Honey Bee King 2 Opinion

[Talisa]

I made a thread a while ago asking for small helicopters. I believe it was suggested that a Honey Bee King 2 was a good solution.

For those of you out there that have one, what is your opinion of it and if I were to buy some commonly required spares, what would you suggest?

I wish to use it as a cheaper alternative to my 450 and something that I can throw around a little and practise with (nose in etc) and not worry too much about it hitting the deck.

Comments and suggestions are most welcome. Even alternatives where appropritate. I already have coxial heli and that is too stable and far away from pod and boom performance and controls.

[paulgsxr]

My King took me from complete beginner to flying circuits and figure 8's. Lot of pain along the way though!

Spares- feather shafts, blades and servo gears seemed the ones I replaced the most, along with the odd boom and a complete frame (£6 ish)
The motor upgrade is worth doing, to a 3900


With the standard gyro, it flies ok for circuits, nose in and figure 8 practise. This is what I use mine for and your not too worried if it does crash because parts are cheap.

Having bought a T-rex 450 now as well, the difference is amazing really, and shows up the King as being hard to fly compared to something like the trex but of course the cost is a lot cheaper. I still like flying mine.

[Talisa]

Thank you for that. That is exactly the information I needed and good to know that you used it for the same reasons that I want to use it for.

Thank you

Regards,

[Talisa]

What LiPo voltage and amps battery is required for a Honey Bee?

[paulgsxr]

I use the type that came as standard: 11.1v 1000mAh. Gives a safe 7 minutes flight.

If you decide to get one, this forum has loads of info

http://www.heliguy.com/Forum/honeybe...pitch-f71.html

[unwind-protect]

Hi,

I got one of these for my 'reintroduction' to heli flying (learned to hover a Shuttle many years ago).

It comes with a brushed motor as standard which by most accounts is pants and sometimes does not even survive the first flight. Esky do a 3900Kv brushless motor and controller as an upgrade.

It's small enough to fly indoors, but to be honest it's not much smaller than a 450, and once I got the 450 (Belt CP initially) I never really flew the King again. Given that the Belt CP is about the same price as King+brushless upgrade, it's hard to recommend the King, unfortunately. It does crash well, though; often all that was required was a new feathering spindle. Washout bases and flybar control arms were probably the next most common things to go.

[heliward0]

Having bought a T-rex 450 now as well, the difference is amazing really, and shows up the King as being hard to fly compared to something like the trex but of course the cost is a lot cheaper. I still like flying mine.[/QUOTE]

as this reply says mate the 450 is in a different leauge and you will be WASTING MONEY buying a bee you really are better off buying spares for the gl450 and use that as your practice machine parts cost comparison is sod all,, trust me i have been there and done the buy a cheep little heli to abuse faze it works out a LOAD more expensive in the long run

[Sesame]

I got back into this hobby because of a HBK I have fond memories of mine, you just need to get it setup by someone who can fly, if your a novice and you get one out the box, youll be lucky to get ti flying to any standard without it costing a packet in spares.

once their setup they are reasonably stable on a calm day and in their standard format they are ok for hovering around and circuits. there is a vid of Ade throwing around a HBK2 he did some mods but not that many and its amazing what can be acomplished.

[Talisa]

Well I got my HBK2 today. Got one second hand in the end but with a ton of spares. SMC are modifying it to a 2.4GHz for me and resetting it up as the head speed was so low that it would barely lift of the ground at full throttle. Also when the head speed was increased there was some other reason why it had reduced lift.

Anyway, good old SMC are sorting it for me and will setup it up on my DX7. The brief 20 second flight I managed at 18 inches from the ground was a steady non twitchy cruise.

Thank you to all, especially Boggy for pushing me in the direction of the HBK2 in the first place.

Regards,

[inferno]

There great fun:P

I bought mine knowing they were a twitchy model to fly, the theory being if i can learn to hover it i will have no probs hovering a bigger more expensive model.

Flying indoors?! WTF, no chance in my house lol i wouldnt dare! Just about to add the dx7 to mine as the old tx/rx combo appeared to be glitching.

So far ive done the belt gear mod, added a cnc tail box, replaced a belt, a feathering shaft and 2 sets of blades. Also got a digi servo and a HH gyro from esky. Have about 10 sets of blades, and a set of carbon ones, along with loads of other spares.

Hopefully ill get a trex 450 in the near future though

[Talisa]

I have found talk on the net that if you put a brushless motor in HBK2 (as mine has) it does tend to suffer performance when using wooden blades and therefore it is suggested that carbon blades should only be fitted.

Granted they are more expensive and technically tougher. Does anyone have an opinion on this Wooden v Carbon blades on the HBK2?

[Talisa]

I now have my HBK2 and all setup on 2.4GHz on the DX7. Has been dumbed down a little so it is a little more sluggish but I am happy with the manner in which it flies. Might have to upgrade to an metal head setup though. Plastic looks awfully plastic and fragile too.

[inferno]

You will find plastic will snap and youll see easily when somthings broken, but the cnc heads will bend first and could give you a headache on crashing!

Which switch is your idle up on the dx7?

[Talisa]

Pass, do not know inferno. How do I find that out. Sorry, very new to this heli game and even newer to the DX7. That thing (DX7) still scares the life out of me. I have managed this evening to overwrite model 6 with model 5 data I think.

[inferno]

haha yer i had a brief play yesterday with the dx7 and pheonix... the menu is mental... too scary for me to play with yet:S