Ok, I've checked it over good and nothing seems out of whack. So I finally got my training blades put on and adjusted for tightness. Put the [stock] battery in and started up the Axe. Something is definitely wrong here; very little power. I need some help troubleshooting...

Q1: Stock battery; will it discharge over time even if not used, and if so, do I need to keep it plugged into charger during long periods in hangar? Could I have overdischarged it at some point and damaged it?

Q2: Tail rotor; if I turn it with my finger it feels very notchy, not smooth at all. Almost as if the gear teeth are too big for the blade gear or the motor itself is not turning smoothly. Is that normal? Everything feels tight in the tail, i.e. motor mount screws tight. And tail spins up but I think it may sound different; not sure.

Q3: Throttle; When I start to throttle up, the blades start turning, but not like they used to, and just past mid-stick power drops off. I've noticed a degradation in power at the top end of the stick from day one as the battery got weaker, but now it's almost like turning off a switch; once I start going past dead center with the throttle stick, power just drops off and everything pretty much stops. If I back the stick back down to bottom and then start up again the blades start turning but then stop after center stick.

Q4: E-board POTs; really need help here. I'm 99% sure I have the middle one back at factory position but not sure about the bottom one. Before I stupidly started messing with them, the middle one was at about 12:30. Turning it counter-clockwise I could only go to about 10:00 before it stopped, so I'm pretty certain I have that one where it was. Unfortunately, the bottom one is where I'm unsure. I know it was originally just a hair beyond the middle one, like the 1:00 position, but I don't know what the relative counter-clockwise dead stop position was. I don't think it was as close as 10:00 so perhaps that POT was closer to its mid range? Does anyone know where these POTs should be from factory? Would having these POTs off have anything to do with my power problem?

Q5: Head: shakes pretty good upon start-up. Used to do that when the blades first started spinning but would level off and track nicely by half-stick. Now doesn't seem to be enough power to come out of it, or is there something else going on here? Like I said, nothing looks bent or out of whack and my last crash didn't appear that severe.

Appreciate any help.

Thanks.