Welcome - please introduce yourself and join in the fun

[Bugster]

Welcome to the Honey Bee FP forum

You'll find here a group of friendly, keen HBFP pilots who have lots of experience to share so please introduce yourself and start chatting.

And remember there's no such thing as a dumb question on here - though just occasionally you'll get the odd dumb answer .

So feel free to ask about anything - we've all been newbies and look forward to helping you

[oliverdots]

I'll start the ball rolling and say hi. I bought my first honeybee in March '09 and have got into FFF withing the last 3 weeks. I have a T-Rex 250 coming and I am just starting FF with the Blade 400. I've been on this forum a while now and find it fun, entertaining, friendly and educational. People always willing to help. I know I can ask anything and as long a Luke stays out of it, I get a straight answer Kidding!! All the guys here are great. Thanks everyone for making this forum the great place it is. It's my second home.
And finally thank you Bugster for your commitment to this forum. You're gonna be a great Moderator.

[Jimmyboy]

Hey all I am Jim and I got my first Bee just a week ago, got it to tail in hover straight away with OD's set up vids and time on the sim. messed about with a coax for about a month previous so pretty much new to this lark !!!!

Jim.

[Luke Warmwater]

Hi folks...I'm not really into helis, I'm just here to wind OD up with silly answers to his questions!

Actually, I've been flying the HBFP since the last part of last year I guess, having tried to go from a co-ax to a Belt CP in too big a step. I love my RedBee, she has taught me the basics and keeps on teaching me the basics, making bigger helis a cheaper option by reducing the crash time and providing real flying fun all the way!

[Bugster]

Time for me to say Hello. I flew fixed wing planes for 15 years and eventually got bored. I had seen helis at my local club and they crashed a lot. I was told that heli crashes cost mega bucks so I kept well away from them.

Then I had a significant birthday and my workmates clubbed together and bought me a present, a RTF out of the box CP heli. I graciously accepted their kind gift and a few evenings later promptly crashed it. Twice.

When buying the necessary spares at my LHS they recommended I try a coax heli and a sim to hone my skills before flying the CP again. Wise advice.

To cut a long story short I followed their advice and sometime later bought a Honey Bee FP.

After 300+ FP flights I can only say I wish I had started with the HBFP. It's flyable, chuckable, bounceable and easily fixable. It's not expensive to learn with and as the experts say - once you can fly a HBFP you can fly any heli.

I know - I've done it.

So if you want to enter this wonderful hobby I recommend the HBFP and this great forum to help you to learn.

Just wish I'd been a member 12 months ago

[nuttcaze]

Bought my first HBFP at the End of Jan '08, flew and crashed the he!! out of it, month later got the HBK II and a month later I got a Belt CP then another month later I got an ESky E-Smart and have been flying it ever since.

I originally choose ESky helis because they were cheap $ but still good quality. I love the HBFP as it can be both a trainer and a Super FP, tons of mods available. As a result I always recommend people start with the HBFP and never be scared to crash it.

This pic was taken 6 months after getting into this hobby

[Dusty1000]

Hi all, I started in Jan '08 with an Esky Lama - bought it because a mate had one and told me I should get one too. 2 months later I was bored with it so bought my HBFP - my only regret is waiting 2 months. Bought a HBK2 a couple of months after that, but at the time it mostly sat on the shelf while I continued learning with the HBFP. Although I had learned to tail-in hover with the FP quite quickly, learning the other orientations and forward flight took some time.

Nowadays I love letting rip with my CP helis, but will always be grateful to my HBFP for teaching me how

Dusty

[StixAlbert]

Hi all,

My name is John and I first got into RC helis when straight after Christmas leave a mate turned up in work with a Twister Coastguard Co-Ax that he'd got as a pressie. First thing I thought after seeing him hover it around was " I gota get meself one of them" so as soon as I got home I ordered a Twister Hawk Co-Ax. It took a week or so to get used to the controls but soon I was flying the Hawk around pretty well (and occasionally crashing)!!!! Then as is usual for us work got busier leading up to Easter and on towards the summer, so flying time was limited. Then in June just before my birthday the wife says " i'm really stuck what to get you this year", so I suggest a HBFP after reading up what would be a good intro to single rotor Helis.

After using OD's setup videos I could hover the Bee indoors ok tail in but when I moved onto side and nose in the crashes came a bit more frequently. I've moved onto hovering and a bit of FF outside when the wind allows. The Bee now has Xtreme Skids, 380x Motor, Xtreme DD Tail, Fuse Mod, Xtreme 4in1/Battery Mount, LBA and Xtreme Fibre blades.

I'm starting to feel confident enough to buy a Belt CP V2 that will hopefully handle a little more wind than the Bee, but she will still be flown regularly to keep learning (and crashing) so as hopefuly avoid to many Belt crashes!

This forum is a fantastic place to gather the information you need to help progress and every question no matter how stupid has been answered. I wouldnt be still flying without the help on here!

John

[Krysis]

Hi All *waves*

I started smashing up HBFP's about 4 months ago (May 09). Within 5 minutes I'd broken one of the balls off the paddle control frame and decided to upgrade it to a metal one. This worked well......a little too well. Every time I broke a piece a metal replacement or "stronger" version was added. I still couldn't fly my bee and blamed it on the wind conditions.

I then bought a Blade 400 from Lynx, hopeing to get in more practise in more breezey conditions. Spending a ratio of about 20:1 fixing to flying and a lot of cash, I bought another bee to keep stock to learn how to fly properly.
I could actually fly a stock bee and this made me realise just how unflyable my first bee was due to all the mods and extra weight.

