Rubbish pilot ,I cant even hover.

[debrooker]

Welcome.

I too started with a HBFP and don't beat yourself up, this is one of the hardest to fly helicopters.

Like others said, look into buying a sim (at the end of the day if you decide that the hobby is not for you, you shouldn't have any problems selling).

[Tim Procter]

Rubbish pilot ,I cant even hover.

Rubbish pilot ,I cant even hover.

Don't worry about it mate.

Mike W has been flying 10 years and he can't either.

[Spanner]

Honeybee, you may aswell through £50 notes in the bin!! Save money and ditch it onto ebay, then buy one of the Blades - Mcx, MSr etc etc and a copy of Phoenix/reflex. Happy days

[Gate88]

In this hobby you really do get what you pay for and it may not be a case of you being a rubbish pilot its more of the Honey Bee being a rubbish model.
They will fly but you have to be a pretty good pilot to fly it, we had a chap at out club who had a similar priced model, cant remember which one now, but he stuck with it for ages, crash after crash, spent a fortune on upgrades but even the best pilots at out club could barely hold a hover with it.
In the end he bit the bullet & got himself a Trex 550, first time out he was hovering about without a problem, doing a bit of side on and even got a few pirouettes in.
He flew more with his first pack on the 550 than he did in 6 months with his old model.

[Mutley]

I think I need to do 2 things.Firstly I need to get more spares in,maybe 10 0f each of the parts I keep breaking and also get a bigger area to practise.

Hi and welcome, But i'd say those two are wrong.

Firstly i would say you need to get to someone experienced that can set it up and make sure it hovers, stable, and is ready to fly. Before then all thats going to happen is you'll rattle through the 10 sets of spares.

Secondly yes definately a simulator - but if you can hover in the simulator - techincally you can hover for real - which makes me think as above its not setup.

This can be disheartening i know, but crashing when you've done it and crashing through mechanical are two different things and at least if you know you've binned it through trying something generally you also know what you did wrong, mechanically sometimes you never know.

Once its setup, you'll only need to find 10 mins here and there thats all - you can only fly 1 pack at a time, and if you can just get through a pack without a crash you'll soon improve.

Stick with it

[Swashbuckler]

I learnt to hover with a Honey Bee FP and then bought a Honey bee CP, the main problem is the tail motor, followed by the gyro esc box. They are both terrible and seriously hinder your progress. I spent hundreds on repairs, upgrades and other sh*te before I finally got simulator and then a Trex 450. You will never look back once you do. Also follow the advice on here and get someone who can fly, setup and testfly your current model and whatever you decide to get when you realise you made a mistake getting the honey bee. Stick with it, it's very rewarding in the end.

[newboy]

Honeybee, you may aswell through £50 notes in the bin!! Save money and ditch it onto ebay, then buy one of the Blades - Mcx, MSr etc etc and a copy of Phoenix/reflex. Happy days

The Honey bee cost £117 with delivery and ive payed out just over £50 on spares so far mate,lol. I wish I had done a little more research .

Iam really not convinced it is set up correctly as somebody said after a few crashes it may well not be.I have had to take the fly bar off several times.I did watch the "how to" videos about setting it up correctly but who knows if i have done it right.Anyway the spares arrive(again) tommorrow and ill be trying to get it working again.How much do one of the T_rex 450s cost? Is the fp or cp? Thanks for all the help and advice guys.

[Swashbuckler]

Unfortunately a 450 sport with all the stuff will cost you hundreds probably about £500 by the time you have bought batteries, charger, transmitter etc. That's new, you could buy second hand, keep posting on here you need 50 posts before you can buy something off here. But the resale value of a 450 will be good (well better than a honey bee) should you decide the hobby isn't for you. As has been said, get Phoenix simulator first. I knew somebody who used Phoenix for a year before buying £1000 worth of heli. But they could fly inverted on their first real flight and it came home in 1 piece.

[jwatts007]

When I 1st got the taste for flying toy helis I paid £150 quid for twister co axle heli that you can buy most places for £60-£70 and it lasted less than 10 seconds it hit the shed landed on its head and the main shaft smashed through the bottom it was a complete right off, I was really peed off about it for some time......

[coptermanic]

LOL!!!!!! About the same happened to me and my first Esky Lama4. Out of the box, quick 'once over', tx on , connected the batt, and the thing lit up and hit the ceiling, narrowly missing me. The throttle channel was reversed on the TX, but I found out too late.

