Esky Honeybee 4ch Rc Helicopter Review

Well, where to start with this one... This has got to bethe 6 channel collective pitch model, boy did he regret
one of the coolest yet frustrating things anyone hasthat later).
ever bought me. Let me explain... My girlfriend boughtThis time I was dead careful, I slowly increased the
me this for Christmas from Buzzflyer.co.uk for aroundthrottle until it was very light on the ground then applied
£110, as soon as I opened it I was like a kid at 10a short burst just to get it in the air and out of the
years old again. On the box it said for indoor/outdoorground effect (this is another thing I learned, after
flight so naturally the box was flung open and theexperimenting trying to get the honeybee to hover in
battery was straight on charge ready for a bout ofmy kitchen it would constantly drift to the left no
flying round the living room.matter what controls were applied. After a bit of
What's in the box?research I discovered that it's something to do with the
1 x Assembled Esky Honeybee Helicopterway the air flows when the rotor is so close to the
1 x 4CH Radio Handset and aerialground that makes it act in this way. Hence the term
1 x AC adapter'ground effect'. The only way you can get the
1 x 12V Battery lead (to charge the helicopter batteryhelicopter into a stable hover is to quickly apply the
from a 12V car battery etc)throttle in a short burst so that it rises out of the
1 x Transformerground effect to about knee level where it will become
1 x Lithium Polymer (LiPo) Batterymore stable.)
1 x Plastic bag of bits and bobsIt then became apparent that I was out of my depth, I
1 x Instructionsthought being only a 4 channel helicopter it couldn't be
The Esky Honeybee is billed as an RTF helicopterthat hard and I would have become a master of flight
(Ready To Fly, for those not in the know) whichbefore the day was out. That day turned into about a
means that in theory all it should require is a quickmonth of practice, several expensive crashes, and 2
charge and off you go.body injuries from the main rotor and I'm still not great
Naturally being a bloke there was no need to read thealthough I've become quite good at a stable hover.
instructions so I just plugged the battery into the beastFlying a RC helicopter is a lot more difficult than it
and off I went. It very quickly became apparent thatlooks!
this is definitely NOT an indoor toy, in fact it is not evenOn the same day of the first proper maiden flight in
a toy at all come to mention it.the squash court, my friend opted for the same initial
Obviously what's the first thing you do when you get aresponse as I had when first getting the heli out of the
toy helicopter? You got it, stick on maximum revs andbox (it was the first time he had ever turned it on) only
see what happens! That's where this thing went fromthis time he didn't get away with a minor breakage as
0 to lethal in less than a second. It looked so innocentwith mine. He pushed the throttle to maximum and with
sat on the floor till I whacked the throttle up then Ithe 6 channel Honeybee having more power it took
seriously began to fear for my safety. The downdraftoff like a trident missile straight into the squash court
from this thing was amazing considering the size, whatwall and folded up like a spring loaded deckchair. It was
looked quite small in the beginning now seemeda write-off. Less than 1 second total flight time and it
relatively large once the blades were spun up, andcost him a fortune (not to mention hours of build time
what a noise! To put it into context; have you everand bleeding thumbs) just to get it back to a
seen hypnodisc on robot wars? Now imagine that butreasonable flying condition only to have a similar
flying uncontrollably around your living room at headincident the second time round! He was nearly in tears
height, brown pants moment I think you'll agree! Iand I tried to be sympathetic but I couldn't help crying
ducked for cover as the beast ploughed straight intowith laughter, bad I know but the comedy of the
the wall, slid down, and proceeded to have whatsituation was hard to ignore!
looked like an epileptic fit on the floor. My first ventureMy advice would be don't buy this particular RC
and already a broken part (albeit minor and nothelicopter if you have never flown one before. The
detrimental to operation). "Ah" I thought, "probablydamage caused by learning to fly it will drive you
better off outside".insane not to mention the cost and time to rebuild it. If
So out I went, only a slight breeze so I thought toyour serious about it get some advice before you buy
myself "perfect" - mistake number 2.one and try to get some proper training from
Full throttle once again (this time from a safe distance).someone who already knows how to fly RC
The helicopter took straight off and was instantlyhelicopters. Trust me it will save you a lot of
carried by the slight breeze at a rate of knots till it washeadaches not to mention a hefty repair bill. One plus
out of sight. I ran over to it only to find it looking like aside of the honeybee FP (fixed pitch blades) is that the
wet dog on a cold day, all bunched up and twitching.battery lasts ages. On a full charge the Lithium
This time I had broken several major parts so I packedPolymer (LiPo) battery gives a good 30 minutes of
up my helicopter and walked home in shame to figurecontinuous 'attempted' flight.
out what I was doing wrong and order some spareThe principle behind an electric helicopter is a good one
bits (which weren't cheap). "Suppose I best read theand I admire what Esky have tried to do by creating a
manual" I thought.cheap offering but to me the build quality was a bit
Ah... Apparently you have to set the helicopter up firstlacking, only very slight knocks would cause something
as regards to the balancing of the main rotor, paddles,to break which means the novelty wears off
and the weight distribution so that the centre of gravityextremely quickly.
is directly beneath the rotor shaft. This isIf I had to buy one again I would go for the Micron V2
EXTREMELY important if you want any kind of stablewhich is a tiny indoor helicopter the advantages of this
flight. Instructions for this can be downloaded here.is that the build quality looks substantially better than
The next thing you have to do is set up the gain andthe honeybee, and the size is such that you can
trim of the tail rotor; this is so that while throttling up theactually fly it in your living room which means that any
main rotor the helicopter will remain stable and pointingmajor crashes and knocks are likely to be absorbed
in the same direction.by soft things such as sofas and carpets.
With these tasks complete I then took the helicopter toConclusion
an empty squash court with a friend who had alsoGreat idea in principle, but the build quality is a bit
bought a honeybee helicopter (although he opted forlacking.