Esky Honeybee King 2...Good deal???

[Touchdown]

I bumped into a friend of mine on the airshow circuit. He has a new Honeybee king 2 and it seems to be a pretty decent bird. However I am a bit skeptical about it because it is priced at only $149.00 (not including shipping) yet it is fully loaded, with a full CCPM head, Symeterical blades, heavy duty landing gear, auto rotation, belt driven tail, a radio , a charger and a 1000 mah 3s Lipo. Is it too good to be true or is this bird worth the low price???

[Flying Cat]

I bought one and decided to return it after two days. It has VERY poor quality components, fit, and finish.

For example:
- The links that reach the blade holders are one piece; i.e., you cannot adjust their lengths
- It is impossible to correctly set blade tracking. Just 1/2 turn makes a blade goes 1/4" or 1/4 below the other blade
- The gyro is very bad. On a test hover, I continually had to give rudder input to keep the heli nose pointing in one direction
- There is significant slop in the tail blade assembly
- The design of the tail slider is terrible. Parts that should pivot are hold fixed with a screw, as result there is less travel or the tail servo will bind
- I am sure I am leaving other "issues" out but the above should give you an idea of the lack of quality this heli has.

Save your money and get a good reliable heli. After seeing the lack of quality of helis made in China, I have no plans to ever buy one. I would highly recommend a T-Rex 450.

Good luck,

[Jermo]

Touchdown,

here's my personal opinion
1. Get a sim like Realflight G3.5
2. Get a bigger chopper at least a 400 size with good local parts support..eg.. a T-Rex 450.

I know this costs more..etc but you'll be less frustrated, have more fun, and in the long run will most likely save you money/time.

With the T-Rex450 + sim and a little bit of help you can be flying circuits in 4 months if you are willing to put in the time.

[mavric99]

OK i have to disagree with the negative posts on the king 2, I own 2 of them, and they are great birds, best RTF heli I have owned so far. Parts are quality, every works like its supposed to. I have brushless on both, HH gyro on one so far, and I couldnt ask for a better heli. Check out the posts in runryder and rcgroups just for starters, i am yet to find negative threads on teh helis and for somethign to play with anywhere since the trex 450 is restricted to airfeilds (or in the country of course) the king is perfect. The king is a very stable heli, durable, parts are inexpensive. ADn in 2 months WITHOUT a sim I am doing hover, circuits and so on, never touching a heli till I got a cx last october then bought a CP Pro in march (what a pain) crashed it bad once and took me forever to find the time to sort everythign out. THe king 2 is well worth the money and I dont see many people that say different. Its ESKY, come on,lol. If your dissing esky then you are dissing horizon,lmao. SOrry just had to say that cause esky factories build horizon aircraft, thats why teh Blade CP and the Honey Bee Cps are IDENTICAL. To each his own but personally a trex woudl be after a king cause the king is so much cheaper and easier to fix.

[fezzyg]

the king 2 is cool long live the KING!!!!! :smokin:

[hifly]

I'm nrw to the heli seen buy i got a king 2 and like it the only thing that i can say is for RTF well they need some set up yo make them fly right but thear are a lot of peppel out in the forum with a weath of information and has help me alot. :hug:

[Jermo]

I learned to fly my T-Rex450 mostly in my front yard in an 10 x 10 space or less.

There are posts all over RCG and other forums with new pilots struggling on these and other smaller choppers. I'm not saying you can't learn to fly on them. What I AM saying is your learning curve is easier with a larger chopper.

Personally if you want a toy chopper save yourself big bucks and go pickup an Air Hog for $40 at readyheli.com. Everyone raves about them and you saved a ton of money.

[Flying Cat]

If you buy the Honey Bee King you will need to spend money in the following upgrades: brushless motor, brushless ESC, Heading Hold gyro to replace the components the Honey Bee comes with. So you would need to add the cost of these items to the cost of the Honey Bee.

I, like Jermo, learned with a simulator and my first heli was a T-Rex 450. Once you see the quality of the components, and the way a T-Rex flies, you will set T-Rex like quality as the minimum standard of quality a heli should have.

If you buy quality, you buy only once. :wink:

Regards,

[octotus]

Jermo, Flying Cat:
Am with you.

One important point that hasn't been yet disclosed is the fact that some parts for these cheap RTF helis may just not be available in 6 months' time.

Here is my experience: i bought a hummingbird V4 (upon the recommendation of my LHS guy) in November 2006. It was hard to fly, and i learnt to hover with it nevertheless.
(Heck my TRex flew hands free the first time after build). The real problem now is the humming bird line is out of production and spare parts, when available are costly.

