Well, I got my first RC Helicopter yesterday. It is the ESky Honey Bee Mark 2, comes ready to fly with transmitter and everything. I took everything out of the box and set it up like the instructions told me to. I gave it just enough collective to get it light on the skids, and it always wanted to rotate to the right. I would have to give it about 50% left rudder to keep it straight. I set the rudder trim on the transmitter all the way to the left, and it still wanted to rotate right, just not as much. Also, when I would actually get the heli into the air, it would always want to drift left and back. I adjusted the trim for that on the transmitter, but the forward trim and left rudder trim are maxed out all the time now. Is there some kind of adjustment that I missed, or that I'm just not aware of that can correct this? Any help would be appreciated.

Oh, and I got about 30 minutes of flying before I screwed up and crashed the heli. I'm going to replace the head piece that the rotary blades attach to from the plastic to the carbon fiber version of it.

RTF? As you have learned, there's no such thing
The instructions are just to get you in the air. After that, it's up to you to make the fine tuning adjustments as required.

Ask yourself how full size helis are trimmed ... do they use TX's. No. They make their adjustments at the heli.
The trim on the TX is for minor adjustments but if the heli trim is moderately off, you gotta make the adjustments at the
heli.

Depending on what type of anti-torque control you have (ie variable pitch t/r or electric motor), there is usually some way to adjust it's control. For the electric motor, there is usually an adjustment at the electronic controller. If it's the normal tail servo/linkage/slider set up, adjust the linkage as required to get the amount of t/r pitch change you need.

This can be applied to the cyclic also. If the heli drifts to one side, then adjust the swash linkages so that it tilts in the opposite direction of the drift.

Get your heli mechanically (or electrically) trimmed first and use the TX trims as minor fine tuning.

Good Luck,
d.tipton

Thanks for the info, Tippy. I looked over the manual, and believe I found what you were refering to. I'll work on that when the replacement part gets in.

Well, I got my copter airworthy again. However, when I try to lift off, the tail rotor isn't spinning fast enough to counteract the rotation caused by the main blades. No matter how much I adjust the proportional gain, it still won't spin fast enough. Any thoughts?

I am a n00b too, but IME there is always more torque before liftoff than when inflight. I would not worry about this, I would just correct with your stick and then base your adjustments on how the aircraft is when in a hover.

You might also have a center of gravity issue, make sure your batt pack is positioned in such a way as to give the heli a very slight (VERY SLIGHT) nose heavy neutral. Also, every rc heli that i know, including my own, drifts left right before takeoff, this is caused by the tail rotor pushing the bird that way. if your proportion is maxed out and so is your trim, hold in the corrective rudder and collective inputs until you get about a foot off the ground at which time you can make the proper adjustements. Keep in mind that as the battery loses power the tail rotor loses effectiveness as well and so you will have to retrim for this condition as well. Just my 2 cts.

If your heli has a tail motor and you bumped the ground, even a fraction of a second, you probubly burnt out your tail motor. Or at least damaged it enough to keep it from reaching top speed.(I've been there) Its hard to tell because it still runs, but it woun't run good enough for straight flight. Thats why tail motors are so cheep and in a while you will become very good at soldering and un-soldering tail motors.(like I use to be befor I switchet to belt drive tail) [8D]

Make sure the piece of rubber tubing that holds the tail rotor tight to its wheel, is tight. the rotor it self has two loockin teeth on it
that fit onto holes on the gear wheel.

the gearwheel and the rotor (properly seated) are held in place on the tail shaft thru the rubber tubing. if not tight the gear on the motor wont mesh right with the gearwheel.

and or! the 2 little screws that hold the tail motor in its case came loose and the motor moved away from the wheel gear.

The honnebee2's tail on mine should be tha same as you'rs hopefully thats all thats the matter with it.[]

Well, it turns out that the tail rotor was loose, colrod12. I got it properly seated, and it is working good now. Thanks for all the responses!