First crashes, gripe about parts & ?'s

[FridayGt]

Whew! Well, it's been a while since I've been on here. Well, I've had my HBFP v2 for a while now, so I suppose I have an update of status to report back! lol.

First of all, I have a number of fun crashes to tell you guys about... lol.
The first, and perhaps most epic happened when a gust of wind oriented my heli completely vertical. It stared at the sky for a minute, then nailed the side of my house... lol. Yes, I quite literally hit the broad side of my house. lol

The next one (after repairs) almost took me from my hover way over to the neighbors yard (damn wind). When I corrected, the delay in response caused me to over correct, and it came flying right back into my fence.

The next two involved yet more damn wind! lol. Took me from a sloppy hardly controled almost tail in hover into a tree... lol. The first time it hit the tree, I had to get a ladder to get it out... lol.

Honestly, the crashes have been a blast (no pun intended). Thankfully I'm humble, otherwise, that would have hurt my feelings... lol.

Now comes the frustrating part. It seems that nowhere I look has the right parts in stock! I'm grounded right now with a busted canopy, busted lower rotor head and a busted swashplate! lol. With the extreme lack of availability of parts, I'm tempted to get the Xtreme metal replacements, but damn they're pricey! Do you guys have a "Go To" supplier that has worked best for you?

Self analysis; while I still lack overall familiarity and muscle memory with regard to heli orientation and control, it seems to be that my main issue at this juncture with progression is the lack of responsiveness. It seems to me to be that every time I get into trouble with this heli, it takes forever to get it back and by the time I do, I've dramatically over-corrected. It seems as though I must predict and precisely, preemptively counter issues that are to occur. This would not be so much a problem were I more experienced, but in this stage of my progression I certainly feel more reactive, just without the control to react and correct adequately and accurately. Does/ did anyone else have this issue? Do you have any suggestions, or should I just get used to it?

Hope everyone is doing well!

[JettaManDan]

places i try are:

www.helidirect.com
www.rc711.com
www.xheli.com


ebay of course....i'm finding it hard to find head parts now too...canopy from a V1 or even and 250 trex would fit..cp3 canopy fits too...

[Oldladypilot]

eskyhelicopter.com has all the stock parts for the HBFPV2 in stock now. Everything you mentioned is there.

Canopy, swash plate, and rotor head. For around $10 or so plus shipping you can be back flying again.

[FridayGt]

You both freaking rock! Thank you for that. I'm all over that site Oldladypilot, one stop shopping sounds great. That website show's all esky's as discontinued and no longer in production. I thought that was no longer the case? Any feedback on their shipping times?

Anyone have the same issue I'm talking about with responsiveness? Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great chopper, but the responsiveness is kicking my butt. I'm tempted to save and get a Walkera V400D02 after this to see if a 650mm FBL CP Heli would help with both responsiveness and wind issues, but we'll see. Thoughts?

Crap, they're all out of this: http://www.eskyhelicopter.com/000192...ame-outer.html

[Oldladypilot]

http://www.eskyhelicopters.com/esky-...arts-c-24.html

Is that where you are looking? Everything is in stock.

I live closer to CA. then you do and I believe it took about 5 days for my Honeybee to arrive by Fedex. They may have other options to get your parts to you quicker.

So far as responsiveness, the upgrade parts will help with that. Check out all the stickies the guys have posted at the top of the forum. This is the best place to come for advise!

[FridayGt]

Thanks, I realised the error. There was one letter off in the web address and was taking me to a completely different site! lol.

[Oldladypilot]

That was my fault! I should have just copy and pasted the link in the first place instead of going by memory.....specially at my age!

Their prices are reasonable don't you think? I hope you're up flying again soon, I'm down waiting for parts too.

[FridayGt]

Yeah, no I really did think the prices were reasonable. The shipping was a smidge much, but that's how their carrier is and in all reality, I would have paid more for shipping elsewhere as I would have had to split my order up among multiple stores. Are there actually any other retailers out there that are this well stocked for our Bee's?

As far as the upgrades go, I decided to keep giving stock a go. I have to bear in mind the goal behind this heli for me, and that was as a stepping stone to a FBL 450 clone that would handle the wind here in DE a lot better. Given that goal, I decided that my money would be better spent on the cheaper parts now and a new heli down the line when I'm ready to step up.

[Oldladypilot]

Nothing wrong with that. Each to their own. If you can master the Honeybee, stock or otherwise, then you can fly anything.

Esky's website is the only place I've found where they have pretty much everything in stock. They even have a few upgrades. All the other stores seem to be forever out of stock and you have to go to several to get what you need. And yes, buying that way adds up on the shipping costs.

