The only time I had the AXE CP not running all the time is when the Flybar are not properly adjusted. Make sure your blades are balanced and spins fairly smoothly... Hope this helps.

CAUTION DUMMY ALERT BELOW
Ok, This will be my first post here as I have just been a reader till now. But I feel the need to warn other unsuspecting folks out there so they don't make the same mistake. Now most folks I am sure are smarter than this and what I write will not pertain to you guys. But in my efforts to fix another one of those <$5 parts I have probably costed myself almost $100 bucks. Anyway the other day when I went to lift off I noticed that my heli just wanted to tail spin everytime it left the ground, even though I checked the tail rotor seemed to be working. But upon closer examination while it was turning some, it was slipping more due to a broken tail motor mount. Probaly caused by that sudden stop after one of those many falls (you know my sim just doesn't fall that fast). So I Thought to myself no big deal easy fix. Got the mount, removed the old one soldered on the new one, and slipped the tail rotor back into the boom. Grabbed the WRONG screw, put it in and it fit like a champ. Tightened everything up, slapped the throttle to it and nothing happened hummm wait its smoking but its not nitro this isn't good. Then I noticed that the smoke was coming from 3 in 1 E-Board. Ouch was the first thought that went through my head, the second was, how in the heck could I have crossed those wires on the motor. Then my buddy said even if you crossed those wires it shouldn't have smoke it, you would think it should have just went in reverse. Made sense so what happened? Well I traced back my steps and it hit me about the screw, oh no so I removed it and sure enough, the longer screw had went through the center of the wires (How lucky could I be) and grounded them out, which in turn grounded out the Eboard, and even worse officially grounded my Heli. Just remember be careful and make sure you put the right screw back there or you will buy yourself another e-board. By the way that wasn't the first mistake I made, that would have be when I flipped that little switch that says idle up by mistake while holding on to the heli. Yep, you guys know what I am talking about, its like grabbing an outta control firehose, its whipping your butt, but you no better than to let go of it. LOL

I decided to buy myself an axe cp for christmas
This is my first heli. Today I took it out for my first flight! The wind made it interesting... lol
I had already installed some little weights on the end of the fly bar to help with stability, and moved the linkages on the servo horns one hole in. These two things really seemed to help, before I made the modifications I played around with the heli some and it seemed super sensitive. Now with the linkages moved and the weights it was fairly easy to make small adjustments and keep the heli composed. I was able to have a few decent hovers, and when the wind blew I corrected and got some forward flight in.
I did end up breaking a blade grip, I had it about 6 feet up and was flying it around, I was fighting the wind some then I flew next to a house which shielded it from the wind, so I ended up dropping it on its side in the grass.
lol... I know I need to slow down and take it easy for awhile, next battery pack (once I get a calm day ) will be just working on holding solid hover

Welcome to the world of whirlly birds potatoe_bird. And Kudos on your successful maiden flight.. I am envious[:'(]

Good news, Bad news...

The bad first, includes crash damage. My wife works in a grade school so I have access to the gym sometimes. Well during Christmas break the gym floor was being washed and waxed so I had to fly in one of the other large common rooms in the school. After spooling up I went for a mild hover. After 3 months I still have yet to master the hover, however I have become one of the best micro heli mechanics, LOL. Anyway the heli jumped up into the air about 6 feet, getting close to the ceiling now and drifting way to close to the wall, so I gently lower the throttle and hope I can recover, then all of a sudden she slams into the floor.[:@] Less than 30 seconds into my first battery. Everything stock except flat bottom trainer blades.

Damage report...
1 blade grip minus ball
1 blade grip in 3 pieces on other side of room
"S" bend in tail boom
Broken tail rotor mount (surprised tail rotor blade did not break)
See saw minus 1 ball link
1 very bruised ego

All in all the damage was minimal compared to the extent of the crash.
I had an extra head already built and balanced, a knitting needle precut and fitted with tail assembly.after I got home the repairs took less than an hour.

The good news. After checking the heli from stem to stern for any other crash damage, I decided to make sure tracking and pitch was in good form. Now the new head was setup almost identical to the previous one. I noticed that at zero throttle normal mode and 50% throttle on idle up mode, I had (eyeballed) about 5 degrees of negative pitch.[X(] No wonder she slammed into the ground and I've struggled to hover. Pitch gauge ordered.

Back at the school today... I hovered and hopped and slide through 3 stock batteries and 2 lipos. Ego repaired and hover is getting better.

