When I found out that I would be receiving the Beam E4 from Advantage Hobby I set out to do a little research. What made this kit stand out among the growing group of offerings in the 450 size electric helicopter category?

The Beam E4 is designed from the skids up to be a high quality, high performance electric helicopter. The BeamHeliUSA web site shows several close up photographs of the all metal head, swashplate, and tail rotor housing, that look very promising. This looks to be a very interesting kit to build and fly. I couldn't wait to receive it and get started.

The Beam is imported into the United States by Len Sabato at Advantage Hobby. Len is a big name in the R/C helicopter scene, so I felt confident that he wouldn't be bringing a cheap clone to the market.

The Beam E4 is offered in several configurations and price ranges. Starting from a bare bones kit, to one that includes a motor, battery, speed controller, and even a DX7 helicopter radio. I was sent the bare bones kit, and a very nice painted canopy for this review, so let's get started.

Kit Name: Beam E4
Price : $349 (basic kit)
Main Rotor Span: 723mm (28.46")
Flying Weight as tested: 1 lb 10 oz
Blades: 325mm fiberglass (included)
Motor Used: ACE 3500kva with Ace 40 amp ESC
Gyro used: Futaba GY 401 w/ 9650 digital tail servo
Battery used: Great Planes Electrifly 3S 25C Lipo
Radio equipment: JR X9303, Spectrum AR6200 Receiver, Hitec HS65MG Servos.

• Motor and ESC (kit is available as a combo with motor, esc and a battery)
• 5 channel (minimum) or 6 channel (recommended) helicopter radio system with CCPM software
• 3S Lithium Polymer Battery
• 3 micro servos
• Gyro and tail rotor servo
• Pitch gauge
• Metric allen wrenches or drivers
• JIS or Phillips screw driver

At first glance, several things jumped out at me. The Beam includes an attractive plastic canopy that requires nothing more than placing two stickers on it and inserting rubber grommets. I hate cutting out canopies so this was a plus. The attractive white and silver canopy shown in the build pictures is the canopy that arrived with the kit. The high visibility painted canopy is an option that is available from Advantage Hobby.

The next stand out was the fine machine work on the head, tail, and swash plate. I'll examine these parts in detail during the build but in the bags, everything looks first class. The kit also included carbon fiber, single stacked frames. The final touch is a set of nicely finished fiberglass blades.

I sat down with the manual and examined it front to back. I found the manual to be about average. After you get through all the warnings that R/C helicopters are not toys (my wife strongly disagrees), I found clear and readable CAD drawings and basic assembly instructions. Anyone that has built an R/C helicopter or two won't have any problems at all. The manual, however, is not as detailed as those included with kits from Horizon Hobby, such as the Trex 450SA for example. First timers need not worry though; information and build tips abound on the Internet.

Step one is marked as step F-1 in the manual but the bag is marked 3-1. First, find the bag with the carbon frames and retrieve the CCPM anti-rotation bracket. The manual makes it look like you have to thread lock the bearing into the wonderfully machined bearing blocks. However, it appears to have been done already at the factory. I?m sure that I would have to heat these up to remove the bearings so I?m going to leave them as is. Also the manual shows red thread locker holding the bearings in the bearing blocks. I usually don?t go against the manual during reviews but in this case, I?ll be using green Permatex thread locker anywhere that bearing inner or outer races need to be secured. I usually put a little bit on a Q-tip and spread it evenly on the bearing race that needs to be secured.

In step F-3 it?s time to put together the tail belt guide pulleys. The bearings are installed in the pulleys off center. The screw head goes into the deeper side, the spacer goes into the shallow side. The screw is then threaded into the cross member. If you put this together with the pulley upside down it will bind on the cross member when you tighten down the screw. Use thread locker very sparingly on the screws as you don?t want any working its way into the bearings.

I assembled the frame as shown for the purpose of taking photographs. When I put everything on the one side of the frame I didn?t tighten any of the bolts. When I added the left frame half, I squared up the frames on a sheet of glass and slowly tightened all of the screws. The only exception was the aluminum cross member that mounts the servos; I?ll leave that loose until I install the swashplate servos. That cross member is adjustable, and its final position depends on the servos you plan on using. All of the frame screws have cup style washers that are very attractive and stand out against the carbon frames.

The Beam comes with a stick on foam pad that self adheres to the battery tray. This is a very nice touch and eliminates the battery sliding around on the carbon. If you plan to use velcro I would skip this step and attach the velcro directly to the battery tray. I?ll be using the foam pad and velcro straps to hold down the battery.

