gotime242

Hello all. First off, i would like to say that if this has already been mentioned then i apologize for the repeat thread.

I am looking to buy a nice little mirco electric heli and am having a hard time deciding if i want the blade of HB CP2. Im not sure all the diff models of the honey be (1/2/cp...etc) but whatever the latest one is. And from what i see there is only one blade model out.

Anyway, i have tried to search for a ton of info, and i have done a lot of reading. But when it comes down to it, which would you guys get...the blade or HB?One thing i like about the blade is that they say they are all test-flown at the factory, so that might give me a little more insurance (if its true). Also it seems the blade is very USA based. I would really like which ever one im looking to have less problems with, and will have the best support may it be parts or otherwise. Id be willing to spend a tiny bit more to have some decent customer service on it.

So what do you guys think. Which would you chose if you were to order today?

Thanks!!

paedbo

My Feedback: (2)

from what i understand the blade comes ready to fly out of the box, and they are a bit more careful about setting up the heli. the honey bee 2 cp2, has a better rotor head assembly though, but esky just slaps them together and you may have to tweak it to get it to fly right out of the box. The blade cp, i believe almost has identical parts to the honey bee 2 cp, the honey bee 2 cp2 though has updated main gear and rotor head for better cyclic. Plus the only other thing i can think of is you have to buy the 3d accessory kit for the blade, where the honey bee 2 cp2 comes with the 8t pinion and the blades already.

I wouldnt suggest either heli for a beginner though, but from your comments i would have to tell you to get the blade cp.

rbiasi

I think paedbo covered most stuff, but I just had to toss in my $0.02...

The Blade CP is identical to the original Honeybee 2 CP. There has been a lot of hype about this or that being improved, but I've bought Blade parts and HB2 parts and they are all the same. The advantage with the Blade is that the E-Flite guys pre-flight every heli and you have their product support group to call if you have problems. Also, from posts of the various forums it sounds like E-Flite has been awsome about replacing parts that fail. Which you won't get from the guys in Hong Kong.

The Honeybee CP2 is a major improvement to the Honeybee 2 CP. It has a bell-hiller style rotor head which gives WAAAYY more cyclic response. Also the skids are carbon fiber (they tend to break on the Blade/HB2), the main gear is more solid and has a metal flywheel, the main gear/shaft is two piece, and a new frame.

However, which to choose depends on where you are at with helis. If you are an experienced heli pilot and want a micro to fart around with, get the Honeybee CP2. If this is your first heli, get the Blade CP. You have E-Flite's support to help you. And the less responsive cyclic makes the heli much easier to control when you are learning.

Also, the parts are pretty much interchangable between the CP1 (Blade) and CP2. So you can always put the CP2 head on when you are ready (my current setup). Also, you can pick up a HB CP2 airframe for $75 and move all of the Blade electronics over to it. Cheap upgrade.

Finally, if you are learning. Get a SIM. They seems expensive compared to the Blade or Honeybee. But when you factor in repair parts a SIM is the best investment you can make. I think I had about $800 into my Honeybee 2 CP before I learned to hover.

Hope this helps...
Rich

gotime242

Thank you very much for your help. I really appreciate it.

Im kind of a beginner to the heli world. Ive been doing r/c everything for many years, ive had almost 30 planes of all sorts, im a pretty good pilot. I also had a little kyosho hiperfly heli, which was just a 2 channel constant-forward heli. I know thats nothing like these..but oh well. I have been doing the FSM simulator with the heli, and i can fly around fine, and land and stuff. Its easy to control for me, its just that im using the keyboard (much harder than transmitter box since im so used to the traansmitter) and also in those sims i cant see the ground so its a little confusing where i am in the sky (unlike real life)...plus i dont like which keys do what...i wish i could customize it.

If anyone else has anything to add, please chime in. Im looking for as many responses as possible, so im sure of which to get.

Thanks!

gotime242

Thanks rich. Looks like im really leaning towards the Blade. Im really not looking for aerobatics or "3d" anything, mainly something to hover around my apartment with, and just for park use. I just moved accross state and i dont know where to take my biplane yet that needs a lot of space.

gotime242

One thing that worries me thought is the price diff for something so similar. The ESKY Hb2 can be had on ebay for around 150 INCLUDING the lipo battery, as well as a sim cord and a other things. With the blade + acro pakage + lipo batt + other stuff (shipping) it could end up costing a LOT more than the HB2.

