ORIGINAL: Heli Bat
Congradulations on your AXE. I agree that you need time with no distractions.
Read those directions very carefully - in my ecitement just like anyone else, it is so easy to "skim" the directions to get on with the fun stuff. I encourage you to really sit down and read the instructions.
1) Don't let a freind or someone talk you into doing something with the Heli until you are comfortable with it. I had a freind that came over and insisted that I fly it way up in the air over my house. Obvisouly he knows nothing of the complexity of this little machine. Again, take it at the pace that only YOU are comfortable with and no one else. Flying a Heli is demanding at first - alot of dexterities to learn !
2)Use the training gear.
3) One more thing UKIE - if you can, I highly suggest, (almost to the point of telling you) to find a smooth level surface - NO grass. The reason is that a smooth concrete surface will allow the AXE to "wander" around on the concrete hard surface as you practice. The Grass, well, what can happen is this: the tail fin has a small wire at bottom and it is a hook that will get caught in the grass and make it flip over. Please do not attemp to fly in the grass first. Please find a smooth concrete or paved place. (flat and level). What can happen is this: If the Tail Fin wire is caught in a weed or whatever, then as you apply power you think, why isn't this thing hovering or getting up in the air. You continue to apply more power and then the "weed" in the grass snaps loose and then the next thing you know is that your AXE is like 10 feet above your head (at best) or worse the Weed continues to hold the tail fin down whilst your AXE flips over and damages all of your rotor mechanics.
4) read #2 again !!!
5) Practice getting the AXe to hover only inches off the ground. Please remember that you will be fighting the "Ground Effect" which in turn makes it more difficult to Hover the AXE or any Heli as far as that goes only inches off the ground. It is like trying to balance yourself on a gigantic rubber ball. It can be hard as heck to hover only inches from the ground, but you must only take this small step. This step is important as it starts the process of you getting used to your new AXE.
6) the tail Rotor is NOT going to spin up until you reach a certain RPM on the AXE. This will be about 1/3 of throttle - don't let this confuse you.
7) try to avoid any tempatations to "adjust" anything until you have tried to hover it at least about 10 times. Or maybe even more. You don't want to make a mechanical or electrical adjustment to it when it is something you are doing.
8) Make sure and absolutely sure that you TRIMS on the transmitter are adjusted to "center" at very first.
9) I had to get used to the fact that sometimes the AXE " nose heading" will want to act "snappy" when you are applying power - apply your power slowly.
10) if this is your very first Heli with no Heli experience at all, get used to looking at the Heli with minumum power applied.
11) read those directions very carefully
12) Go get immediately the Great Planes 910maH LiPo and a charger. You will get tired and frustrated getting only 5 to 8 minutes of flying time. The Great Places 910maH battery is a good power to weight ratio and besides it will fit into the space in the AXE.
The reason I adjusted my Gyro is that when I leaned how to hover half way decent, I noticed that when I let go of the Rudder (left Stick) that the AXE would turn to the left and make these slow counterclockwise turn peroletting. In order for it to stop, I had to make a trim adjustment on the Transmitter Left TRIM all the way to the right. Knowing that this is not normal, I continued to learn to hover and then started making adjustments to the Gyro.
Evenutally you will see that no mechanics or electronics is going to be absolutely perfect, that it will need to be adjusted as time goes by.
Good Luck -
Heli Bat