Steve Loates

Hi Karl,  My personal advice would be to avoid it like the plague. My son has a similar product, I fly a Honeybee King II and even I cannot get it to fly properly. It will hover with some judicious throttle changes although it is not a good hover.....tends to change altitude quite easily. The tail rotor is not proportional, so any input sends it spinning like a top! Any wind at all and it becomes a dot on the horizon! To get it it to fly forwards you have to add some blue tack to the nose, but the amount you have to add makees the thing so heavy that the motor can't really cope and you more or less have to hand launch (with a throw) and the batteries only last about 2-3 minutes with the weight added! Unfortunately, you get what you pay for, David Ashby' comments are on the ball and he knows what he is talking about. Hope to see you on a field with a proper heli sometime in the future.

Al,  Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, but my broadband providers are crap (orange). I have re-fastened down the gyro and have adjusted the gain, however it has made no difference. I have had to attach a piece of plastic to the frame under the belt drive on the main shaft to try to stop it from coming off the pulley. Is it possible that the belt is a bit loose and if so should I extend the boom a fraction.  Thanks  Steve

Many thanks to everyboby who has posted advice. wishing you all a happy new year.

I have been flying a Honeybee King 2 for a few months now and have had some good fun, however, recently the tail has been quite a handful and no matter what trim I put in or how I adjust the gyro gain, it keeps doing its own thing. I can hover it for a few minutes quite happily and then for now reason it suddenly yaws round to the right. I can hold it steady but only with almost full deflection of the tail control. Any ideas? the gyro was found to be insecure after one such flight so has been resecured, but it is still doing it. What is the replacement interval for the tail rotor drive belt? Many thanks in advance

I have recently seen the new Gaui Hurricane 550 online, I was wondering if anybody has one or has flown one. If so, are they as good as they look. I was going to upgrade from a Honeybee King II.

I can heartily recommend the honeybee king ii to anybody looking to upgrade from a trainer. I did just that and have thus far found it to be a remarkable heli. it is fast, responsive and I think easier to fly than the 4channel models I have tried. I have probably around 50 hours on various helis and have gone to the king ii as a 3d option. In summary it is stable, maneouverable, rewarding and fun to fly, what more can anybody want. the choice is obviously yours, hopefully any decision you make will bring you both joy and hours of entertainment.

I second the advice given by Peter Bark, having recently learnt the basics and progressed to a much better heli (Honeybee King II from a Honeybee 4Ch), I can absolutely and categorically state that training undercarriage is invaluable. I did the same as you and got a little ahead of myself, unfortunately so did the heli and a fairly extensive repair job was the result. I had a set of undercarriage but was too manly to use it. Put it on after the spill and found that not only did it take the shock out of crap landings but also made the heli a little more stable in the hover. Granted ground effect still throws it around a little, but above about 30 cms the heli is held reasonably steady by the extra weight. I have progressed quickly, having only been flying helis for about 4 months now but have upgraded as I mentioned earlier and I am having a blast, just wish I had made it all a bit cheaper in the first place by looking past my ego and fitting the training gear earlier....remember, no matter how daft it may look, if it saves you money, hassle and heartache, it must be a good thing. Good luck.

Nice designs, what package did you use to produce them. I am going to try and personalise a set of decals using your template if you don't mind too much.

David/Timbo, Thanks for the advice, currently scouring ebay for a replacement TX and RX....budget is equivalent to a small string usually used for securing shoes!

David, It is a RTF (Honeybee King II). I had heard similar about the freq module. I am unsure whether the supplied ESky TX is a sealed unit or if the freq module change is possible. I notice that you say at the end of your message, that 72Mhz is permitted in the UK, is this a typo and therefore I need not change anything and can fly happily on the rig I have or did you mean that it is not permitted. I can only assume that if it is not allowed, I should be okay so long as I am nowhere near a military installation and I don't try to enter a competition.

I have a purchased a HoneyBee King II from the States, can anybody fill me in on conversion from the US freq to the UK freq. Can it be done simply by changing crystals or do antennae need to be changed, or is it only achievable by buying a new UK RX and an antenna for the TX? What works on 72Mhz in this country, i.e. am I going to run the risk of downing aircraft that pass over my house if I transmit on 72Mhz!

I am not sure whether they were just messing about or were incompetent. If it is the latter, they clearly need help or just plainly shouldn't be allowed near a piece of kit with the potential to cause severe injury. Some of it was quite amusing though (hehehe)!

I have recently started flying helicopters, and have a ESky Honey bee. I was wondering how easy it is to upgrade once I have become more proficient or if it is not cost effective, is it better to go for a new model and risk losing the easy handling characteristics of this heli.

Unfortunately not Peter, helicopters do this naturally...even the full size ones. With a bit of practice you will start to naturally compensate for this at the point of lift off. Once you have the heli level add a little extra throttle to lift up to about chest height, this will stop undue movement through ground effect.

I bought the Esky Honey Bee as an inexpensive way of learning the basics and keeping the costs down. I found that it did actually fly straight out of the box, was easy to set up after a few early mishaps and the parts were cheap and easy to replace. After a few days of practice lift offs, I could get it light on the skids and into the air with no drama and was also able to compensate easily for that annoying habit of floating left on take off. I have only just started on the forward flight thing, but I have no doubt that it will be a relatively easy and very enjoyable process. The only problem I had was that no matter how far forward I positioned the battery (LiPo instead of the usual NiMh that the kit comes with) the heli was slightly tail heavy. A bit of modelling clay sorted this and now it balances well at the correct CofG and hovers stably with very little input from me.