[jer0219]

Hi everyone. I am fairly new to flying helis. I can do pretty good on the sim. I am looking to step up to a bigger heli I have a cx and a novus cp.

My question is how is the quality of the esky helicopters. And are there any other manufactures parts that are interchangable.

The reason I ask is I am looking at the ESKY BELT CP CX. It is basically the honey bee king with a lexan fuselage kind of like the air wolf body. I don't want to spend a huge amount of cash, and the price is right only 300 canadian and comes rtf with an aluminum carry case, transmitter, charger and 3s lipo.

The issue I'm having on making a decision is the parts availability. Since this particular store seems to be the only one to carry these helis, and it's parts and is a little out of the way for me, being they are in markham and I live in mississauga where non of the hobby shops carry these or their parts. Some help would be greatly appreciated. Would I be better off looking at buying a used heli...? but even used trex are still expensive.

[Cougar429]

Any CP heli is a bit of a handful to learn to fly and hopefully your past experience has you over the inevitable "Crash and Repair" phase.

I started out flying ESKY King 2's, quickly modding them into "Baby 450's". There were a lot of problems with the K2, most notably a stock brushed power system, (life expectancy measured in minutes) weak frame and tail drive and control system. I likened flying them to an "Epileptic on Red Bull".

The King is roughly a 380 size heli. While the BeltCP shares a lot of the same head bits, it is larger, more in the 450 class. That will make it more stable, but the plastic main rotor linkage is sloppy and wears quickly from there. Their electronics are also not the most reliable. Another factor with the "All in One" package you mentioned is the radio system. The transmitter has the CCPM programming hard set into it and cannot be tailored for best performance. There is also the charger. It is a basic balance charger that will not quickly rewind a pack of any capacity and not allow you to adequately monitor the health and balance of the battery.

I may be raked over the coals for this, but regarding relative ease of flying, cost of initial purchase, repair, replacement and upgrade I would recommend a 450 heli right from the start. Everyone and their grandmother seems to be copying them and spares are plentiful. Cannot say that about ESKY. Another good investment would be a programmable radio system. Not only does this allow for "Tweaking" your settings, but in most cases allows for more than one model to be discreetly set into memory. In the long run you would only require another receiver and flight system for each craft.

A heli can be a significant investment and there are some extras you can look at to make the best use of the gear. If you keep your eyes open, there may be a lot of very good used helis, radio systems and chargers available as people upgrade to newer, more capable or larger equipment. This can significantly help keep the costs down.

Hope that helps.

If you want to see some of the K2 mods I mentioned, I'll be bringing several helis to the London Swap Meet this weekend, including 2 of my "Baby 450's".

[waylander]

I've had 3 esky helis and for the cost they are a decent heli. Even with their issues I'd still take one over an eflite blade SR or CP Pro, I just don't like tail motors. But, if you're worried about parts support then the SR may be a better choice. Personally, I'd say get one used though. The nice thing is if you want a better computer radio in the future any of the spektrum ones will bind with the stock receiver.

[Max]

I have and Esky Honey Bee CP. It was great at first, and I flew an entire indoor season with it.

Then things started to go worong- Motor wore out after 1 season (See Cougar's post)
Then I started having trouble with the tail rotor motor- same problem as the main motor....

Then my 4-in-1 got fried and that is when it really made me angry- replaing that one piece of hardwars is almost the cost of the heli. Not worth it IMO. and so now it sits.

I also agree with Cougar regarding the 450's: Much better value, Much better fliers, cheap as hell to repair.

450 helicopters are really coming down in price!
I mean- Check this out:

http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...dProduct=11446

$13.99 for a 450 helicopter? UNREAL!!!! buy several! If you crash, repair costs wont excedd the price of a new heli. An all -up HK heli with 2 batteries (minus the Radio) is 100 bucks plus shipping. You cant beat that!

[jer0219]

Well I have looked around a bit locally, it seems my only two choices of getting something of an entry level price would be either the e flite blade 400 or a heli max axe 400. Like I said I don't want to invest too much on a heli as I am still learning and I know I am going to crash sooner or later. The e flite is a little more money but does come with the spectrum radio, 3s lipo etc. The axe 400 is running futaba fast radio gear with futaba servos, no battery with this kit. Blade 400 $488.99 helimax axe 400 $399.99 Now which has better quality?

[Max]

I am not a big fan of the Blade 400. Having flown both the Blade400 and the HK450 (I also have a Trex 450, but for this comparison I will just use the HK450)

IMO, the HK450 is a much better heli. It is much smoother and a little more robust. Replacement parts are dirt cheap to boot.

I haven’t had the pleasure of flying the Axe 400, but I do own its predecessor, the MX400. I would say the MX400 flies just like the Blade 400- Crappy!. Mind you, this is just my opinion, and for all I know the Axe400 is a very fine ship- I just cant comment one way or another.

Still, if you were a friend of mine, I would show you that an HK450 ready to fly for $100 and a used Dx6i (average $100 used). I could show you how you could get flying for under $300, and have a WAY better helicopter than the B400.

If you are interested, PM me for details. I see you are in Miss. If you are interested, I would be more than happy to hook up with you and give you a few lessons on my kids HK450. It is set up for beginners and I am teaching them to fly with it. It flies smooth as silk and in one lesson I can have you hovering