Introduction

Rotor Span:	23.5"
Rotor Area:	433.73 sq. in.
Weight:	14.25 oz. w/recommended battery
Length:	20.5"
Disk Loading:	4.73 oz/sq. ft.
Servos:	E-Sky
Transmitter:	E-Sky 6 channel w/CCPM programming
Receiver:	E-Sky
Battery:	E-Sky 3 Cell 1000 mAh 11.1V Li-Poly (charger included)
Motor:	Speed 400
ESC:	20A E-Sky
Available From:	Hobby Lobby

Beginner Basics

There are a few things a person should know about RC helicopters before getting started. I used to kid people, saying: "My mama always told me never fly anything that had wings that moved." Another tongue-in-cheek, yet true statement is: "Helicopters aren't really aircraft; they are just a series of nuts, bolts and rivets vibrating in unison in one location." Another? Helicopters don't fly; they beat the air into submission.

There are good reasons for these bits of wisdom. No matter how macho or good you think you are, or how long you've been flying pattern, racing pylon or any other RC fixed wing flight mode, you can't fly a helicopter without assistance! Let me repeat that: You can't fly helicopters without some sort of assistance! There are just too many rotating parts, too many new features, words and concepts to learn, and other items to deal with. Most of us have no idea where many of the parts go on the helicopter or what they do. It's not the same as an airplane, which has one key rotating part, the engine. Trust me, you'll need HELP...and yes I meant to yell HELP!

Now, don't think Hobby Lobby is stretching the truth when they say a beginner can fly the Honey Bee King (HBK), they can. It will just take some help from an experienced heli pilot to get going.

Some entry-level helicopters on the market can't be upgraded for higher performance. They are made stable so a beginner can learn as quickly as possible. They can hover, pirouette, fly around in circles or squares, but that's about it. The HBK on the other hand, with its CCPM head, can teach a newcomer about basic flight, but also perform many of the 3D maneuvers that nearly every new heli pilot wants to graduate into and learn.

If you are considering investing time in RC helicopters, here are my suggestions: (Note that they come from a beginner's point of view.)

It Takes Two Hands (or thumbs)

The E-Sky 6-channel helicopter radio is perfect for the Honey Bee King and other micro helicopters. The programming is fixed, meaning it's a dedicated helicopter radio, but servo reversing and an idle up switch are included.

First, understand that controlling helicopters and airplanes require different skills and inputs. Most airplane pilots use their left hand for throttle only and even then they use it like an on/off switch. Many can barely stay on the runway during take off because they don't know how to use the rudder.

You MUST fly a helicopter with both hands, all the time. This is why learning to fly an RC helicopter usually takes longer and is more difficult to learn than flying a fixed wing plane. You immediately have to learn to fly with both hands. Let's face it; most planes can be flown with just the right stick, except during takeoff and landings. After learning how to fly a heli, you will feel comfortable using the left stick while flying airplanes. I consider this a real plus! Learning to fly a helicopter will make you a better airplane pilot.

Getting acquainted with helicopters

Since I have no experience with heli's and I know there are many fixed-wing pilots in the same boat, I'm going to break my experiences down and present it from a fixed wing pilot's point of view. I'll do my best to name each major item and its function so that a fixed wing pilot will understand what they do. This means I may offend some heli pilots with possibly simple explanations, but we fixed-wing pilots need this type of education. And to think, I asked for this humiliation!

I had many questions, so I turned to the Internet to find out what I could. Hobby Lobby's phone support is a great place to start if you are searching during business hours. After hours, checking the Internet I found some very good info in a variety of sites, a lot of which was here on RCGroups! I'll only repeat some of the basic control movements in some articles, but check out the web for more in depth information.

Note: My description will be for Mode 2 fliers, which means we have the throttle and rudder on the left stick.

Airplane vs. Helicopters: The similarities and differences

Let's discuss the main difference between how a helicopter flies compared to how an airplane flies. Airplane wings create lift by flying through the air with thrust provided by a motor or by trading altitude for airspeed in the case of a sailplane. The main rotor blades on helicopters create lift the same way thrust is provided on an airplane: by a motor. The difference of course is that airplane wings don't rotate to create lift. An aircrafts' lift is created by propelling the plane through the air, allowing the wing to create lift. A helicopters "wing" rotate to create its lift.

