This is my Axe experience so far.

I have had my Axe for about 6 weeks now and feel like I am progressing rather well. I spent the first 3 weeks learning to hover in all orientations, including nose in, before venturing outside. After moving outside I started crashing often and loosing my orientation due to altitude as well as the occasional wind gust. I am now practicing forward flight by flying 40' circuits across my backyard. I am really focusing on smooth transitions and trying to keep the stopping to a minimum. It is just so frustrating knowing all of the things that I can do in G3.5, inverted hovering/flying, loops, rolls, banked circles, then struggling with basic forward flight on the real thing. So I will just keep practicing! I agree that Helimax parts are overpriced. But what are you going to do? T-Rex parts are very cheap compaired to the Axe. I think you can get a pack of 5 feathering shafts for what Helimax wants for one. However, I priced out a T-Rex450 SE V2 tonight at the LHS and it came in around $900 with tax and the SA model was only about $175 cheaper. For me, the high initial outlay would hurt much worse than the slow milking of a couple of extra bucks here and there. Don't get me wrong I plan on getting a T-Rex as soon as I feel I am ready to move up. But even then, will keep the Axe flying because it was my first heli.