DO NOT buy cheapo helis. RTF means Ready To Frustrate ...
save your money. get a good one - if so many guys are flying TRexes it means something.

cheers,
k

[bigrick50]

:BowHey Mavric! i just brought an HBKII and only after lots of research, I also decided when I'm able financially to get a HH gyro, what suggestions do you have on the brushless motor, and i also after seeing the big boys at Master want to purchase a HBKII compatible hughes 500 fuselage, i have seen some great work and vid's like Subzero on youtube, I am in still thawing MN. A Veteran, a Trucker, heck, i finally sold a custom Bass guitar that had been sitting since i'm no longer part of the "Cool" crowd and jus a everyday bluecollar Cat lol, I always wanted a chopper, but years ago, a thou seemed to be the norm. Hey, if you can provide ol Truckin Kid some pointers from the HBKII point of view much thank's I am a bit leary about flight since i jumped past the small choppers and went to the bigboy stuff! I wish they provided the HBKII flight sim with.

brick7985@msn.com send me some pic's of your bird! ya know i think the days spent watching real pilots TO and land at Meigs years ago will be something I can for a moment relive!. Chow.

[USNAviationjay]

Another negative vote for a HBK2.. what the others said.

[JasonJ]

Dang, old post or what? The OP has probably long since either upgraded to a more substantial helicopter or mortgaged his soul to keep that HBK2 going, or gave up...

[gregor]

I have a HBK2 and I'm using it as trainer. It's working quite well, hovers, and flies great. I wouldn't get the RTF kit. I went with the bare bones kit for $65, added a BL setup for another $45. Then put a nice gyro, radio and servos on it. All of the expensive parts can be easily moved to an Mini Titan, EXI,or Trex should my little $65 heli fall out of fashion. The other nice thing about the HBK2 is that it can use some parts from the B400
conveniently stocked at the LHS.

[sleddog7]

HB King, Belt CP = Buy cheap, buy twice

T-Rex = Spend more and buy once, learn easier AND faster... Period.

2 guys in our club bought Belt CP's and got them to hover... BARELY, I buddy-boxed them a few times on one of my Rexes. They both bought Rexes then sold the Belts to a couple of new guys in the club. The new Rex owners now have the last laugh.

Sad, but true

[gregor]

Not every aspiring helicopter pilot can afford a Trex. In my case, I had the choice of buying an HBK2 last November, or buying a Trex next September. Not all of us have endless funds. This is "Sad but true".

I'm now hovering in all upright orientations and will be flying circuits with confidence by the time I could have afforded a Trex. Both the HBK2 and the Belt CP can be great fliers but only if you give it the same setup and quality electronics choices as you would a Trex. Get the bare bones kit and put a good gyro and servo on it. Inexpensive 30a ESCs and Esky 3800 are inexpensive and do fine in both helis.

The other thing I like about the HBK2 is that it has taught me ALOT about setup. Yes, a less expensive heli be harder to setup and you need to be more deligent about ensuring every thing is spot on. From what I can tell, the Trex's can be setup by one of the local field experts and the noob just learns to fly. No need to touch it until a crash. That's fine for many, but I wanted to also learn setup. Many might be frustrated by this, but I welcome every challenge, both in the air and on the bench.

Here's a well setup HBK2 in the hands of someone more skilled than me.

TyZbz42xg0w

[let60]

I have a King. If you get a King order a brushless motor (3900) and esc when you get the heli. The brushed motor will only last 1 - 5 flights. If you get if from http://jaghobbies.com he will install the motor & esc for you and test fly & setup. He makes a very small charge that will save you some time. You might consider getting a HBFP for a first heli. They are cheap to buy and repair. They are very tough. With a CP heli you will spend a lot more in repairs. The bigger the heli the more stable it is. If you have the money I would suggest the Rex or HDX when you go to a CP.

[Leaf Blower]

I agree with most of the others. The HBK II is a waste of money in its $149 form.

If you buy it you will find that the motor life is extremely short. Expect two weeks and consider yourself lucky if it lasts that long. My electronic speed controller also went at the same time. Replace both the ESC and motor with a brushless setup and you now have considerably more invested than $149. An upgrade to brushless will make the included battery basically useless - the wiring is way too small for a brushless setup...
The gyro is marginal. Replacing that costs - well - more money.
It's rotor diameter is 300 class - meaning smallish. Flying, especially starting out, will be hard on anything but nearly perfect days.
The controller is cheap. I had glitching with my setup.

So, to make it flyable beyond a few weeks, you'll spend at least $149+$75 (motor + esc ) + $50 on batteries. And that is for a bird that will likely only fly in near perfect conditions for a newbie.
To make it better, you'll need to replace the gyro eventually, and the receiver/transmitter. More $$$.
Most of the parts for it are from China, and often take weeks to get in.

You're better off with a E-Flite Blade 400 3D or a Trex 450 / 500. Plus, you will find that any of these are usually better stocked locally on parts. They will also handle much better than the HBK II. Generally, a bigger heli is easier to learn on. They handle better, but parts are more expensive. Finding the middle ground is the hard thing.

That's my opinion. I'm sure that someone will disagree with it- so what!

[gregor]

B400 has some of the same issue. Gyro, servos, battery and charger all need upgrading. RTF is NEVER the "good deal" it appears to be. Its just easier to swallow for noobs that aren't reading to research and decide on all the required components when they don't know the first thing about helicopters.

One thing we can agree on, the HBK2 in RTF form is a waste of money. But I feel that way about all RTF kits. Take a barebones HBK2 for $65 and outfit it with decent electronics and it will do very well.