Helicopters aren't like anything else flying! When flying an airplane, the last thing you are taught is landing. Typically, the instructor will get the plane up to a reasonable altitude and let you fly either with the main transmitter or you'll be using a buddy chord on a separate transmitter. You'll do this a number of times until you can fairly safely control the airplane. What this means is you'll have a fair amount of time flying the airplane before trying your first landing. On the other hand, with helicopters, the first thing you learn is hovering, which is basically the helicopters take-off and landing mode. On a simulator, your first task is to learn how each function on the transmitter changes things on the heli. After that, you'll try to learn to hover one foot off of the ground. You'll do less crashing from 12" as long as you have training gear on the heli. Crashing comes when we try moving the heli around in forward flight and try to return to hover for the first time, or take off the training gear.

Basically, throttle and tail rotor react basically the same as they do on an airplane. Left and right rudder move the nose left and right. As the throttle stick moves up and down, it also changes the pitch on the main rotor blades. This function is called "collective." Instead of only increasing prop (rotor blade) speeds to increase lift or airspeed, like we do on an airplane, we change the pitch on the rotor blades of a heli and slightly increase the motor's speed. However, increasing rotor head speed isn't as important as increasing pitch.

The aileron stick controls main rotor tilt right and left. This is called "cyclic." Moving the aileron stick causes the rotor to tilt from side to side. Fore and aft movement of the right stick tilts the rotor forward and aft, giving us a form of elevator. This is another part of cyclic. However, the combination of throttle/cyclic makes the helicopter increase altitude, not the elevator. Like I mentioned, the elevator stick only tilts the head fore and aft.

Before we answer the big question; "What is CCPM?," let's look at how the main rotor blades on a helicopter are actuated to create lift and how each movement of the transmitter sticks effect the rotor head.

Whether you are using a non-CCPM or a CCPM helicopter, the swash plate needs to be level to start with. Also, the servo arms should be 90 degrees from their centerline with the transmitter sticks centered.

CCPM is cyclic and collective pitch mixing. CCPM is a system of controlling the swash plate. CCPM utilizes three servos to control the swash plate instead of one for each function. In a non-CCPM helicopter, there is one servo for elevator, function, one for aileron function and one for cyclic function. Each servo operates independently of the other servo. With a CCPM system, two or more servos work together to input the same control.

In a non-CCPM system, the aileron servo will be 90 degrees from the centerline of the helicopter, the elevator servo will be in line with the centerline of the helicopter. In a CCPM system, the servos are either 120 degrees apart or 140 degrees apart

For fixed-wing pilots, think of it a flap/aileron mixing on an airplane. When you apply aileron, the flaps will move with the aileron. Collective pitch provides much easier height control than fixed pitch and although more complex mechanically, makes flying easier and more stable.

http://www.quickheli.com/CCPMSetup.htm CCPM setup http://www.swashplate.co.uk/ehbg-v16/ch08.html definition of CCPM

I just couldn't resist the offer to review the Honey Bee King from Hobby Lobby. It looks cute and comes with virtually everything needed for flight. All the pilot has to do is install the radio, landing gear and the main rotor blades and the King is ready to fly.

With all of the many varieties of Speed 400 size helicopters, let's take Hobby Lobby up on their offer of "The first collective pitch helicopter that a beginner can fly!" I've been flying sailplanes and power planes for the last 37 years. I've flown everything from the slowest sailplane to pattern ships, and a bunch of other planes in between. Let's say I'm a safe, competent pilot on fixed wing aircraft. But helicopters...they are another kettle of fish. Can I really learn to fly with the King?

Kit Contents

The Honey Bee King RTF comes complete. It includes everything you need to fly including the battery pack and charger. For assembly, all you have to do is install the servos and it's ready to fly!

This review will cover the RTF version of the Honey Bee King from Hobby Lobby. The RTF version includes a 6-channel radio with a transmitter and receiver, a 20A speed control, 4 servos, a gyro and a battery charger.