[DanWright]

Hi,
im in a simular sort of situation. In the middle of december i decided i wanted to give up flying planes and start flying helis, so i baught a blade SR (£160). I have hovered a honeybee before but that was a few years ago. I thought i would still be able to get it my new heli to hover. So thats what i tried. I crashed, instantly! i thought it was because there was something seriously wrong with the heli, but it was just me, as others could fly my model no problem. £50 later and with the help of some members on here it was ready to fly again. but before i took it out again i practiced on phoenix sim. When i took it out again i flew it for a few minutes, then i crashed again, but this is part of the learning curve, its going to happen.
However, you will get there eventually, don't get disheartened, practice makes perfect!
I would recomment getting a nitro instead of on the electric Trex's ad theyre heavier and are much more stable in wind, so to a certain extent its easier to hover then a smaller heli, but thats me, others may disagree.

[tiddler]

Hiya Newboy

You've only done what many many others have done before you (Including me) and fallen into the cheap fp heli trap, thinking this is the way to start
I too was gutted when I realised how much money I had wasted
I know its a bit late to find this out now, but hey better late than never eh!

A sim like Phoenix is an excellent way of entering this hobby and if you want to fly one of the better cp helis, its a must.
Having said that, I know how keen I was to get my hands on an actual model to fly and recently there has been some nice beginners helis made by E Flite....So, hows this for an idea. Get your Honybee repaired, then knock it out on eBay. (Better to cut your losses now before you spend any more on it )
Then get yourself an E Flite Blade 120 SR. Its a far better heli and really beginner friendly

My 2p

[Gazzer1uk]

Dude,

Don't despair.

Pretty much all has been said, money does come into the equation, to a point and larger heli's tend to be more stable.

I am a "having another go guy", having had Helis in the 90's and made it fly, another one some years ago which I did circuits with and now a Trex nitro pro 600.

But I have learned that there are two things that go together, determination and stick time. You can't get to do one without the other, so keep on practicing with your sim as the natural reaction to what is happening will be honed into your muscle memories and you will not have to think what is happening.

Deffo find yourself a club or expert, most are very willing to help as they have been through your curve before, and a badly set up heli, or even one that is slightly out, will ruin your day. That sort of thing comes from experience, and I have written off two sets of tail rotors because I am trying it alone.

If your over limited on cash, this is not the right time for you in the hobby, as you will crash and need to replace things, and that might mean a wait as the free cash arrives which hits stick time gets you to frustration blah blah. That said, careful watching of Ebay and on here (by the way I was able to buy off here without lots of post entries, I think its putting the adverts on that you have to have a number of posts) there are good bargains to be had that will stretch your pennies quite considerably and most on here are good genuine deals, indeed if not all of them.

And like riding a bike, some take more to get there than others, and maybe you wont be a 3d world champion, but that does not matter, at some point, the brain and muscle memories will click and you will fly and land and think..... wow, no WOW!!! The satisfaction is immense, and at that point you will want some 90 size or turbine model!!!

Stick to it if you have patience, look to get help, it will be available all over the place, and make sure your follow good practice with the first type of flights and you will in good time be posting a title called, Now I have mastered 3d what's next!!!

All the best,

Gaz

[Flamestriker]

BTW Newboy one thing I have noticed is how expensive this hobby can be. I was in to archery in a big way several years ago and that was expensive too. The Phoenix sim seems to b a favourite on these forums, but there are others, including at least one which is free. I have not used any sim because I do not have time, but if you are short of money perhaps looking in to one of the freebies would tie you over and help you get stick time. Some have said on this forum that the freebies are not as good as Phoenix, but if money is tight it is better than nothing. I love my lil MSR ( even if it has a mind of it's own) but I actually came to within one click of purchasing the Honeybee...the reason I did not was I didn't want a big heli, only a lil one for indoor flying. There are so many to chose from, and the MSR had lots of spares in lots of shops when I needed them. I'm looking at the mcx2 coaxials at t mo. Don't b too hard on yourself if you think you have chosen the wrong heli for you...it's mind boggling picking one, but there are many peeps on this forum willing to offer advice. I have never been on a forum as friendly as this one.

[newboy]

Thanks again for all the tips and advice. I dont think I can blame the heli,I think its just me,lol. I will continue to practice on clearview and I wont fly the Honeybee V2 again (now repaired) untill I can confidently hover on the sim.I think iam hooked on this hobby now so I may have to make a few savings avaliable in the near future for my next purchase.