More good news. I picked up a GY240 on Ebay for a song(cant sing a note for real). Ordered a 7CHP same channel as heli. Also I was reading in another forum, a couple of people were building Bell Hiller heads for the Axe, so I ordered the parts for the mod. Then while mindlessly cruising TH website I came across a factory upgrade for the Bell Hiller head. WooHoo. I am stoked. The factory upgrade wont be available till February, so in the mean time I am going to make the homemade one work. One other mod, I bought the CNC fly bar system from Microheli. I am going to wait on the center hub till a CNC Bell Hiller hub is available. [sm=shades_smile.gif]

rofl, thanks
I need to get a friggin calm day and get the trim set up spot on. I was able to keep the tail where I wanted it most of the times, but sometimes it just did its own thing, probably pilot error lol. Also, I read that flying close to the ground can be difficult, but geez I had all kinds of issues keeping it steady a foot off the ground. It bobbed up and down and wondered a little.
My blades got some of the covering scraped off on the ground, would this be something to worry about as far as balance? I have spare blades I can put on. I noticed my blades seemed to wobble some but idk why. I will take it down to the LHS soon and have him look it over for me I guess.

This little bugger is going to be fun when I finally get stationed at a base! USAF

A little CA glue on the blade covering will help to keep it from creating aero drag. As far as balancing the blades, even tho the manufacture says they are pre balanced, I still run mine through the procedure. Also you might want to check that the fly bar paddles are equidistant from the head ant that they are level / inline with the fly bar carrier. Sometimes a wobble can be created from one of the paddles being off center. Dayum, these little toys sure can be a PITA. and talk about finicky, Morris the cat aint got nothing on my axe LOL.

The LHS is a good idea. If the people are friendly they will check out your bird and help get you all trimmed up. Also a good source for spare parts

There's alot of good people and great info on this thread. I highly recommend reading from the beginning. I am a little over halfway reading through another Axe thread in a different forum.. over 7000 posts to catch up on... Waiting for another flight day

Yeah, I will swap to my new blades and see if it continues.
I already have several blade grip spares, the spare blades and a spindle. I think I should pick up a spare rear blade, tailboom, flybar links, flybar paddles, tail rotor gear and mabey another stock lipo battery.
You think the LHS would have the little nuts that go on the blade grips to help secure the blades? I seem to have misplaced them... A screw set would probably be smart to get aswell.
I want to build up plenty of spares, if (well when haha) I crash I can just bring it inside and fix it right away.

The NUTS that fit the blades are M2, Du-Bro makes packages of METRIC hardware available at most LHS, check the R/C CAR areas. As far as your blades, I would recommend PLASTIC blades, they are almost NUKE-PROOF. I use the ones from Helidirect, HDX plastic trainer blades (flat bottomed #VTS-109W), symetrical blades also available for about 12 bucks!
Don't buy the stock tail boom! Go to WALMART & buy 8mm by 14" knitting needles (they have the same purple color), 2 needles for 4 bucks, smoke'en deal! Cut the tapered tip off, cut the head off, deburr ends, drill or ream one end to 7mm (.2755"), cross drill hole for tail-motor mount & your done, other than installing the wires to the tailmotor & mounting it.
The knitting needles are twice as tough as the OEM ones, blade strikes leave scratches, and it doesn't affect the balance!

Shadow

2mm nuts for the blade grips. I think mine came without. I have since acquired a supply of them. Along with an assortment of other parts. LOL its not a matter of if but a matter of when. A good pre-flight check can minimize the expense. I had to learn the hard way as witness by my most recent impact with the ground. Pilot error? I blame the ground crew. HAHAHA

These are them?
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXE052&P=7

I may have to try the needle tailboom thing, the stock one is stupid weak

Good information Shadow99. I am a firm believer in the knitting needle tail boom, but not that awful purple color. Thankfully there are more color choices.
potatoe_bird
There are some that prefer the carbon fiber tail boom. If you have a local archery shop you may be able to pick up some scrap cut or broken arrows. Just be sure they are 8mm.

The plastic blades are a real good investment also. I prefer the flat bottom, as I have no aspirations of doing any 3D yet. Still working on 1D.

Stock tail rotor blade sucks also, very brittle and breaks if you look at it wrong. Go with BladeCP tail rotor blade. It fits and the blade root is thicker. Also the BladeCP fly bar paddles work and have a bolt to hold them in place.

