Honey FP will not lift off

Got my first FP helicopter, a honey bee fp.
The first thing I did was to balance it from the fly bar to make it level with a 8.4v 800mah NIMh hanging under it.
had to slightly mod the battery holder to extend the battery forward as it was tail heavy.
The next step was to take the motor off and hand spin the mains, checking for any binding in the shaft and main gearing, no binding was noticed as it spun freely.
I then checked for fly bar balance, took main blades off and spun it horizontally, like balancing an airplane prop.
I then checked the main blades for balance by using two pieces of 1/2 x 1/2 sq balsa strips and balancing the blades horizontally between the two pieces from the blade holder balls.
I then loosened the main blades to easily moved, but not floppy.
I then placed the blades back on, the motor in loosely while turning the main blades very slowly until a doubled piece of paper meshed between the main gear and the motor pinion, I then tighten the motor down and removed the paper to make a paper gap distance between the two gears.
I then placed the heli on a bench and clamped it down by using a wooden dowel through the skids.
I ran up the motor to full throttle to visualize how the blades tracked from the side and noted that the one without the white tape on it was tracking higher, so I the twisted the other blade until they were tracking together.
I also looked at the flybar paddles for tracking, they seemed to be tracking together.
With the canopy off I tried to fly it .. It lifted off to where the skids barely broke ground and no higher.
With full throttle on it would only skid forward, backward, side to side and rotate with rudder control.
I slowly increased the throttle, it moved sideways - no lift
I moderately increased the throttle, it moved sideways a little and a little forwards - no lift
I full throttled it, it moved sideways, forward with a tilt - no lift .
Throttle trim - all the way down - helicopter did not move.
Throttle trim - all the way up - helicopter skidded
Trim was then set to a point where helicopter would not move, about mid trim.
Tried to lift off again - no luck ..
Checked the main blades, no cracks or nicks.
Added about 5 degrees of pitch up in the flybar paddles - leading edge higher - no change
Added about 5 degrees of pitch down in the flybar paddles - leading edge lower - no change
Any suggestions as to what I may have missed ? -
The battery was also fully charged using a peak detection charger to around 10.8v

Hi MRD. Sounds like you have checked everything. Even though the battery shows to be charged I would try a different battery. It couldn't hurt. Is your BEE stock or have you made any changes to it ? I had the same problem you described after making many changes to my Bee. I solved the problem with an 11.1v/1000mah li-po and an EXTREME 380 motor. Faster head speed=More lift. Good luck.

I am a noice to helicopters.
My bee is stock, out of the box.
I read several articles and watched youtube videos on how to set it up.
I have built, designed and flown a variety of fixed wing rc's for the past 30 years.

I tried a 2nd NiMh battery, which was also peak charged at .8a and then auto trickled charged to max capacity.


The only thing I have not tried is hand launching it .. which seems like a bad idea ...

mrd wrote:

The only thing I have not tried is hand launching it .. which seems like a bad idea ...

Yeah, it is bad idea Maybe main motor is dead. Sometimes they are dead from the factory. Try to buy new motor