The skid struts appear to be very stout. They are advertised as unbreakable, and are very much like the popular gorilla gear. The skid pipes even have an attractive logo etched on them. The struts attach to the carbon frame base with self tapping screws. I would attach these first, then install the skids into the struts. I had to heat up the struts a bit with a heat gun to get the skid pipes in. It only took a few seconds on each strut and they slid right in; don?t over do it and melt the struts. Don't forget to put a drop of CA on the end caps or you won't have them very long!

This is the first helicopter I?ve built that I had to assemble the swashplate but it goes together easily. I took out the swash bearing and applied a very slight coat of silicon dielectric grease on the swash ball, and then put it back together.

The swash ring didn?t want to go on to the swash plate without a little persuasion. I ended up having to use a set of channel lock pliers, with an old tee shirt over the jaws so that I didn?t mar the very nice finish. This way you can seat the ring over the swash plate. Put a small amount of pressure on the assembly and get it started, then carefully move around the circumference until the swash is fully seated in the control ring. Don?t use too much pressure and you won?t hurt anything.

Many of the head assembly steps shown in the diagram are already completed by the factory, but I went ahead and checked everything for thread lock. The rotor head on the Beam represents some of the finest machine work I?ve seen in any model helicopter, let alone something in the 450 class. The head block, swash plate, and blade grips are all etched with the Beam logo; this is a very attractive looking kit so far.

Take a few minutes to examine all of the pre-assembled parts. The upper mixing arms have flat spots where the balls attach but mine had one arm attached with the flat spots on the outside. It took just a moment to flip it over. I'm sure this was probably a fluke but you should always examine pre-assembled parts during assembly.

When you assemble the washout base, take note that there is a correct orientation of the washout links. Also make sure to use the machine threaded screws to install the balls and the self tapping screws to attach the mixing arms. The links were rather tight on the swashplate inner balls. A few turns with a ball link reaming tool had everything was running smoothly. One of the things I take the extra time to do is ensure the washout links pivot freely. This occasionally requires a bit of sanding of mold flash but the beam had no such problems, everything pivoted freely and without any slop.

The head assembly is similar in design to many of the helicopters on the market that use an under slung flybar. Make sure you have the flybar centered by measuring from the flybar carrier to the end of the flybar before you install the paddles. When you have the paddles installed check again that they are equidistant from the flybar carrier. The flybar control arms have a proper orientation; the groove goes towards the inside, and a lip on the flybar arm spacers fit into the groove. Again, this is a very nice assembly and includes most of the parts that people tend to buy as upgrades including the metal mixing arms, washout arms, and blade grips.

I built the links according to the measurements provided in the manual. The diagram shows proper alignment of all the parts but I will wait until I install the servos and do the final setup to see if the linkages need any tweaking. If the manual is accurate, the only rods that should need to be adjusted are those going from the servo to the swashplate to account for the dimensions of the various servos available.

The autorotation assembly looks like they took a 50 size unit and hit it with a shrink ray. There are six screws that attach the main gear to the auto hub. The main gear has a correct orientation and there is no mention of it in the manual. When the main gear is installed correctly the screw holes are about 2mm deep, if you have it backwards the screw threads won?t grab the autorotation hub. As a whole, this is one of the finest autorotation assemblies that I have seen on a 450 class helicopter. The instructions indicate grease but I usually use just a drop of light machine oil or tri-flow in my autorotation bearings.

The tail assembly is next up. The tail case is a very nicely machined assembly. The manual shows the use of red thread locker to hold the bearing into the tail case, but as I mentioned earlier, I prefer to use green thread locker to hold bearings in place. Everything goes together well, and I didn?t encounter any issues during this step.

The tail rotor assembly is another example of thoughtful design and engineering. The pitch links have a correct orientation so be sure to assemble them to the pitch plate (normally called a yoke) in the proper direction. As the manual advises, use just the smallest amount of thread locker that you can to avoid fouling the ball bearings.

The tail boom is very attractive, with BEAM etched on the side, perfectly matching the skids. I questioned how a black boom, frame, and fins, will show up against a dark back ground but on my table this helicopter looks very sharp. As the assembly progressed I seemed to be short of a couple of parts. The ends for the tail rotor pushrod, and the cross support for the boom braces were missing from my kit. I placed a call to Advantage Hobby in the morning and within moments had a real human on the phone. I explained my dilemma and was promised replacement parts. The parts arrived priority mail just a few days later and I was back at work.

There are only two things to watch during the tail boom assembly. The first is to install the cross brace before you glue the ends on the boom supports. The second issue is to double check the direction that you twist the drive belt so that the tail rotor is turning the correct direction.

