Honey Bee fixed pitch

Esky's Honey Bee fixed pitch (FP) 4 channel helicopter is a benchmark standard low-cost RC helicopter. It flies well, is easy to repair, and costs little to buy and obtain parts for. It is resistant to crash damage, which makes it an ideal single rotor trainer.

The Honey Bee FP is great beginner's helicopter. Like any fixed pitch bird you have to concentrate to fly it well. But it gets you into single rotor hovering, side-in hovering, forward flight, and the dreaded nose-in orientation ...without emptying your checking account. This due to its light weight and the fact that the rotors do not turn very fast to lift it. The slower the main blades turn the less rotation energy there is to break parts when the blades stop suddenly.

People who feel confident flying their co-axial helicopters are well advised to choose the Honey Bee FP as their first single rotor bird because it operates at a lower head speed than collective pitch models. This means that it takes longer to react to the controls, giving you an extra moment or two to correct errors before the heli crashes. The HB FP is fun to fly indoors and will do circles and eights in relatively small spaces. Outdoors it is sensitive to wind, with a tendency to pitch up when flying into the breeze. Some people can fly it very well outdoors, but it is easiest to fly in calm conditions.

Hard core Honey Bee Fans love to modify this heli. I keep mine bone stock and use it to learn things that will break my CP birds if I mess up. I do use 2 cell li-po batteries to fly my Honey Bee. They are lighter and give longer flight times.

If you get a Honey Bee FP it might be smart to keep a few spare parts on hand:

  • Two or three tail motors. When the tail goes out you can install a new one and fly instead of waiting for delivery of the part.
  • A set of main rotor blades. Although these are pretty hard to break you can if you try.
  • Two sets of landing gear. You are going to break the LG until you learn to land softly. Then you'll break them some more until you learn to power down gradually when you know you are going to lose it instead of abruptly slamming the left stick down and letting it fall. You can also repair the landing gear.

Heli nuts buy spare parts in advance to get back into the air as quickly as possible when repairs are necessary. Then they can concentrate on the main thing: flying.

The Honey Bee fixed pitch is known and loved by RC pilots everywhere. Low price, low operating cost, and good availability of parts makes it the preferred choice for a first single rotor model.

 

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