The beginner needs to order:

• training gear
• transmitter batteries
• Extra flight battery
• highly recommend training gear
• highly recommend simulator

If you choose to purchase rechargables for the transmitter, note that the charge jack is the JR format, the opposite of Hitec/Futab/Airtronics/Multiplex.

Assembly

The King comes 95% assembled. All of the difficult assembly is done at the factory. All the modeler has to do is install the landing gear, the radio and the main rotor blades.

This is where we want to end up when the servos are installed. Since the helicopter comes already built, and installing the servos takes only a few minutes, the Honey Bee King will be in the air in no time.

Radio Installation

Before you begin assembly, charge the 3-cell LiPo battery with the provided charger.

Without and illustrated parts breakdown (IPB), figuring out how the helicopter was originally assembled would be nearly impossible. Fortunately, the IPB is very clear, showing all of the parts required that make up the Honey Bee King.

Here is a close up of the head. As you can see, the parts are shown in different colors to aid visualization and make it easy to understand how all of the parts work together. This is one document you don't want to lose!

You will receive 3 booklets with the King and radio. The HBK instructions are written for someone who knows a swash plate from a tail rotor (I'll be discussing parts later in the article.). Luckily the kit is fully assembled so those of us who are new can spend time flying instead of assembling. The exploded diagrams and part lists are awesome, but there aren't written instructions, which can be a hindrance for a beginner.

I had to look at the side of the box to figure out where and how the servos are installed; that information simply wasn't described clearly enough in the instructions for me to understand. Three of the four servos on the King mount on the main frame of the heli and the tail rotor servo mounts on the boom. There are several drawings that go something like this: "the aileron servo hooks up to #1 on the RX, the elevator hooks up to #2 on the RX" and so on, but nowhere in the text does it tell you which servo is considered the aileron, elevator etc servo. Thankfully, Hobby Lobby (HL) has excellent support. A phone call to Dave at HL and I had the servos plugged into the correct outlets on the RX.

Landing Skids

The landing gear is made up of some molded plastic and carbon rods. The landing gear is mounted to the frame with clevis-like brackets screwed into the frame. You will need to glue the carbon rods to the brackets after the brackets are screwed into place. I used green label Zap. The servos are mounted next. As mentioned above, one of the photos on the side of the box shows how the servos are mounted.

I strongly recommend that a brand new heli pilot purchase training gear! I went to the local Hobby Shop (LHS) and purchased mine. The E-flite training gear works OK but they could be a bit stronger since the HBK is a bit heavier than the Blade series the training gear was designed for. It's better to get the correct E-Sky part when you buy the King from Hobby Lobby. The last thing a new pilot needs is a set of hardwood rotor blades trying to cut you off at the knees or worse, at eye level! Training gear will allow you to lift off just enough to make the helicopter fly, but the training gear will still be on the ground.

The next recommendation should be considered mandatory! Use a simulator to practice flying a helicopter. I'll repeat that; use a simulator to practice flying a helicopter! There are plenty of good one's to choose from. Hobby Lobby sells them also and their price is reasonable.

Radio Setup

The transmitter has the correct electrical mixes needed to fly a CCPM helicopter; but this programming is fixed, meaning you can't turn it off or alter the programming. In other words, it's a fairly simple looking radio with the programming already in the transmitter. Servo reversing switches, an Idle up switch and pitch trim are available to the modeler. Of course, if you have a mixing radio and your own micro servos, RX, speed control and gyro, you can use them with the King. If you use rechargeable batteries, note that the charge jack utilized the JR charge jack format of negative inside pin and the outer is positive.

With the King fully assembled, it's time to set up the servos.

From the tail looking forward, the servos are as follows:

• Left (aileron) servo goes in the #1 slot on the RX,
• the right servo (pitch) goes in #6,
• the elevator,(elevator) is the forward servo and hooks into #2,
• #3 is the throttle,
• #4 (tail rotor) is the rudder, which has the gyro linked between the rudder servo and the RX.

With the right and left stick centered, the servo arms should be as close to 90 degrees as possible.