I decided to de-mod bee 1 bit by bit to see just what difference all the mods had made. This was cut short due to a blown 4 in one in Bee 2......so Bee 1 is now dead and is being used for parts. I can hover tail in and am working on side in atm. I just can't help after a few mins practise gunning it around the field doing sweeping banked turns , stall turns etc. This ussually ends in a crash between 30 secs and 5 mins.

But it's just such good fun I'm hoping the crashing will become less frequent in time. I've recently bought a T-rex 450 se V2. It was a bargain on E-bay that I couldn't resist a punt at.

So for now I'm using the bee as a crash test dummy (along side Phoenix) with a view to one day being able to smoothly fly my CP's.

Mark

[Bugster]

Hi Stix and Krysis. Welcome and remember ask any question you like - no dumb questions on here - just the odd dumb answer - so please ask away

And BTW we like pics and vids - the more the merrier

[oliverdots]

You had a significant birthday Bugster? Happy 60th mate. All the best

[247rememberme]

hey fellow `Beesters`!
had my `Bee` for about 18mths now,still the only heli i`ve ever had:o
crashed it once or twicebut no matter how hard i `spanked`it the `Bee` always came back for more
slowly,slowly trying to save for my first CP now

[Bugster]

Thanks for visiting 247 - nice to have you in the forum.

You're obviously a Bee connoisseur after 18 months - I'm sure there will be folks who will need advice from a time served pilot like yourself so please hang around

[247rememberme]

errr!!!don`t confuse time served with knowledge gained

[nuttcaze]

Originally Posted by 247rememberme

errr!!!don`t confuse time served with knowledge gained

[dayshaddow]

hi all dayshaddow's story time..warning take a nap everyone as im starting from the beginning

so the story or saga started on sept 12th 2008 when my wife brought me a black ghost coax sub micro heli..it was £25 and IR only 3 channel.we both loved it soo much another was ordered a week later
by the end of sept after uploading a video to youtube i discovered the lama v3 and it was love at first sight
seeing teoflyer and vaga's videos a lama was brought from ebay from a great guy called derik. the lama was an xmas present but we couldnt wait so she was flown and crashed straight away. derik steared me towards my first ever forum were it became home

i never liked the idea of forums so would post my problem get an answer then quickly log off it became an adiction an i got chatting to the kind folks from the lama forum made some friends and then heard about the bee being the next step

its the run up to xmas 2008 so my xmas present was a bee .dam thing was expencive and broke easily.thank god the dam thing was distroyed in it first field flight..i wasnt ready by far as the dam thing got away from me very fast then the servo locked up ending in a crash
video dated 6th april
enjoy the video

V060409 18 17 (1 min 29 sec)

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK4tFEz9fHYsome"]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/nomedia]

months passed and a new bee was ordered..this one was great and didnt break when i sneezed it was still hard to do much with it...BUT VIET-LAMA sid to fly it like my lama,a few hours passed then this happened

bee in the bed room (5 min 58 sec)

it all clicked. viet-lama you are the man
now i have control i have been able to proceed..the bee as yet is not my faveret as my modded lama was just way more able to do stuff like high fast flying..funnels..although wide awesome to behold
the modded lama went MIA another vid sorry..note the height for me is normlal just i fly in a huge field not a built area

last lama flight (1 min 7 sec)

with her gone my focus shifted to the bee and im truly happy with her now i fly often and enjoy it to.with many park flights and mastering stall turns(my fav manover) its looking good
did have plans to get a cp,but with the bee flying going from strength to strenght i binned it a month ago and will not get cp till my bee skills match my lamas

WAKE UP ALL story is over now

so thats how i ended up here

[Ianman]

Hey all. Ian here.

My first heli was a graupner coaxial job. Had lots of fun with it and managed to get some stick skills with it but I wanted a new challenge. For my birthday this year I received a nice donation from the in-laws and purchased a honey Bee King 3. A friend of mine had a HBK2 and gave up after only a week and 2 crashes....such a waste. But I liked the K2 and figured, hey, the K3 must be better right!?

Its a nice bird to look at (well I like it anyway ) but having a bit of troubled keeping it steady in the air. I really need to spend more time on setup and figure out what is making it so unstable. I have seen videos of guys with a K3 and they can hover without any problems.

Anyway, I am glad I found this forum. Even though I am frustrated at not being able to control my bird I am still very happy with it and determined to get better!

[Luke Warmwater]

Originally Posted by Ianman

Hey all. Ian here.

My first heli was a graupner coaxial job. Had lots of fun with it and managed to get some stick skills with it but I wanted a new challenge. For my birthday this year I received a nice donation from the in-laws and purchased a honey Bee King 3. A friend of mine had a HBK2 and gave up after only a week and 2 crashes....such a waste. But I liked the K2 and figured, hey, the K3 must be better right!?

Its a nice bird to look at (well I like it anyway ) but having a bit of troubled keeping it steady in the air. I really need to spend more time on setup and figure out what is making it so unstable. I have seen videos of guys with a K3 and they can hover without any problems.

Anyway, I am glad I found this forum. Even though I am frustrated at not being able to control my bird I am still very happy with it and determined to get better!

Hellooo!

Most of the guys in here fly the fixed pitch version of the Bee, but many fly CP helis as well, so we may well be able to help out with some general questions and tips!. Welcome and stick around!

[Bugster]

Welcome to the forum lanman

Please feel free to ask any question you like here - no such thing as a dumb question here - just the odd dumb answer

We've all been where you are with your new heli so know just how it feels

Oh BTW we also love videos of flights to show us your progress

[Ianman]

Well, there isn't much point in posting a video just yet as my flights consist of the following:
1. Place the heli in the center of training space ready to fly
2. Get the rotors spinning to a point when the heli is light of the training gear
3. Ready on the right stick to correct
4. Tad more power - lift off
5. Power down because the heli has gone all over the place


But I will see if I can film it tonight and post it, perhaps you guys can see something wrong!