The kit provides a 14 and 15 tooth pinion gear. The motor I was using, a Thunder Tiger brushless 3550kvm already had a 13 tooth pinion installed so I decided to give it a try and switch to a 14 tooth to see what difference, if any, I could detect in performance. Much like a multi-speed bike, a smaller pinion gives less rpm on the head but more torque, as you increase the pinion size the rpm goes up but it becomes harder to pedal. Finding the happy medium between rpm and torque is the trick to tuning an electric helicopter. It depends on the gearing, along with what blades, motor, and speed controller you?re running.

A pinion puller is handy to have, and really is a good investment if you're planning on experimenting with pinion sizes. I settled on the 14 tooth pinion during flight testing as having the best combination of punch and head speed.

I?ve been very happy with HS65MG metal geared servos in my Trex 450 and MiniTitan, so I decided not to mess with a good thing and installed three of them in the Beam. Servo installation is convenient for a helicopter this size. The Beam ranks between the Mini Titan (very easy), and the Trex (requires micro surgery skills), for servo installation and repair access. After the servos were mounted, I went ahead and thread locked and tightened down the lower servo mounting cross member.

The kit includes, and the manual shows, a canopy mounting rubber. However, there is no indication in the manual of where to put it. The canopy is already cut out and once the grommets are installed it?s nearly ready to go. I eventually figured out the self stick foam canopy rubber goes on the inside of the front bottom section of the canopy. There is no attachment point in the front of the canopy so the foam rubber ensures the canopy stays put in flight.

The Beam canopy achieves an understated look with only two decals, that say (what else?) BeamE4 in a very attractive, hologram foil. The optional pre-painted canopy that Advantage Hobby also included for the review, has the decals already in place.

I'll be using my new 9303 2.4 gigahertz radio, and an AR6200 Spectrum receiver, to guide the Beam. This is only the second helicopter I've set up with the 9303 (the recently reviewed Vibe 50 was the first) and already I'm fairly impressed. Before you do anything else, when setting up the Beam, make sure that your transmitter is set up for 120 degree, 3 servo CCPM.

Setup of a CCPM machine may seem daunting at first, but it's really not all that complicated when you break down the steps. The first step is to disable any hover pitch or hover throttle and disable any sliders or knobs that effect your pitch curves. Then set the middle three pitch points to 50 percent. This ensures that the servos are perfectly centered as long as the stick is anywhere close to being centered.

Then connect the single rear servo to the elevator channel, and the two front servos to the aileron and pitch (aux1 for JR/Spectrum users) channels. After that is hooked up, power up and bind the receiver with a regular 4 cell receiver battery. This ensures that the helicopter won't come alive and thrash you about the head and shoulders during programming.

Now move the throttle stick and note the servo direction. You want all three servos to push the swashplate up or pull it down at the same time when the throttle stick is moved. Usually one servo will be going about its business opposite the other two. Find the offender and reverse that individual channel. Now all three should be moving in the same direction. If they are moving the swash plate up as you advance the throttle you can move on to the next step. If not then you need to access the SWASH or SWASH AFR menu and reverse the percentage for pitch. The default is usually +50 or +60 percent, depending on the radio. If a function is going backwards you want to set that to a negative value. Later on you can set the total pitch throw by manipulating this value up or down to achieve the desired pitch range.

When you are done with the collective pitch go ahead and check the movements for aileron and elevator. Use the swash plate menu to get everything moving in the correct direction. When all the servos are moving the right direction for each function, follow the instructions in the manual to make sure all of the mixing and washout levers are level and the blades are at 0 pitch.

To control the tail rotor on the Beam I choose to use the proven combination of the Futaba GY401 gyro, and a S9650 digital servo. While I will acknowledge arguments for a rate mode setup, I generally make sure the servo is centered with no sub trim, and the pitch slider is in the center of its throw and fly in heading hold only. In my personal experience, I've found this works best on the smaller electric helicopters that came along much later than the 401 gyro. This setup yields a higher limit setting on the gyro and gives it better resolution. There is more than one way to do this, so find out what works best for you.

If you're flying a Spectrum type system, when you are done setting up the servos and gyro, set the gyro switch to heading hold, the throttle to low, and rebind the receiver. I always start with the rudder end points at 100 and the gain at 50 percent in heading hold and tune from there during the test flights.

The only thing left is to install the speed controller and program it. Since the kit I received did not include one I won't go into detail on programming the ESC. Follow the manual for the power system you chose to use. One word of caution, the motor must be plugged in for the speed controller programming as it is the motor that beeps, not the speed controller. This tends to un-nerve some beginners. If you want to be safe, remove the pinion from the motor until you are comfortable that everything is working as it should.

