Joe, I started the same way. I impulse-bought the Axe and learned right away. Started with the scooting and sliding and moved onto hopping. I then read about moving the servo links and that helped me tremendously (moving the servo links is the other option you have to the flybar weights). I did that for two weeks, I think, and got it into a hover. I moved the servo links back to default and it's been great ever since. I've only recently started looked into buying a simulator because I'm exploring non-tail-in flight and want to minimize repair costs.

So, you may want to consider either the servo links tweak or the flybar weights and if you haven't, take it above 2 feet and out of the rotor wash to make it a bit more stable. Other than that, fight the good fight!