Well I've been so stressed out lately that I decided I needed something to calm me down. I remembered back to when I was into RC, helis and cars; and recalled how it was so fun and was great stress relief.

Yup, it was great. So I went in search of a heli that was cheap on parts and, for that matter, cheap to buy. I came across three choices;

1.) The Blade CP (of which I'd have done the pro to start)
2.) The Night Ranger 3D
3.) The Honeybee CP2

Now, I started out with an LMH 110, which I had two of. One was an electric test bed I converted over... I beat the heck out of them and they kept flying with no issues...

With what I started on in mind I wanted to go a little more in depth and decided on going with a CP instead of a fixed pitch bird. Looking through all the above choices I finally ended on the Honeybee CP2.

It was actually an easy choice. I looked into 3 aspects;

1.) Initial price
2.) Cost of parts
3.) Can it take a beating

The parts cost on the CP2 are extremely low in my opinion. Only costing $4 or so per part, depending on what it is. Blades are even cheap on it. My choice was made.

Off I ran to find a source for the little heli. Ebay here I come! I finally decided on a seller based out of Canada who was dealing these little helis, as well as others. I picked it up for around $110 shipped.

Now, I'll admit, having something shipped from Canada to the US was an odd idea. I normally deal in the states only but I figured what the heck. His feedback was good.

WOW, was the shipping fast on it. I was surprised that it showed up a day earlier than Fedex had stated.

All excited I was, opening the box, tossing the LiPo on the charger and waiting a bit before bringing it into the large living room to test out.

Now, I've flown indoors before. I used to do it with my LMHs all the time. Well, the electric one. So I figured there would be no problems. Besides, a crash onto a smooth laminate floor would be better than hitting grass, I thought.

So, I centered the bird and got ready. spooled her up and, well, did something stupid.. I for what ever reason decided to give that little switch a flick. Yup, idle up she went and lifted up a little quicker than I'd have anticipated.

So, going back on my FP knowledge what did I do? You got it, I dumped the throttle down and figured I'd get a hard landing and break the gear.

Now, remember, during this time I've got the idle up on. So instead of it dropping and giving a bounce off the floor, it proceeded to slam into the floor then do the chicken dance all around the room.

In a panic I went over and grabbed the main blades, which stung, and proceeded to yank the battery plug causing the flailing machine to come to a stop.

I was shaken, not stirred by this event. I tilted my head and laughed thinking to myself, wow, how much have I busted up on this poor little thing.

Off I went to my desk, sitting down and going over it. The damage?

1 Set of blades, beat to HECK and back.. Wood everywhere.
1 of the landing gear CF rods
1 Rotor Head Set. The ball snapped off of one of the links on the head.
My pride

Now, that's NOT that much damage for what I did to it. Granted I was on a smooth floor when it happened though.

Cost of parts?

$9.94 minus the main blades. I had a spare set.

Not bad.. I ended up ordering $55 in parts however. Consider it a preemptive strike.

And what lesson did I learn from all this?

1.) What you learn on a FP heli does not always directly translate to a CP bird.
2.) Idle up must be respected.. I'll stay off it for a while till I get back into the swing of things.. and find myself outside.