Trimming and More

With everything hooked up, we now start trimming the King. The key to a successful helicopter assembly and flying is this: It's all about trimming! I'm 100% sure that flying a helicopter is 99% setup and trimming. Unlike a fixed-wing plane, where we simply check and make sure the CG is correct and the controls work in the proper direction, a helicopter requires setup and trimming on multiple levels. We need to balance the rotor blades (both main and tail rotors), balance the entire helicopter fore and aft, adjust swash plate servos for proper direction and proper mixing, check main rotor pitch, and a number of other adjustments. Oh, and by the way, we set up the swash plate and tail rotor servos with the motor disconnected, but the radio turned on and the throttle/cyclic stick on the transmitter in the center position! This is totally different than the relatively simple setup an airplane has.

The tail rotor servo mounts on two plastic clamps that are mounted on the boom. The obvious question is: "How do I know where to position the tail rotor servo on the boom?" Next, I knew that the rotor blades aren't screwed down so tight that they don't move, but how tight should they be? The same question arose for the tail rotor blades. I had all of my questions written down before I talked to Dave at HL and he happily answered my questions. I'll pass them on to you now:

The tail rotor servo mounts on brackets on the tail boom. You physically slide the servo for and aft to adjust the tail rotor neutral position. Once it's found, then you tighten up the screws so it won't move around any more.

The tail rotor servo is mounted to the mounting clips, but they are only tightened enough to hold the servo in place on the boom. With a bit of force supplied, you can slide the servo forward and aft on the boom. When you first spool up the King, note which way the nose of the heli rotates. You physically move the tail rotor servo forward or aft depending on which way the nose moves when mid-throttle is reached. Needless to say you shut the motor down and wait for the main rotor blades to stop spinning before making any adjustments.

Safety Note

It's not as much of an issue on an airplane, but you should always turn on the transmitter first, and then the heli. When you are done flying, turn the heli off first and then the transmitter. If not, there is a chance that the motor may start rotating. I almost forgot to mention, when you turn the helicopter on, the heli must be upright. If it's not upright, the gyro won't engage and you won't have control of the tail. You'll also know because the light on top of the gyro will flash telling you the gyro isn't responding. If you try to fly the heli at this point, you will have no control of the tail and will likely crash.

Out of balance rotating parts can cause a tremendous amount of damage. Therefore we need to balance the rotating parts and just as importantly, make sure the blades are tracking properly.

It's best to have a helper with you when adjusting the main rotor blades. Before installing the main rotor blades, make sure they are exactly the same length. If necessary, sand the length of the long blade and reshape the tip. You will have to cut into the plastic covering on the blade, but that's OK.

Now that we know they are the same length, we need to balance them. There are some expensive balance machines out there, but you can balance the blades using only a razor blade and a nut and bolt. If one blade always drops, it's heavier than the other blade. Put a piece of electrical tape on the light blade to increase its weight. Put the tape at the outer end of the blade. The same can be done for the tail rotor blades. See photo

Tape is used to balance the blades. It's not very glamorous, but it works. Also, you'll need a variety of spare parts. Blade holders and rotor and tail blades are typical items to have on hand. With a helicopter, it's not if you'll crash, but when!

If you didn't have to add any tape to the light blade, take a magic marker and apply some to the top of only one of the blades. Make the mark about one inch wide and put it at the tip. Now, hold the helicopter firmly down on a board or have a helper hold the heli. Quickly bring the throttle to mid position and see which blade is higher than the other. The dark mark on the end of one of the blades will make it easy to see which blade is running above the other one. To make adjustment, you'll adjust the length of the blade/pitch rods. Rotate one of the clevises at least one full turn and try running it up again. If the problem gets better, you moved the clevis the correct way. You can make all of the adjustments to one rod, but it's best to adjust both links for each blade. Naturally one link will become longer and the other shorter.

With the heli sitting on the ground, quickly bring the throttle stick to mid point. The nose of the heli should stay in one place, not rotate around the vertical. If the fuselage is rotating, shut down the heli and slide the tail rotor servo fore or aft and run it up again. If the move made it better then you know you moved it in the correct direction. If not, well, slide it the other way. Now the heli is in "BASIC" trim

Flying:

I know this is the section you read first, but there is a ton of good information in the above paragraphs! Please take the time to read them before making a decision whether to purchase any helicopter, and particularly this one!

