Hey JC,

I feel your pain. I have learned a couple of things regarding the axe cp...it helps you learn how to wrench the helis you get good with this one you will be good with any. As hobbyist we generally have as much fun building and tweaking as we do using...or maybe its just me...With the AXE CP the name of the game is tweaking...following are a few things i have learned tweaking and playing with mine before it became more useable:

1) The e-board needs to be as vertical as possible. I had bought a second AXE CP from a frustrated owner. When I received it I saw that the e-board and the receiver were laying down instead of being vertical...the gyro in these things are not like the piezo gyros that sense on three axes, it only sense on two axes. There is, as I understand it, an accelerometer that sense the yaw to the left and then one accelerometer for sensing yaw to the right. If it is laying down it would compensate incorrectly because it will be reacting to the up and down...I hope this makes sense.
2) Check the pitch of the main blades. If you don't have a pitch guage or are unsure how to do it, go to your LHS for help. I found this to be one of my initial problems...at one point I set the positive pitch too much. But the Axe should be able to get off the ground, in normal mode(not idle up) at around or just before half way. My nihm, even though I have some esky lipo's now, last me about 6 min of constant flight, and about 10 to 12 with start-hover a little-practice landing softly-and not letting it get too far away.
3) Because it is not a heading hold gyro, and the yaw rate control is not great, you are always going to have to fly the tail a little.
4) Check for good tracking on the main blades. If adjustment is required alternate the blade you are adjusting. If necessary take off both linkages and measure them to the same length to get to a balanced point between each side.
5) The main blades should be snug, not tight. What is important is that both blades feel to have equal resistance in the gripps. too lose will cause the heli to wobble severly when first spooling up or when comming to a stop.
6) All heli's tilt. The lighter ones like the Axe are just more sensitive to it, just give it a little "english" before take off. If you haven't already take a few minutes to review the "flying lessons" info on the following link: http://www.dream-models.com/eco/flying-index.html
7) Ignore the fact that these things are pre-flown at the factory...it does not mean they set them up great. it took me a couple of batteries of tweaking and retweaking the gyro rate and trim, and tracking, and ptich, before I felt like I was no longer fighting the heli but rather fighting my skills, or lack their of.
8)I know that all electronics are not going to be identical, but I set my gyro gain to almost all the way, about 90 to 95%, and my trim to around the 50% of its travel to start. What freaked me out at first about the tail motor is that it did not immediatly spin up like I was expecting, like on a belt or shaft driven tail heli. I later learned that it is normal behavior. The other observation I have is that you will hear the pulsate and you will always have some wag. This is normal behavior for these things. Don't try to get it perfect, you can't that is what heading hold gyros are for. I gauge my trim for the tail by watching if the tail starts spin or react when the the throttle is just before I feel the heli getting light. Another thing that I do is that I disconnect the main motor leades, hold the heli in my hand, increase the throttle 1/4 throw and then I add right rudder to see how long it takes for the the tail to sound like it hits full speed. If it happens almost immediately I give more trim to the left. I repeat this step at 50% throttle and then at 100% throttle. Do this with the tail rotor blades on...but be careful!!! What I thought was cool was that while I was holding the heli with the throttle up, with the tail rotor away from me of course, I would twitch my finger to see how the gyro would react. You will feel and hear it in the tail motor....I get a kick out of it anyway.

Well I hope you and everybody else had the patience to muddle through my post.

Cheers and happy flying...because of the time, practice and patience required to learn helis, you have to want to fly them to get you through the frustration of the extended learning curve.