Yesterday, the company snakebyte | Group shared a new ‘Management Statement’ surrounding the current issues at Honeycomb Aeronautical. We followed up with Nicki Repenning who provided us with a detailed statement and supporting documentation based on the allegations from snakebyte | Group.
For Context
Before providing the statement, we feel it is important to give context and information surrounding this situation to our readers for improved clarity on a complex and sensitive subject.
For the avoidance of misrepresentation, we will reference companies and people as follows:
- snakebyte | Group – Snakebyte
- Nicki Repenning – Nicki
- Honeycomb Aeronautical Ltd – Based in Hong Kong, owend by Snakebyte
- Honeycomb Aeronautical Inc (aka, Honeycomb US, Honeycomb Financial Inc) – Based in San Diego, owend by Nicki Repenning
- ‘Founders Site’ – A new website created by Nicki Repenning using the Honeycomb branding where people can buy Charlie Rudder Pedals
- FlyHoneycomb.com – The original Honeycomb Aeronautical, currently controlled by Snakebyte
History
Here is a brief, public timeline of events:
- Late 2023 – Customers began to notice a lack of communication from Honeycomb when requiring support or new parts. Various posts online appeared asking if this was an isolated incident or a more widespread issue.
- January 26th 2024 – Nicki provides a lengthy statement about the situation. This included information on how Honeycomb was fully established, how his business partner was in financial trouble, and how this impacted production lines in their Hong Kong factory.
- January 31st 2024 – Aerosoft, a key distributor of Honeycomb products, provided a statement saying that they were “working with Honeycomb” as well as the development/production company to find a solution to ensure products would be distributed as soon as possible.
- February 5th 2024 – FlyHoneycomb.com issued a statement saying that all pre-orders for the Charlie Rudder Pedals would ship on June 24th, and that by the end of August 2024, all major retailers will have the product.
- June 21st 2024 – Aerosoft confirms via an email that the Charlie Rudder Pedals are in production and aim to ship by August 29th 2024. Aerosoft also had some samples at their stand at FlightSimExpo 2024.
- June 23rd 2024 – Various media outlets and creators, including FSElite, spoke with Nicki during FlightSimExpo 2024 to get some clarity on the situation. He said that he was in the process of acquiring all branding, products, and trademarks wholly from Snakebyte. He confirmed he set up the Founders Site and had begun producing Charlie Rudder Pedals to ship directly from the factory to customers.
- August 2nd 2024 – Snakebyte issues a statement on their FlyHoneycomb.com website indicating that an individual claiming to be the CEO and Founder of Honeycomb was never in that position, had their employment terminated from Snakebyte, and claimed that other versions of the Charlie Rudder Pedals were “counterfeit” and had less life-cycles than their version.
That brings us to today with the new information we have now acquired from Nicki.
Our Involvement
At FSElite, we feel we have a responsibility to provide accurate reporting and are doing what we feel is right to bring you the information. Our role is not to provide conflict, but to present all the information we have to provide as much context on the situation as possible. Our involvement in this is simple: to provide facts to the community.
We have no vested interest in either party, only to provide clarity to the community. We acknowledge that many of you have invested hundreds of dollars in hardware from Honeycomb and may even have pre-orders for the Charlie Rudder Pedals.
If you have questions, you can contact us.
Additional Context
Before we share the full details of what Nicki told us, there are a couple more important points to note. Nicki owns a company called Honeycomb Aeronautical Inc, which is incorporated in the US. This appears to be a holding company based in San Diego, US. There is an Electronic filing of the Statement of Information which points to him being the CEO of the company.
There is also a Honeycomb Ltd registered in Hong Kong, according to Nicki’s statement to us.
Another company to take note of is Ryder Industries (owned by the founder of Saitek), which is claimed to be the development and manufacturing partner for the Charlie Rudder pedals.
Finally, there is another manufacturer called Satura that allegedly would be used by Snakebyte.
Keep note of this for the statements below.
Nicki’s Statement Surrounding Trademark and Ownership
Following the statement issued by Snakebyte about management, we contacted Nicki for clarity. He provided us with various emails and supporting documentation, with the claim that Snakebyte is not painting a complete picture for the community.
To start, Nicki said that they are “still in communication with Snakebyte about an acquisition of Honeycomb.” He added that Snakebyte is making it “more and more difficult to reach a deal.”
Nicki told us there had been correspondence between Marc Küpper, who is the director of Snakebyte, and owns 20% of the shares in Snakebyte Group about an intent to buy any trademarks. Nicki provided us with a Whatsapp chat log (translated using Google from German to English) between himself and Marc Kupper about proceeding with a deal.
