Newbie struggling with a HoneyBee FP

Hi...I'm trying to make the transition from planes to helis, largely because I can't get to the field as often as I would like.
I bought the HoneyBee barebones kit and assembled it, because I like to know every screw, wire, bearing, connection, etc. I verified that my setup was correct, balanced the heli, even added Super Skids and an on-off switch. Balanced the rotor, made sure the swashplate was parallel to the frame, and all of that before attempting to fly. Oh, and I have spent a lot of time on the simulator, retraining my fingers on how to fly a heli instead of a pattern plane.

So...whenever I try to lift off, I expect the heli to slide left, and I am prepared with right cyclic to counteract that. My main problem is, I cannot get the heli to simply lift off when I slowly and smoothly add power. IT gets to a point where it is light on the skids, as evidenced by its tendency to slide around on a smooth floor. If I use rudder/cyclic to correct any movement, I would expect that a slight increase in throttle would cause it to "unstick" and rise 6-12 inches (as Mark does so effortlessly). Instead I end up feeding in more and more power (all the while trying to keep it still on the ground), and eventually it will leave the ground and go anywhere from 6 to 10 feet. Also, instead of just the whine of the motor, I get a large amount of rotor noise, and the rotors are flexed up at the ends. And even though I have balanced the flybar and paddles without the main rotor, then mounted the balanced rotor, I still get some vibration just before liftoff.

I would appreciate any and all suggestions. I won't be offended if any thoughts you have are "obvious".

When you are trying to lift off...you need to "punch it". If you try to get it in the air by slowly adding power, it won't work.

This happened to me (minus the building from scratch!) and my blade tracking was off. Fixed it and the lift was better. Then immediately replaced blades with the Xtreme carbon reinforced blades and has not been an issue since. Bet it's the tracking. I was surprised how much of a difference it makes.

You can lift off slowly, but it just takes practice to get the right combination of throttle/rudder/cyclic input.

Donnie D

I agree with tracking I am as new as you get but thats what fixed mine. I messed up and put less attack angle on the blades trying to track them and thus would not lift off. I bent them to get more attack angle and then got the lower one to track with the higher one and all worked. But rest assured all your answers will be answered on this forum!! Great people here!