So far i have only seen the blade for around 219 when the hb2 on ebay is... :

http://cgi.ebay.com/LATEST-ESKY-3D-C...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW



Also one thing i must know, is im not completely sure of the diff models of the Honey bee. Rich- You mentioned that "The Honeybee CP2 is a major improvement to the Honeybee 2 CP" Is the 1st ebay link i posted the CP2 ? It says in the title the latest, but how can you be sure? Can you tell from the pics?

Thanks again for the help, I didnt really see before the big price diff untill i started adding things up in my head.

paedbo

My Feedback: (2)

your paying for better initial setup by the company and better customer service, with the honey bee your pretty much on your own. If you know how to setup the heli the right way, go with the honey bee 2 cp2, if you dont, then go with the blade


forget about the sim cords, i dont know about the latest honey bee but i could never get it to work for the honey bee 2 cp. I gave up on it, I bought a better transmitter anyways because i had planned to upgrade to a logo 10, so i started using that on simulators. FMS is really a poor heli sim, it will teach you stick movements thats about it. I could fly the hell out of FMS but when i tried to take off my first micro it was a nightmare.


as far as telling the difference of the honey bee's, in that first link you have you see a picture of the rotor head, i dont know if you know what a swashplate looks like but on ebay the swashplate on the cp2 has 4 ball links at 90 degrees apart from each other, on the cp2 there is something connected to all 4 of these ball links on the upper part of the swashplate, in the honey bee 2 cp, only 2 of the ball links are used. ( this is the easiest way i could think of to try to explain the difference). The swashplate is the part that all 3 servo's connect to, the lower half of the swashplate does not spin with the blades, but the upper half of it does.

PJSims

gotime242:

Like you, I've got plenty of time on fixed-wing RC. I bought the Blade as my first heli and love it.

Learning the controls was a booger and I spent several weeks scooting around on the asphalt. I then spent a week or so hovering in "ground effect", then grew a pair and took it up a few feet. Man, what a difference!

I'm still kinda sloppy and have a hard time keeping it in about a 4-foot box, but it's coming together.

I have done VERY little tweaking to get it to fly, and, despite people saying the Blade is not for beginners, I'm quite happy with it.

gotime242

Hmm... this is becoming a difficult desision to make.

Yeah that FMS sim just doesnt seem reliastic to me at all. Those helis are way to smooth or something. I can fly them around no problem on the keyboard, I have an extra transmitter around, maybe i can just hook that up somehow, maybe get a cord or something. I duno.

One thing about support with the honey bee though, is that this site alone, along with ERgroups is a HUGE resource for support. All the help i could ever ask for, which you guys have proved. And im sure parts are availible as i have seen. Ughh...i still dont know though.

That flight test thing with the blade though is very appealing to new commers. When it goes up for the first time the last thing we need to think about it trimming it at the same time as learning to fly it.

jongurley

My Feedback: (29)

Does the Honeybee possibly use the same replacement parts as the Eflite BLADE<, the big black spur gear and everything look the same as the Blade,,,,

Human_Enigma

Ive been into modeling since I was a kid, I was big on cox stuff.. had gas heli's 10 or so years ago but got out of it but have had gas trucks and cars ( life happened ) about 6 months ago I made an aquaintance that had a couple of electric heli's. He let me fly one of his fixed pitched machines. It had been so long.. well to say the least I heald a hover for about 30 seconds a few times.. then he loaned me his g2 sim.. ever since then Ive had the fever again. I poked around the web alot for something to get me back into it and I watched the blade for quite a while. I read nothing but good about it. Its a very simple machine and did fly just fine out of the box.. (before charging the battery ) like the manual stated. Apon reading alot of posts. I'm finding that since its so affordable, AND a collective pitch machine, people tend to get duped into thinking its something you can just buy and fly. Without RC heli experience. This is not the case.. and goes for ANY rc heli for that matter. I took into consideration that I have 2 hobbyshops that stock parts for it within a 15 mile radius.. and yes.. i have visited both.. and yes.. sometimes twice in the same day.. heh heh though its very simple to balance.. and have come to find out that most people havent a clue how. Ive had the blade for a week now got about 35 or so flights out of it.. 2 little bonks and one really really bad rotor head straight in... its not as forgiving as a gas heli in a breeze and i would not reccomend any new beginner to start without training gear.. though all in all, I'm Happy with the Blade, so many times I pondered over all the other heli's at the hobbyshop and they always told me not to get it cause they had alot of returns because of manufacturing problems.. this one.. they waited for me to show up. I have to say also that If this electric heli is to be an introductory one, your foot is in the door if ya wanna step up to GAS. though, a bigger heli is a little easier to fly, they are not as easy to maintain. Personally.. I give the blade 5 stars. out of 5
hope that helps. .