Can a beginner really fly a CCPM helicopter? Let's see!

Driving around, or not.

Again, don't even consider learning to fly the King or any other micro heli for that matter, without using training gear. That is unless you have deep pocket to buy rotor blades. If you look at the area the main gear covers vs. the area the training gear covers, you'll understand why I make this recommendation.

The training gear consists of ping-pong balls, carbon rods and mounting brackets. The ping-pong balls are held on the carbon rods with small pieces of fuel tubing. The tubing is inboard and outboard of the balls to keep the balls at the end of the rods. I've managed to lose the outer tubing on two different legs and even have had the ping-pong balls swallow the tubing. To solve that problem, I used some thread wrapped around the rods outboard and inboard of the fuel tubing. This keeps the balls from coming off. I wrapped the thread around the rods just outside the outer tubing and just inboard of the inboard tubing on all four legs. Now the balls stay where they are supposed to.

The throttle/cyclic (increased blade pitch) are functions of the throttle stick. On a helicopter, flight doesn't really happen until you get the throttle stick above mid-position. This has the motor running at a medium-high speed with the main blade pitch at zero. When we move the throttle above the center position, flying happens. What I discovered, unfortunately the hard way, is you need to get the throttle stick from minimum to mid-throttle quite rapidly. If you come up too, slowly, the tail wants to revolve around the rotor head, even if it's trimmed properly for normal flight. But the more importantly, the reason is you need to get everything up to operation speed so the heli doesn't try to destroy itself during spin-up. All rotating devices have vibration at certain speed. This can easily be verified with your Dremel® tool. At some speeds it's fine and at others it's trying to shake itself out of your hand. A heli is the same way. So remember: throttle to mid position quickly.

The motor gets pretty hot so I needed an insulator between the motor and the receiver to keep the motor from melting the receiver case. I used two pieces of balsa wood for the insulator and it works great.

The first flight was in my back yard on the grass during a calm day. This is the only flight I performed on the grass. The training gear didn't roll or slide on the grass. The second and subsequent flights were used driving the King around the cement inside my garage. The next few days were entirely too windy to fly outside, so I attempted to fly the King in my 2-car garage. Unless you feel very comfortable with throttle control, I recommend flying the King outside. A 2-car garage is a small place to learn to fly a heli. However, I just couldn't wait to fly the King.

With a fully charged flight battery at the ready, we are now going to learn how to fly. Using the training gear allows the helicopter to roll/slide around on the ground. The object is to keep the helicopter in one place, which as it turns out, is a little more difficult than keeping your average .40 size trainer flying straight and level. Oddly, we are trying to keep the King on the floor while trying to keep it in one location. You will have to use both sticks to position the heli where you want, not where it wants to go. The heli will move fore, aft, right and left, sometimes all at once. The object is to keep the heli in one place. Unless you are a protégé, it'll take a number of battery packs before you can stay in a 10x10' square.

From the ½ throttle point, the King will start to get light on its feet as it were. While it's in this mode, the pilot gets used to using both sticks and mainly the left stick to control the nose of the heli. All of the initial flights were made with the King in front of me with the nose facing away from me at a 45' angle.

It's at this point you can see how good your initial set up is. I found the tail wanting to push the nose around to the left, and for the heli wanting to slide backwards to the left. Since the aileron/elevator changes needed were small, I used the trim tabs. I physically moved the tail rotor servo to get the tail to hold basically straight at mid-throttle. It took me 4 battery pack charges before I could actually get all 4 gear off of the ground for any length of time.

Consistency is the key.

Like anything else in life, consistency is the key to learning a new task. The more times you do something, the better you'll become. I've tried to fly at least one flight a day since I received the heli and prefer three a day. Since it's windy in Oklahoma all year long, I get to practice flying in my garage. This is both good and bad. Since there are many obstacles near by, I spend a lot of time just going up and down. However, the "up" times are now starting to increase. I'm confident that if I were outside, I could stay in the air 15-20 seconds at a time instead of the 3-10 seconds I can in my garage. The reasons I can't keep the King up for a longer time in the garage are the hazards. The heli drifts 5-10' around and there are too many obstacles I can hit. Outside, there aren't those obstacles so I would be able to stay up longer.

