If its time for a new bird what would be best, defiantly 6 channel but i would like a heli at least the same size or larger (what size class is the HoneyBee anyway?). I also need to convince the wife my flying will improve significantly, if at all.

Sorry for the essay on the first post but i have been mulling this question over for a few weeks now and need to get it out.

Thanks for any advice yo have to offer, incidentally my Bee has the Bell Hiller mod with super blades EZ.

[Boggy]

Hi Jay welcome to the forum.

[tomatwalden]

Hi Jay. The honey bee is widely recognised to be a terrible machine that holds back progress. Moving to a decent model will almost certainly improve your flying and lead to a lot less frustration.

Size wise, you're looking for a 450 class. Something like a Blade 450x, 360cfx, Align trex 450 or similar.

[tomatwalden]

Ps. A 450 is no good for indoors. If you want to practice at home, either get a simulator or something like the blade msrx or blade nano cpx

[French Paul]

Hi jay,
Welcome to the forum.
Tom is right, a 450 isn't a good idea indoors for many reasons, something smaller as Tom suggested is a good alternative for indoor practise.
For the garden or fields, take a look at the new blade 230s and a dx6 transmitter, both great value, simple mechanics and a bailout feature that may help you along.

The best thing you can do is go and join a local club, you will progress a lot quicker and gain a lot of knowledge.

Theres some great 450's out there now, the blade 450x being the most economical and the trex 450 also good for the money and pretty hardy.

It's hard for us to explain to our partners that a new heli will improve our skills but it really will.

When you decide to go for a new model, most of them have threads on here for you to read about, or you could simply post up the different models that suit your budget and the guys here can give you pros and cons to help with the decision.

Paul

[kenny d]

I see from the internet that The honeybee at 510mm long , it seems way to big for indoors , A 6 channel cp heli IE Trex 450 will be a huge step up from the honeybee , I started with a blade msrx ( now discontinued) , I now advise newbie friends to start with this. New Wltoys 4CH 2.4GHz Mini Radio Single Propeller RC Helicopter Gyro V911 RTF UK | eBay. For indoors , a crash kit costs £3 & a spare heli £13 & batteries £1 each
at £25 for the hole kit & takes a good beating & it's ideal for stick time , If you decide to move on to a 6ch heli the same size as the honeybee , A blade 450x is ready built and flys great

[myxiplx]

For indoors the Blade nano CP is great, and they just released a new model, the nCP S. It's tiny, but it's a full 6 channel helicopter that you can safely fly indoors, and it'll survive most crashes too.

Outdoors there's a ton of choices now, all of which will be a lot easier to fly than your honeybee. To fly in a garden or small park the Blade 230S is a great medium size trainer, it's got safe and recovery modes making it easy to start with, but if you have a look at the videos on youtube it's a capable model and can handle some 3D flight too.

If you want something more capable for a garden, look at the Blade 180CFX, it's an absolute monster but may not be what you're looking for as it's basically a very fast nimble machine. It's really aimed at people who want to practice 3D flight in a garden or park.

If you have more space, I'd suggest looking at a machine with 360mm blades, there are a lot of good models these days, and with a decent FBL controller they all fly great. Blade have the 360X, Align have the 450L, I fly a Gaui X3, and there are plenty of other brands out there too.

[Grumpy]

For flying outdoors in wind then 'the bigger the better'. Big helis are easier to fly all round but they obviously cost more to buy, run and to repair, plus big helis are potentially dangerous in inexperienced hands.
These days flybarless controllers that have 'self level' and 'rescue' functionality make learning a little easier. A guy at the field I fly at went from a HoneyBee to a Trex 500 Pro with a BD 3SX self levelling flybarless controller and had no problems at all.

A lot depends on your budget.

[Peteski]

I have a HoneyBee v2

All posts that start like this are usually negative! NeXt on the other hand is a great sim, so you just need a decent real heli to go with it. As you intend to only fly outdoors, a larger heli would be best for handling the wind, but as you go bigger running costs can quickly get out of hand if you are not fully committed or on a limited budget. Safety is a also a factor if you are flying alone. 450-500 class is a good compromise for starting out and in your shoes I would probably just go out and buy a Blade 360 CFX (despite the 360 tag it's actually a bit bigger than a classic 450), a decent Spektrum transmitter (new DX6 or DX7) and be up and running in a couple of hours (as long as it takes to read the user manual, program your Transmitter and double check the head setup) with no major fuss. It will fly more or less like your sim helis do, which should help your confidence.

There are many other really good helis in this size class, but they all require building up from a kit, so just depends on your technical skills and whether or not you want to get into that side of the hobby at this stage. If I was buying a kit in this class, I'd get a Gaui X3.

Just to add, I think there was some guy on here a few months back who was persevering with a HoneyBee against all advice. He wasn't making much progress and it didn't sound like he was having any fun in the process. Not sure if he's still around after all that, but might be worth a forum search to find past threads and read about the suffering!

Here's the thread:- http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/beginn...rst-timer.html

[Jay23]

Wow guys thanks for all the reply, it was much as I had feared the Bee has to go (seemed a good choice for a trainer 5 years ago). I was looking at buying a dx6 or dx6i. I was also looking at a trex 450 super combo so I know how to repair it after I have built is, the blade 400x was on my list but reviews so it's a hardcore 3d machine for advanced pilots? I don't intend flying indoors anymore.

Thanks again guys.

[bell222]

I am a noob too.
I bought some honey bee king 2 on ebay in Feb this year.
They were cheap and thought they would be good to learn on as cheap parts etc...

They have been nothing but a nightmare.
They are simply horrible to fly.

I have bought a Trex 450 dominator back in May and I have to say it is a pleasure to learn on.
You wont be able to fly it indoors but you have a big field.... and a sim.

The only good thing I took away from the Honey Bees, is that I learned to take whole helis appart and rebuild them.
It is not all lsot after all.
As for flying them, tbh I nearly gave up thinking it was me. That would have been a shame.

[Dean airwolf]

Welcome to the forum.
Hope you enjoy it.
One thing is stick with it and you .loads of useful help on here and a realy nice bunch.
All take the time with emails and help people along the way which make this forum a place to be on.
Most of the people have been were we are and they are putting some think back into the hobby.
I would just like to say thanks to every body on this forum for all your help this last years and years to come.

[waveydavey]

Well as a beginner I too chose an HBK2, bought from my local HS. It flew and after some little upgrades, tail gyro, some ally bits it sort of got me hovering. I knew nothing about the hobby then and an impulse buy of a Nexus 30 had got me hooked. I think the only reason it got binned, I actually gave it to forum member with another one for spares, was I couldn't get bits for it from the LHS. I wasn't really into online buying then, I'd got the upgrades from ebay after reading up on them.

Adding a different Rx to use with a decent Tx and maybe converting it to fbl is a worthwhile thing to do as long as you can get bits these days.

Other than that as everyone has added the bigger the better for outside I'm afraid. Even a 450 is a handful in the wind.

[Mike Sanders]

The 450 certainly is a handful in the wind. I lost mine last week. Haven't found it yet.

[Jay23]

Thanks for the reply's i think there may be a delay in my messages as they have to be ok'd by admins. I plan on getting a decent tx maybe a dx6 or dx6i for the sim, then looking into a trex 450 or maybe even a 500 when i have enough money saved. i like the idea of building my own heli from a kit so i know how it comes apart when i have a crash (and i will crash), the choice of heli's is this class is quite overwhelming though.