I guess I'll bee the one dissenting voice here:

I had He!! with micro R/C helis, UNTIL I bought an e-sky honeybee.

I'm 37 and have been flying r/c planes since I was 8 years old. Yep, 29 years on the stick, both building and flying. I used to fly Pattern and compete on a national basis. I'm not exaggerating when I say I'm a decent stick.

HOWEVER, about 4 months ago, my 7 year old son started asking about helis, so I did some research.

Based on the rave reviews of the Blade CP, and the negative comments about so many of the chinese knockoffs, I dropped $362.81 for a blade cp w/the aerobatics kit, 2 crash kits, heat sinks, bearings, and enough spares to basically rebuild the heli, minus electronics.

Now, I've also done my homework on the other end, so I ALSO bought the Reflex flight sim, and a futaba 7chp radio. Practiced. Flight w/sim onalmost ANY heli was easy. Nose in, out, either side, inverted w/idle up switch and at least basic controlability in 3d, both normal and inverted, before I ever even powered up teh blade.

Had a local club heli flight instructor trim the blade, make sure everything was fine, and go through the first flight inside my warehouse where wind wouldn't be an issue. I'd also put the training gear on (the 2 crossed carbon rods w/ping pong balls) so that there would be almost zero friction w/the smooth floor of the warehouse (we'd both reasoned slidng/slippery was safer than friction induced tip-overs).

We first re-balanced the blades to make sure everything was 100% (this guy is kinda meticulous, even to me, but I still don't think caution can be over emphasized, especially with aircraft this powerful). He took off, went through slow surface/control checks while hovering @ about 8 ft (my ceilings are 28ft) and then flew around some. (we only used the flat bottomed blades that first day).

I then took over. I flew less than an hour (probably 4 re-charges on the batteries), and WITHOUT crashing, destroyed 2 mainshafts, and burned out a tail motor.

By the time I'd rebuilt everything (again, checking everythign and insuring balance as I went) I might have gotten 4 more flights (still only on the flat-bottomed blades) by which time I"d gone through the another mainshaft and a tail rotor.

By now, the gyro started to act up.

I have 7 brushless, lipo'ed planes right now, and escs are simple, GYROS are normally simple, but this one had a tic. Gain had decided to become an exponential-rate adjustment, all by itself.

To say it's flight stability was lacking is a pale understatement.


One night about that time I flew a micro foamie in my front yard and a neighbor asks if I'll check out a heli he just bought off of ebay for his kid.

When he told me it came from china, and was called a "honey-something" lol, I had a bad feeling.

It was already sitting on the table in his kitchen when we came in, minus the body, and when I walked up, I was shocked at the twinky-ness to some other helis I'd now seen: The Venom NightRanger, and another I don't know the name of. Except for the rotor head and blades, it was also EXACTLY like MY Blade CP.

"HOw much did you pay?"

"$122, w/shipping, and it came w/a free flight sim, which Perry has gotten bored with, so I guess it's time to let him at this one."

[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

I didn't say anyting, although I was really skeptical, figuring after everything I've read, hear and in other places, that it was going to be a piece of carp.

We took it into his den, which is big enough to easily fly inside of, and I powered it up. It flew easily, with what to me felt like much more control than my Blade. I attributed this to the plastic blades vs the flat-blades on my Blade, thinking this was just the price I pay for cp. Ok. Cool. Turn it over to my neighbor and his drooling 11 year old son, and away I went, to replace yet ANOTHER main shaft on my heli.

Fast forward 3 weeks later, and the kid is now flying outside in winds I won't even go outside in, doing what looks like loops and rolls, then, as I'm driving up to the house, flying, um, INVERTED???!!!

Oh. DIfferent blades, and head... and heli? Yep, dad bought him the $190-something off of ebay, 6 channel, cpHoneybee.

DDDDDD AAAAAA YYYYYY UUUUUU MMMMMM

That thing was awesome! He let me fly it, and immediately I felt in more control.

Blade C(ra)P went on Ebay that night, and I ordered 2 Honeybee 6 channel cps for $377, and the seller emailed me an offer of a TON of parts (including 2 motors, 3 sets of blades, 3 main gears etc)... so still a little skeptical, I paypaled them $604 in the end, for 2 complete, rtf cps, enough parts to BUILD another complete bird, minus 2 servos (they included an extra gyro).

Can't say enough good things about these birds. Instead of a one piece mainshaft-spur gear, wherein any real torque exerted along the axis of EITERH the plane on which the shaft rotates, or the other on which the gear rotates will BOTH bend the shaft, over-torque the pin, or break the spurs. On the Honeybees, the spurs are bolted w/4 screws and pinned (w/a 2mm cotter) to the shafts.

In almost 2 months now, and gosh knows how many flights, I'm MUCH happier w/the honeybees than I EVER was w/the BLade.

My now 8 year old son is flying one of them w/flat bottomed blades, and when he can remember to NOT look at things other than the heli, he is turnign into a decent stick, if I do say so. We're now to the point that I rarely take control back from the trainer box he's flying. However, since he hasn't exhibited the maturity yet to control a device I honeslty think capable of killing him or someone else, he stays buddy-boxed until he matures a bit.



Anyways (thank goodness I'm a fast typest, because THAT was a lot to type...) Don't be afraid of the e-sky Honeybees, imho. THis is one family (actually, there are now 3 families on my block, lol) that LOVES LOVES LOVES them [8D]