rbiasi

gotime242,
With the links you posted, the first one is the Honeybee CP2. The second one is the Honeybee 2 CP which is identical to the Blade CP. As for the price, add in the shipping and they're both right about $200. So the Blade ain't that much more and you'll probably get somewhat better support. But it's up to you. Whatever heli you pick, you'll have fun.

jongurly,
The parts for the Blade CP are exactly the same parts as the Honeybee 2 CP. For either heli (ESky or EFlite) the numeric part of the part number is the same. The parts for the CP2 are quite a bit different, but a lot of them can be used on the Blade. Although some will need some mods.

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

Good reading! I think maybe I'll go with the blade,,,this price is negligable the HB is $150 with $40 shipping and the blade is $220 free shipping but worth it for set up and customer service I would think...I wondered if they werent actually the same thing different names...Rog

gotime242

Right but the HB come with extra blades, training gear, lipo batt and charger... Looking at the blade the lipo is like around 50 dollars, and the charger is more as well.

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

yep, another good point,,hmmm, back to the HB2 I guess...Rog

gotime242

Yeah, im pretty certain i will be going with the HB just because if i get the Blade ill have to get so much more, and really takes away from the "Wow, under 200 bucks, what a great deal" factor. With the blade your looking at getting up to 300 easily, and that just a little more then i want to spend on a toy right now. (No counting parts, because i know ill be breaking/replacing some).

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

so which hobby chain has the parts cause I know my 2 LHS dont have any heli parts...tower,hobby people,Horizon hobby??ebay?..Rog

gotime242

You can search around and find a lot of places, here are a couple i could come up with right now:

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/honeybee-parts.htm

http://www.helihobby.com/html/ESKY2.html

http://www.heli-fever.com/index.php?cPath=4_32

http://www.rc-expert.com/product-access.php?pid=80

gotime242

I noticed the prices are really good for teh Esky parts, versus the blade....from what ive seen.

paedbo

My Feedback: (2)

out of the two since i now have experience with heli's i would take the hb2 cp2 over the blade, but i wouldnt be worried about setting it up since i now know how to do it properly ( which i didnt at first with the honey bee 2 cp). If you cant get the heli set up right you have almost 100% chance of failing at this hobby.

If your going to spend $300 on a blade, you might as well put alittle more money into it and get a trex setup. much easier to fly and learn. and parts for that are also cheap.

You know alot of people on these forums will say dont get a micro heli, it is not for a beginner. And even i got warned that i will end up putting more money into repairs of the micro than if i just went and bought a good stable bigger heli, I put almost $700 into a my hb2 and still couldnt fly it very well, turns out i ended up getting for free a fixed pitch micro heli, and i actually learned more from that because i knew it was alot more crash resistant than the cp machine i had. so i wasnt as afraid to turn a nose in hover, I even crashed it into a steel pole one time and all i had to do was straighten the blades pop the ball links back on and off she went.

Stormovic

My Feedback: (29)

If you are a total beginner I would vote for the Blade. If you can fly reasonably well then my vote goes to the Esky cp2. I have both. The Esky will come with lipos and a good charger that works perfectly. Also has the symetrical blades. Esky cp2 also has the Bell Hiller type rotor head and much more cyclic pitch throw and therefore a lot more responsiveness. The quality of both machines to me is identical. I still believe these things are made in the same factory. I got my cp2 of of ebay for $175 delivered.The blade goes for $200 or more just about everywhere. Both choppers are a steal for the money so you really cant go wrong either way.

Pugsly414

So the parts are not interchangable? Can the e-flite crash kit, training kit, or li-po battery(wanting a spare li-po) be used on the esky?

rbiasi

It depends on the model. There are around six different versions of the Esky Honeybee. The Honeybee 2 CP is the exact same heli as the Blade CP (except for the canopy). So parts are interchangeable. For my Honeybee 2 CP I've ordered Esky parts and Blade parts. Other than the packaging the parts are identical. The numbers in the part number are even the same.

However, the Esky Honeybee CP2 is a newer version. A few parts are the same, but many have changed (for the better...).

Bosch232

My Feedback: (1)

Dang it, I don't even FLY heli's.
I just wandered in here from the airplane section, and not you guys have me thinking about it...

Human_Enigma

" its in his DNA ".. rubs hands feverishly..