As I already have the HB I’ll stick with it for now and practise with a sim but out of interest which Heli would you recommend to start with as I appreciate theHB is a few years old now?Hi Dave welcome to the forum, not trying to be a killjoy but I think you would do a lot better to get a newer helicopter there has been a lot of advances in stability since the Honey Bee was made which make learning much easier.
Having said that their is no reason that you can't learn on the Honey Bee most of us older member learnt on a Honey Bee or something similar.
Firstly I would recommend that you get an RC Helicopter Simulator for your computer to get used to your controls when you are comfortable with get get some training gear for the Honey Bee and start hovering in tiny steps.
Some recommendations that may help with setup, spares etc