Remember to apply LOCK-TITE to the bolts that hold the blades on, blade-grips to the feathering spindle, etc.
I use Tamiya Liquid Thread Lock, cause it doesn't attack the plastics & it holds bolts within the plastic itself. There's NOTHING worse than spending a couple hours repairing your AXE, only to have it FLY APART, due to loose screws.[:@]

Shadow

Salutations to all,

New to this Forum, new to this site, and new to the addiction. I bought one of those Havoc micro 2-ch helis a couple of weeks ago and had such a blast with it I had to get a larger one (bitten by the bug here). Well I started to do some research and found a couple contra rotating blade copters that looked like fun(and in retro spec easier to fly), but than one day while surfing I found the Axe CP and I was sold(though tempted by the HoneyBee King2). Well I bought one two days ago assembled it watched the DVD then took it out side, I did not even get it off the ground. The next day I met up with a coworker who had been flying for ten years and he gave me the confidence to get it off the ground (*******). Last night I decided to go for a buzz and was doing fine (tail in) when it bounced about seven feet, I thought I would be fine until it started to drift into a neighbors car, in a panic I slammed the throttle and came down hard on the left side. Right now I a waiting for a new swash plate, center hub, and fly bar link.

well, had my first bad crash
Took out the swashplate, spindle, both blade grips, the plastic piece the flybar goes through, blades, rear blade and somehow the tail motor.
damn, thats alot of crap! haha
Already got most of the replacements, the LHS will get the rest in tommorrow. Probably would have been a little cheaper at towerhobbies but o well, Im all for supporting the LHS [8D]

Yeah, but you have to pay shipping from Tower!

Can someone take a couple measurements for me? I'd like to know the height of the landing gear and the distance between the 2 mounting holes. Prefer mm, but inches is OK.

Thanks.

What do you want to do??

Hi Mike. I think I've found the answer by a reply you made in another thread. The stock landing gear is about, but not more than 42mm tall, and the space between the mounting holes is 42mm.

What I need now is someone that has a digital camera, a decent looking Axe CP (not all patched up ) , can take a couple pictures of pretty good quality (doesn't have to be professional, just decent), and who would like a free (open sample) set of SuperSkids400 Landing Gear in trade for the pictures. Before we can say for sure that SuperSkids400 will fit, we have to know that our unique design won't interfere with the canopy or other parts of the heli. http://super-skids.com/superskids400.htm

If you, or anyone else is interested, let me know in this thread and we'll finish the transaction by PM or email.

Thanks.

Ok Gary, you've piqued my interest. I can shoot macro photos in high res with my camera. As far as I can tell from the web site that you posted, I dont think there will be any issues with the canopy or any other conflict of space.

the measurements you were asking for;
mounting bolts centerline to centerline: 40mm
height from ground to top of skid support: 43mm

hope this helps.


potatoe_bird, sorry to hear about your impending flight. But, you do have the right attitude. I know you'll get discouraged at times, but believe me the rewards of a successful flight are well worth the agony

That helps, but raises a couple other questions. Are you measuring the landing gear mounting space width on the landing gear or the frame? In one of his posts, Mike said the Align landing gear bolts onto the Axe frame. Align uses 42mm spacing. I can't find a good closeup pic of the Axe frame, so I don't know if the mounting holes are actually holes, or slots. If the frame uses slots (or very large holes), then either 40 or 42mm might fit.
It doens't really matter, I suppose, as the SuperSkids400 have holes drilled at 38mm (for other 400 size helis) and 42mm (for T-rex), and you can use a 42mm hole on one side and 38 on the other to give you 40mm.

Just out of curiousity, could you double check the measurement?
Are you interested in my offer?

Gary, the stock landing gear supports do measure 40 mm CL to CL. The AXE frame is in two pieces and does not have a fastener at that point, it uses the landing gear support as the fastener, so Mike is correct in that the Align gear would bolt on. There would be a 2mm gap at that point on the frame, no big deal.

Yes I am interested in your offer. As a matter of fact, some carefully angled photos would describe what I meant in the previous paragraph.

Here is a closeup of the tail end of the frame where the landing gear supports attach.

OK. A picture is worth 1000 words.

Please PM me with your name and mailing address, line by line so I can copy/paste. I'll try to get them out tomorrow is I have time. Otherwise Monday. And thanks.

I said the HDX450 landing gear will bolt right on - the HDX aluminum and steel landing gear actually has 2 holes on each side drilled right next to each other (actually touching each other), and and the HDX bolts right on.

Thanks for the info about the 2 holes, Mike. It's much easier to understand the fit now.