The white bubbles are Marc, and the green bubbles are Nicki. Some sensitive, non-related information has been redacted. We have no timestamps for these messages and were provided to us by Nicki.
We were also given evidence of a letter of intent from Snakebyte’s acquisition partner, Capstan Capital, about the acquisition.
As for ownership and copyright of the owner of the designs, Nicki provided us Copyright certificates for both the Alpha and Charlie pedals. He said that the Bravo original is with his trademark law firm.
As you can see, this was effective as recently as February 27th, 2024 and states that Honeycomb Aeronautical Inc (in San Diego) is the copyright claimant in this instance.
In regards to development and manufacturing, Nicki is telling us that the partner in question is Ryder Industries. Nicki said that development was completed almost 2 years ago, but Ryder refused to manufacture the product due to Snakebye building up a “significant amount of unpaid invoices.” This is something Nicki has expressed multiple times in the past.
As of August 2023, Snakebyte signed an agreement with Ryder and Nicki to license the use of the trademark in exchange for paying off Snakebyte’s $1.7 million debt, along with purchasing $800,000 of inventory of Alpha and Bravo units that had been made but Snakebyte had not paid for. Nicki provided us with documentation co-signed by all three parties, including Mike Steup (CEO of Snakebyte), which was dated at the end of 2023.
(We have seen the unredacted version of the signatures, but providing redacted ones for online).
The Claim Surrounding the ‘Counterfeit’ Charlie Pedals
Another key part of Snakebyte’s original ‘Management Statement’ from August 2nd was how there are “counterfeit” Charlie Pedals being distributed. The statement from the FlyHoneycomb.com website did not specify where or who was providing these, but they alluded to them coming from the ‘Founders Sites’, created by Nicki.
Nicki spoke about this in his statement to us.
Following the Trade & Debt repayment document being signed (above), the Honeycomb Aeronautical company based in the US would be able to use the trademarks, and produce and sell Charlie Rudder Pedals (as well as Alpha and Bravo units). This is why the ‘Founders Site’ was then set up in order to facilitate this. According to Nicki, Snakebyte/Mike Steup had set up plans to manufacture the Charlie Pedals with another factory called Satura.
Allegedly, the units being developed by Snakebyte at the new factory were based on a “very early version” that they had in their possession. Once Nicki and Ryder Industries got their hands on units, they said they found “some fairly serious design deficiencies,” which is due to Snakebyte “reverse engineering an early prototype.”
Furthermore, Nicki claims that they were using cheaper electronics and mechanical components, and did not integrate the software required to make the pedals perform better and more accurately.
Nicki supplied us with a preliminary report that he had commissioned to compare the units.
One of the claims in Snakebyte’s latest statement was how the steel wire in the “counterfeit” unit would not reach their 500,000 reliability test, whereas they claimed that their model does. However, based on this preliminary report, the wire broke in Snakebyte’s model after 140,000 uses, well below their claimed half-a-million target. Ryder’s report claims that the wire found in the originally produced Charlie units had passed the 500,000 reliability test.
What Does This Mean for Customers and Pre-Orders
As we said at the start, our interest in this is for you, the community. We told Nicki then in our correspondence and he said “[I] have the same intentions regarding the community as you do.”
Let us first begin with customers who pre-ordered through Aerosoft. Nicki told us that Aerosoft had already paid 50% of their Charlie order in advance to Snakebyte, meaning they were “forced to take production” from them or risk losing a considerable investment.
Whilst the information provided above may be concerning to customers, Nicki explicitly told us that regardless of whether your Charlie Rudder Pedal is produced from either the Satura factory (from Snakebyte), or from Nicki’s factory partners, he will honour all warranty and service case agreements.
He said, “anyone who received a product from Snakebyte is safe if anything should happen to it.”
He added that some stores have stock of the “original Charlie” pedals which can be shipped immediately. Other retailers (not specified) will have inventory by the “end of the month” and Nicki will provide a list once they are able to ship.
Despite this, it’s still fairly unclear what the final outcome will be and does not assist with providing the utmost clarity on which product a customer would receive. Most differences are internal, and not noticeable until the unit is in your possession, meaning it will be a challenge for the community to know exactly which unit they’re receiving.
Our Perspective
FSElite is and always will be, an impartial resource for flight simulation media. This is a complex and complicated situation, where sadly, many community members have been negatively affected.
We have been fans of Honeycomb Aeronautical products since its inception, as have many members of the community, which is why we feel it is important to provide as much context on this situation as possible.
Our intention with this is to ensure that all sides have their voice on the matter heard. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide as much clarity as we possibly can so that everyone is kept up-to-date with the developing situation.