The good part is I don't have to leave the house to practice. I can fly out a battery pack, let it charge while I relax paging through Ezone and LiftZone, and fly again when the battery is charged.

I can hear you saying to yourself: "20 seconds, that's not very long." It is and it isn't. When we learned how to fly fixed wing aircraft, we used a stable platform. When your average .40 size trainer aircraft is trimmed properly, it will basically fly itself for periods of time. Helicopters on the other hand, must be flown all the time. Also, the last thing we learn when flying fixed wing aircraft is landing. With helicopters, the first thing we learn is how to hover, which is virtually identical as landing. With a heli, we are learning the hard part first. Once we learn to hover, forward flight seems easy.

Speeding Up The Process

I've had no outside assistance other than the phone call to HL and confirming how the main rotor blades are adjusted for tracking with my LHS owner. This is not the way to go. Even after you've done your best to trim the heli, it's a good idea to have an experienced helicopter pilot take a couple flights with it. No doubt, he'll want to make some changes to the heli's setup.

There are a couple of ways to speed up the learning process. As stated above, the more often you fly, the better you'll get. Using one of the many RC Simulator to practice flying helicopter will save time and money. Both of my LHS owners recommend simulators for newcomers to heli flight. In the long run, this will save the newcomer money. You can crash a simulator all day long and the cost of a new heli is always zero. Hobby Lobby sells the most popular simulators, the RealFlight G3 and the Ikarus AeroFly Pro Deluxe.

Another way is to use a buddy box. The heli guys are a tight knit group since they are typically small in numbers. Having someone to help you hands-on is the best way to achieve a well-trimmed helicopter.

Yet another way is to purchase one of the twin rotor blade training micro heli's or a non-CCPM model. The regular Honey Bee comes to mind. I don't recommend this direction, though. The issues I have with these heli's are their limitations. Being fairly simple helicopters, about all you can do is hover, pirouette, and fly forward and backward. The CCPM Honey Bee King can and will do all that and much, much more!

I've had no outside assistance other than the phone call to HL and confirming how the main rotor blades are adjusted for tracking with my LHS owner.

Once we learn to hover tail in, we'll learn nose in hovering.

Regardless of the type of control system used, the swashplate is always set up so it's level in both for-and-aft and side-to-side views. Some advanced pilots may set the swashplate up differently, but for beginners, it's best to make it level. The servo arms should be as close to 90 degrees from their centerline as possible when the swashplate is level. There are many new things to be learned concerning RC helicopters, and we've barely touched the tip of the iceberg with this article.

More Than Hovering

More experienced helicopter flyers have flown the HBK and can really wring them out. The HBK is one of the lightest Speed 400 3D helicopters around. The lightweight means it can change directions quicker than a heavier helicopter. This translates into better 3D flying. To do the more serious 3D maneuvers, an upgraded motor and matching speed control will be needed. Hobby Lobby has them in stock so you don't have to go hunting around. Just tell them you want to 3D the HBK and they'll send you the right stuff. However, for the beginner, the stock system supplied is perfect for getting started in RC electric helicopters.

Conclusion

Can a beginner fly the Honey Bee King? Yes it can. However, like any new endeavor, it's best to get as much information before starting. In the case of RC Helicopters, a simulator is considered a must in my opinion. I put about 20 hours into the simulator before trying to fly an RC helicopter.

Can you go beyond simply hovering? You certainly can! With an upgraded motor and possibly the addition of precision servos, the HBK will do most, if not all of the wild 3D moves many modelers like to perform.

So where does that leave us? The Honey Bee King from Hobby Lobby is a fine flying micro helicopter. Hobby Lobby is a leader in the RC electric field and they have what it takes to get you started and keep you going. They carry spare parts for the products they sell and with a helicopter, that's important. Helicopters, whether electric, gas or turbine, always need parts. It's not a matter of if you will crash, but when will it happen. It's encouraging to know that Hobby Lobby has the spare parts when you need them.




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