Due to the advise I've received on here my bee is stock except for superskids, superblades and an rc aerodyne nav lights/landing lights kit. I have some upgrades sitting in a box ready when I am. I am not even getting through one battery yet before I crash so I have a long way to go.

[Viet-Lama]

The Xtreme PCF is one of the must have mods IMO. Only around $11 it will pay for itself in about 4 crashes. Looks really cool and the balls will never break.
I hate breaking my balls

[Birdkiller]

Originally Posted by Viet-Lama

The Xtreme PCF is one of the must have mods IMO. Only around $11 it will pay for itself in about 4 crashes. Looks really cool and the balls will never break.
I hate breaking my balls

X2
It really really is a great investment.
I hate breaking my balls too, every since I got it no more broken balls.

[Viet-Lama]

Originally Posted by Birdkiller

every since I got it no more broken balls.

[Oldladypilot]

Glad to hear you guy's balls are intact and functional!

[JettaManDan]

i did the metal PCF on both my V2 and my converted King 2..like it..but the main hubs are now out of stock everywhere and i only have one good one left for a rebuild...this is gonna get ugly!

[dayshaddow]

hi fridaygt
just wondering what setup are you running on the bee. i havnt had a bee for sometime but there are ways of speeding it up a bit to help with the slow responce and then the over correcting..you probily already know these but i figgured since they havnt been mentioned yet i would fire away

remove the flybar weights is the easyist and of course fastist
if using a v2 bee pop on a v1 flybar,its shorter and will pep up the responce time for you

if you wanna go proper nutz do both of the above and look in to lighter paddles,i sadly cant help you on this but i know others here will have looked in to them or best of all tryed them..be warned tho a shorter flybar,no weights and lighter paddles will make a bee quite lively oh and one last thing if your flying a v1 bee look at a king 2 super motor,bit more revs and a fuse mod is a must but i remember loving mine and its cheap and lasts forever best of all has way more grunt that stockie motor

there is one last thing i have to suggest
have you heard or concidered an eflight msr
so what do you get with one of these
fp heli so simple to repaire and dam it makes the heli tank(the bee) look like its made of glass.
parts are easy to find and cheap (STAY STOCK bling dont work)
its very fast to react and even faster if you use a dx6i or better to tune to you likeing

i got mine last september and since then i have only replaced the landing gear and swash(i have a habbit of having a few to many and wanting to fly..the poor msr can spend a whole evening bouncing off walls in fff and worse thing to happen is the canopy falls off and the skids need pushing back in..no word of a lie )

best of all even with its stock tx its fast to react so training up the thubs will be quicker as the heli is fast,it dosnt break,batterys charge very fast,its small so you wont need to leave the house and greet the wind ..

just sounds to me like a good sugestion.i started off with a lama v3 modded the pants off her and did all sorts of crazy stuff with it,i got a bee v1 a year after and i wont lie i struggled with it.i got to the stage were lord bugster may remember i could fly it around my living room nose in with ease but living on the coast the wind just caused mayhem with it.i got a tr250 a year after that and its a dam fine and hard heli but didnt really learn to fly till i got a belt cp 400 class heli but the size of a 450

many moons ago on another forum we would say coax to learn orientation,bee to learn to fly after that you will be able to fly anything...things change if i met a complete rookie today who wants to learn i would say
coax to learn all orientations msr to learn to fly then sod it buy and fly what you can afford(going from a bee to a 400/450 is scary..msr to 400/450= soiled pants for a short time but you will get over it

anyway im off now

cheers

[FridayGt]

Originally Posted by Viet-Lama

The Xtreme PCF is one of the must have mods IMO. Only around $11 it will pay for itself in about 4 crashes. Looks really cool and the balls will never break.
I hate breaking my balls

Whew, busted balls are never a good thing... lol. Damn, already placed the order, although it sounds as though I'll be placing more soon, so it will defenitely be on the next one. I honestly waffled back and forth for a little while, but then thought to myself to remember why I got this heli and that's what aided my restraint.

I started to go overboard with modifications to my daily driver car for a while until I stopped myself and remembered the goal behind buying it. Now, I just need to find that project car to restore and tinker with... lol.

Originally Posted by Birdkiller

X2
It really really is a great investment.
I hate breaking my balls too, every since I got it no more broken balls.

Sounds better and better! Does it work against the better half after you continually place more orders for the heli? lol.