The other thing I would recommend is that you get in the habit of turning on the transmitter and immediately placing it in throttle hold. Then go ahead and connect the battery. When the gyro and speed controller are done initializing, carry the helicopter to the flight line and release throttle hold only when you're ready to take off.

As I stated earlier, I used a 13 tooth pinion for the first several test flights and switched to eventually settled on the 14 tooth pinion gear. All flight testing was conducted using Great Planes Electrifly 3S 2200 mah Lithium Polymer batteries.

I made a final pre-flight inspection where I double checked the CG and double checked that the flight controls and gyro were all moving the correct direction. I checked the CG by supporting the flybar with my fingers and adjusting the battery until the helicopter hung level. When I was happy I put the velcro battery tie down in place. This is one nice thing about electric helicopters; the CG doesn't change during flight.

When I was satisfied that everything was as it should be there was nothing left to do but fly. I carried the Beam out to the flight line, released the throttle hold, and advanced the collective. The little helicopter spooled up smoothly and lifted into a hover with no needless excitement. The helicopter wanted to translate to the left so I gave it a few clicks of right trim and the Beam sat in a nice stable hover.

A few laps around the circuit told me a couple of things. One, even in a fairly stout breeze the Beam was very stable. Second, the cyclic was a bit mushy for my taste with 25 percent expo. Third, with the end points at 100 on the rudder channel, the piro rate was VERY fast!

After the first flight I checked the battery, motor, and speed controller with an IR temperature gun and found everything at or under 110 degrees. A post-flight inspection revealed no loose fasteners or any dust that would indicate rubbing or vibration. I made a few changes in the radio, reducing both the expo on the cyclic controls and the end points on the rudder. It was time to put the Beam through its paces.

As you can see in the video the Beam performs extremely well. The wind was blowing 15 to 18 mph the day I shot the video and the Beam handled the wind extremely well. With the throttle curve in stunt mode set at 100-95-100 the Beam was very lively and hard 3D flights of 4 minutes 30 seconds provided a good safety margin for the batteries.

Loops, rolls, funnels, aileron or elevator tic tocs, piro flips, the Beam handled them all with no problem. With the gyro gain set at 50 percent tail slides and rolling tail slides didn't cause the tail to blow out. On the rudder dual rates I ended up setting stunt one up at 100/100, and one at 85/85 for stunt two. I like the fast piro rate just because its, well, because it's cool! It's difficult to stop accurately during stall turns and other maneuvers and nearly impossible to keep up with a piro flip at that rate , so for most of my flying I use the 85/85 setting.

See the Beam E4 in action!

With that in mind, I would recommend the Beam without hesitation, but I feel it would better suit intermediate to experienced pilots best. The machine work is very high quality as are all of the carbon pieces. This helicopter costs a few dollars more than some of the kits on the market but I couldn't see anything that made me want to go looking for upgrades or after market parts. The fiberglass blades balanced perfectly and tracked well up until the 15th flight or so when it became apparent the dampeners needed replacing.

The dampeners wearing quickly, and the missing parts, were really the only two things I could find fault with. These were minor issues however. Dampeners are cheap, and the parts were replaced immediately by Advantage Hobby. The overall quality of the kit, and the way the Beam flew, put it at the top of the list for pilots looking for a helicopter in this size range.

Pilots of larger helicopters, looking for a good performing practice machine should also consider the Beam. A few evenings a week at the local soccer field, for those of us that normally only fly on the weekends, will do wonders for your flying and confidence.

Beam E4 Electric Helicopter
Distributed exclusively by:
Advantage Hobby
2708 N. Mattis Ave #D
Champaign, IL 61822
Phone: (866) 321-2300
Website: www.advantagehobby.com
email: tech@advantagehobby.com


Great Planes/Electrifly
3002 N. Apollo Drive Suite 1
Champaign, IL 61822
Phone: (217) 398-8970
Web Site: www.electrifly.com
E-mail: electronicsupport@greatplanes.com
product used: Electrifly 3S 25C 2200 Mah Lithium Polymer Battery, Futaba GY-401 Gyro, S 9650 Digital Servo

JR/Spectrum
Horizon Hobby Inc.
4105 Fieldstone Rd
Champaign, IL 61822
Phone: (800) 338-4639
Web Site: www.horizonhobby.com
Product used: JR 9303 2.4H helicopter radio, Spektrum AR6200 DSM2 Receiver