ORIGINAL: alienteabagger
Ahem... This is just what I was referring to in my previous post.
IF you are eyeballing a TRex, go ahead and by the gyro and radio first. You can use all that gear in the Axe no problem. Then once you are staisfied that you can fly the Axe and not have any bad crashes, the go ahead and get the TRex. If you still have crash bad with the Axe you are going to crash worse with the TRex. It is a bigger more powerful machine and when the blades hit something they dont stop right away which in turn will demolish the head and all that energy gets transferred into the mainshaft and tail rotor drive train which may also buckle under all that force.
Do you see where I am going with all this?
Now if you have the cash then go for it. I have always said that money is a great motivator and thats why I hated crashing my Axe becuase it meant more money out of my pocket. That made me NOT crash (at least smash it into the ground, pet, house, furniture, or innocent bystander). I got the TRex not just becuase I had the cash for it, but the price I was given was incredibly cheap so I jumped on it and sold my Axe to recoup the $$$. I haven't crashed the TRex yet but I know eventually I will, everybody crashes. Right now Im working on building up a cash reserve for when the time comes that I crash the TRex and have to go out money spening.
I just got back from a weekend camping on the beach in Pismo, CA. It was a needed break after getting so frustrated with my Heli on Friday night. I was able to look at things from a different perspective and not be as emotional about things. Over the weekend I decided to see how much it was going to cost to fix the Axe and then decide if it was even worth fixing.
Alien- Thanks for the advice, and the Spektrum DX6 I am planning on getting will work with my Axe, but the Futaba Gy401 will not. So, I am just going to continue to fly using the stock electronics until I am ready to move on to a bigger heli. I have not crased my Axe in over a month and the only part I have broken is a tail rotor from coming down and landing too hard. The $$$ that I spending on my Axe is by no means breaking me, it is just frustrating me.[:@] I have 4 other RC trucks and know how much it costs to keep things in working order especially when you play hard. I just feel that some of the replacement parts for the Axe are grossly overpriced for such an inexpensive entry heli.
Anyway, I was going to send off my orginal 3-in-1 to Hobby Services. I spoke to someone on the phone today they stated that they would warranty it out. I went down to my LHS and they had a Axe CP there that was returned due to a bad receiver. Since it was going back to HeliMax they let me swap out my defective 3-in-1 for the functioning one and my Axe is now back in the air. While there I priced out a couple of TRex options from an SA to the SE and new SE V2. The best deal was for a 450SA combo with the brushless motor and ESC for $220. However, I would still need over $500 worths of radio, gyro, battery, and servos to get it flying. The SE V2 that I was really looking for is on backorder until late July. So that is definitely a no go right now. So, I am going to wait on any TRex for a while and continue to fly the Axe for now. I still need to perfect my figure 8's and get my circles down a little better before moving up.
Thanks for all the help and suggestions!