I got the humble bee (Also known as the Honey Bee & E sky) in today from Helihobby/ I knew that I wouldn't be doing tricks are even hovering, but all I can make it do is lift up to the right. It really sucks. I was thinking of getting a flight sim because I can't find any good beginner books/DVD's on helis.

Anyone have any suggestions? Are sims worth it? If so which do you guys use? Are there any books or videos out there that can help out this beginner? Thank you for any help you can give.

Welcome to the world of rc-heli's!

Just about any sim will give you stick time without repair costs. And it is the stick time that will make you proficient at flying. When I started out flying fixed-wing glow powered planes (25 years in the past), an experienced modeller told me that the more fuel I burned, the better I would be as a pilot. The same holds true for electric. The more you fly the better you will become.

Can you give us more details of your lift off problem. Most well trimmed heli's will go left on take-off so it sounds like a trim problem, rather than a fault with the heli.

Most of all, keep trying. Improvements in heli setup and your flying ability will go hand in hand. As you get better at flying you'll be able to set the heli up better which in turn will help your flying.......

These things are not easy to fly, but perseverance will see your "flights" get longer and longer. Stick with it. The thrill when your ability and the heli's match up is brilliant! All of sudden you'll realise you're actually flying!

red

Uh...there's the EHBG at the top of this forum!

That's practically a book - it's over 100 pages now...have you read it?

Toshi

I did a sim for 2 months time. Then I ordered an aerohawk.

I charged aerohawk battery and scooted it around on teh ground to get used to the controls, after 3 minutes of that I hovered it in the air till the pack died and landed

Sims help A LOT

hands down flying these are the hardest/yet most rewarding of any rc to date... i started about 6 - 7 weeks ago, as a sponsored rc car driver and needed a change of pace... flew 3d foamy planes, then bought a aerohawk....
most important advice i have is you are going to wreck it! not once, twice, but a lot! except that fact.... it makes it a lot easier to push on...
get training gear if you don't already have them, they will not only make it easier to feel out the controls on the ground but also slow the effect of the head controls....
to be honest, i don't really think the Real Flight sim i bought has helped me at all. well maybe a little but nothing compared to the real thing....
this forum has more info, and interactive help than any book you will read... like the newbie PDF guide, there is a ton of info everywhere here....
welcome aboard... hang in there... keep wrecking...LOL... before you know it you will lefts side in, right side in then thinking this is the coolest thing I have ever done!!!!!!!

- jeff -

realflight. best bang for the buck. comes with transmitter

My vote goes to Piccofly. It is a simulator made just for micro helis and it is what I used. Clearly it worked perfectly.

Bite the bullet! sims both software or mechanical driven are not as effective as learning with the actual thing.

My recommendation is that you find someone in your area that has flown helis and see if they can set up the heli for you and show you how to fly it. If you don't posses it already, grow some patience, and persistance you'll need it.

Local hobby shops are good places to start with, purchase product from them so they can assist you. You can read all you want but what is actually going to get you fast results is direct practice with a tough and stable heli you can train with without having to resort for replacement parts often.

If you lived near my area I would suggest you look into the MIA Bumble Bee Ver 2.0, I would show you how to set it up and fly in a few sittings and you would be on your own quickly.

FMS is absolutely enough for hovering and figure 8. The honey bee should come with a SIM cable. Use PPJoy and FMS to practice. its free!
if you want to learn some complicated 3D action, go for XTR / Realflight G2. Think of it after you master the basic skills!!

enjoy~
J-ken

I think FMS is pretty good too. PPjoy and a homemade interface works a treat. I can fly around reasonably well in FMS, and I flew my Shogun in wind the other day and my reactions were pretty much spot on. I think the real problem is not knowing which way to push the joysticks, and FMS teaches you that quite well. I would like a more realistic sim (like Reflex), but FMS is pretty damn good for its price

Thanks for all of the help guys! I am going to pick up a flight sim in just a bit & I posted in the general forums asking if anyone was from or around Baton Rouge that I might be able to meet with & get some pointers.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

If you want to try FMS free here is the link with some spiffy helis.
Free FMS SIM, and MIA Micro and Sub Micro Heli Model Files

I and welcome to the forum. I cant fly yet becaus I need a reciever and dont have the money to buy one right now. But if you want to learn how to fly read..... this it tells you step by step what to do and I found it wery helpfull. I dont have a sim so I cant say what its like but I`m sure that it will help.

FMS taught me, then flying in a confined space forces you to learn quickly.

Blam,

I've been doing the Aerohawk 'dance' for some months now and one thing that I believe I've learned is that set-up is 90% of the success mixture when you first start out.

When you first start to fly (in most cases) your TX skills are very rudimentary... your brain is not wired to tweak the right stick the right way in response to the heli doing something - so you have to think, and that take time, too much time. Flight sims help with this because they show you which stick does what... my problem was that I find FMS (which came with my Aerohawk) pretty 'unsatisfying' compared to actually trying to fly (and crashing of course). Compare and contrast how you feel when you manage to hover in a flight sim and when you manage to hover the real deal and you'll see what I mean. Incidentally, FMS (Flying Model Simulator) is a free download - no charge whatsoever - so I would suggest that you take a look at it even if you decide to spend money on something more 'professional' later. As freeware goes it's a fine piece of software.

Now back to the setup comment. I believe that none of these (low cost) micro helis are identical out of the box. Some folks are lucky and get one that is trimmed and balanced... others do not. It sounds like yours is not - my Aerohawk was not.

As a novice an unbalanced / untrimmed heli = instant crashes. You just do not have the skills to correct the major deviations which occur just after takeoff - so you crash and break stuff.

Balance and trim is everything when you're starting out. I don't suppose that this is any different when you're experienced, however, the big difference (for me) is that I have to curb my desire to get out and try to fly and make sure that I check trim and balance. This is particularly frustrating when flights are short because of limited skills...

So, read the forums. look into everything that discusses balancing and triming your heli - and spend the time working through doing it. It's frustrating 'cos you want to fly, but it will help immensely.

- Make sure that the heli is balanced front / back and left / right. On a straight heli this should only be affected by the battery position. Use the flybar as a pivot point to check whetehr the front is lighter / hevier than the back and whether the heli is balanced side to side (you'll need to twist the rotors through 90 degrees obviously to test side to side).
- Once you've powered up, check that the swashplate is level. If not, and it's visibly 'out' then you may need to power off, and adjust the posiiton of the arms on the servos. You can try to 'trim' the swashplate flat but in my (limited) experience there is not enough adjustment in the cheap TX that they give you. I ended up making new connector rod wires for my Aerohawk as I could NOT get the swash to be level after power up. This made an enormous difference to my success.

Next up is adjusting the gyro and mixer settings... Documented elsewhere in the forum.