Originally Posted by dayshaddow

hi fridaygt
just wondering what setup are you running on the bee. i havnt had a bee for sometime but there are ways of speeding it up a bit to help with the slow responce and then the over correcting..you probily already know these but i figgured since they havnt been mentioned yet i would fire away

Hey dayshaddow; I'm currently running superblade EZ's until I get hovering down, then I have a set of superblade XP's to throw on after. I have the shortened carbon fiber flybar and lightweight paddles from superskids as well. With all of these modifications, I noticed a significant improvement, just not perfect.

remove the flybar weights is the easyist and of course fastist
if using a v2 bee pop on a v1 flybar,its shorter and will pep up the responce time for you

if you wanna go proper nutz do both of the above and look in to lighter paddles,i sadly cant help you on this but i know others here will have looked in to them or best of all tryed them..be warned tho a shorter flybar,no weights and lighter paddles will make a bee quite lively oh and one last thing if your flying a v1 bee look at a king 2 super motor,bit more revs and a fuse mod is a must but i remember loving mine and its cheap and lasts forever best of all has way more grunt that stockie motor

Hmmm, haven't thought about changing the motor. Once I can reliably hover as I should, I'll check into it. I want to lower repair costs before going too crazy.

there is one last thing i have to suggest
have you heard or concidered an eflight msr
so what do you get with one of these
fp heli so simple to repaire and dam it makes the heli tank(the bee) look like its made of glass.
parts are easy to find and cheap (STAY STOCK bling dont work)
its very fast to react and even faster if you use a dx6i or better to tune to you likeing

I did look at this Heli briefly when I first started searching but dismissed it as it was far too small to be able to handle the wind here in Delaware. I'm about 10 miles from the coast on a peninsula in the atlantic. There's hardly ever a calm no-wind day here . That's why I eventually want to go to a FBL 450 clone. I'm not too terribly interested in 3D, but it will handle the wind much better.

i got mine last september and since then i have only replaced the landing gear and swash(i have a habbit of having a few to many and wanting to fly..the poor msr can spend a whole evening bouncing off walls in fff and worse thing to happen is the canopy falls off and the skids need pushing back in..no word of a lie )

best of all even with its stock tx its fast to react so training up the thubs will be quicker as the heli is fast,it dosnt break,batterys charge very fast,its small so you wont need to leave the house and greet the wind ..

just sounds to me like a good sugestion.i started off with a lama v3 modded the pants off her and did all sorts of crazy stuff with it,i got a bee v1 a year after and i wont lie i struggled with it.i got to the stage were lord bugster may remember i could fly it around my living room nose in with ease but living on the coast the wind just caused mayhem with it.i got a tr250 a year after that and its a dam fine and hard heli but didnt really learn to fly till i got a belt cp 400 class heli but the size of a 450

many moons ago on another forum we would say coax to learn orientation,bee to learn to fly after that you will be able to fly anything...things change if i met a complete rookie today who wants to learn i would say
coax to learn all orientations msr to learn to fly then sod it buy and fly what you can afford(going from a bee to a 400/450 is scary..msr to 400/450= soiled pants for a short time but you will get over it

anyway im off now

cheers

Thanks for taking the time to write this out and make all of the suggestions, I really do appreciate it a lot.

[Viet-Lama]

I totally agree with the learning progression that DS stated. Although I never flew an MSR it sounds like I should.
Most people suggest a sim and thats a smart move but personally I like to work on my helis so learning and crashing in real life was just fine with me

[Viet-Lama]

Originally Posted by dayshaddow

going from a bee to a 400/450 is scary..msr to 400/450= soiled pants

[Birdkiller]

X2

[dayshaddow]

i used to say sim sim sim but sine the op can already hover i thort against saying it..perhaps its just me but the last time i used the sim i got a 700 nitro to land on the celing of a sports hall i cant even invertedly hover but after a wasted hour it was up there FYI the sim is the best tool you will ever own when learning to fly but if your dumb like me you will nob about on the sim doing things you will never try in real life

learn your orientation low and slow.then in my book tail in hover turn left and fly a distance stop hover clock wise turn right fly stop hover and repete till good.then head to a field get up there and repete slowly.height is your friend on this one slowly as you fell better make the turns wider still flying slowly..over time you can briefly go nose in get to grips and continue..a few more passes over time and you will be able to hold it nose in for a few secs then continue.once happy with your progress make a circular pass hover nose in nice and steady (its a freaky time rite now) but you happy making the long slow passes and every time gone nose in for just a few secs and continued till you come to a complete nose in hover

here we go a noob with a belt cp learning to fly

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFYz-9fPu1I[/ame]

happy days