Hey Guys,
The Walkera 36 gear fits on the AXE as well, the gear I'm using right now is the 3D gear for the T-Rex 450 or Walkera 36. It's low & sturdy gear, went thru several sets of the stock struts & one set of T-rex struts, before finding the low-profile 3D gear @ Heliproz.
Here's some comparasion photos stock AXE CP struts & gear next to mounted 3D gear.

Shadow

Looks like your tail fin touches the ground.

Here's the HDX450 skid on the Axe:

Nope, tail blades have plenty of clearance. I'm using a longer vertical tail fin, that keeps the tail blades from contacting the ground and they are independent blades, so if they to contact the ground they fold in (BDT).

Shadow

It looks like yours is modified for a belt drive, not stock.
Maybe it's the camera angle, but it still looks like the tail fin touches the ground (floor).

There's about 3/16" of clearance between the tail blades & the ground, and yes it's a Belt-Driven Tail. Yeah, the camera angle isn't all that great, I'll take an outdoor pic & post that later.

Shadow

I think I see what's happening here. I'm talking about the CF tail fin touching the floor, not the tail rotor.
That belt drive is a good looking mod.

Yup, you figured it out Gary, the CF tail fin "IS" my tail support, keeping the blades off the ground (most of the time, sinks-in softer materials:snow, mud, grass, etc). That's the tail modification kit from Don @ Freestyle-Hobbies, has work perfectly since installed, 3 months ago.

Rick

Hi all,

Been lurking around this forum and mainly this thread for the past few weeks. First post.

I picked up an Axe CP-L about 2 weeks ago from Tower. This is my first hobby-grade heli. I also picked up the G4 Simulator and have been using it quite a bit to try to aide in cost avoidance

Anyways, I think Im ready to maiden my Axe... So tonight, I took it outside to a nice grassy field. I was pretty nervous at first, but then I thought to myself, the worst crash will only cost me $200

No crash tonight, but not because I am a great pilot or anything... For some reason, my Axe wont get off the ground, even at full throttle. I dont yet own a pitch gauge, but Im thinking I need one.

I was checking it out at home after the failed flight, so I disconnected to the main motor leads and gave it throttle to check the pitch on the main rotor. I notice that the pitch does not change all that much from no throttle to full. When I am at full throttle, it appears I am getting pretty much a zero-pitch. At no throttle, I seem to have what I think is negative pitch. That is, the leading edge of the rotor blades are pointing down, trailing edge up. Im not sure if this is right or not, but I would think I would need positive pitch thru the throttle up to produce lift. Is this correct?

One other question I have for you guys... Should the swash plate be parallel with the top of the main frame when at no throttle? Mine appears to be in such a way that the front of the swash is lower towards the nose of the heli, and the rear is higher.

Can anyone shed some light for me?

Always appreciated!
Greg

So, it has never been flown? It came from Tower like this? First, with idle up off, and throttle all the way down, make sure the servo arms are parallel to the swashplate. If this checks out, call Tower - they will probably send you another one.

Thats correct. Never been off the ground, and all I have done was put the training gear together and put it on. Disappointing.

What about the servo arms and swash - are they like I described. Have you called HeliMax? They seem real anxious to work with folks.

Ok, sorry if this sounds dumb, but more than one person has made this mistake on here. Make sure your blades are on the right way. With the heli on the table facing away from you with the blades to the left and right, make sure the blade on the right has the thickest part of the blade towards the rear and the thinnest towards the front. The blade to your left should be the opposite. (Thinnest towards the rear).

Now, when you add throttle with motor disconnected, it should pull the blade grips down which pull the trailing edge of the blades down adding positive blade pitch. At zero throttle, you should have zero pitch, and at full throttle you should have about 5 degrees (a guess) of blade pitch in the normal mode (not idle up).

Before you go fly again, level the swashplate and adjust the servo push rods. As Mmatheny said, the servos should be level at zero throttle or pretty close. You can take the screw out in the servo arm and rotate it, but it should be close from the factory. Then, to set the blade pitch to zero and to level the swash, you will have to remove the rods from the swashplate ball links and either screw them up or down on the threaded rod. Its time consuming, but necessary to get it as close to level as possible. Sounds like you will have to screw most of your DOWN, some more than others. Do all this with the trims on the right stick centered.

Thank you guys! I think my pitch problems may be solved! I havent flown it yet, but the servo on the right side, when looking from the tail, was about 3 notches too high. I took the servo arm off, turned the radio on, then plugged in the battery (motor leads off). Re-centered the servo arm. Now, at full throttle, I definitely have positive pitch, and at no throttle, zero pitch. Moving the servo arm seems to have levelled the swash as well.

I think im going to take it outside and spin it up and see what happens. I will let you know.

Thanks again for the detailed info, I really appreciate it!

Greg

Wow! What a difference those 3 clicks on the servo made! It gets off the ground now at about half throttle, maybe less. Makes the nice air sound as well, so I know its right. My flying space today is much too small, so I only got it a few inches off the ground a bunch of times and had to keep stopping and resetting, but it was a rush! I cant wait to take this thing out to a good flying spot to start practicing. I did get to trim it out a bit, so that was nice.

Once again, thank you so much for this simple fix. I was getting pretty frustrated yesterday, and this makes it all worth it. Wish ya'll were here, beers on me

Greg

First flight is pretty cool-huh Greg? I almost flipped when I first had one off the ground.You'll get allot better at flying and diagnosing problems as you go.Enjoy!
Mike

Congrats Greg on your maiden flight!

Just for future reference, any pitch changes are made at the SERVOS & LINKAGES on the AXE CP using the stock radio. The further down the swashplate travels, the MORE pitch you get. After disassembling my head one day, I spent several hours tuning the AXE CP so the mix was smooth in NORMAL MODE, I moved my swash up so at zero throttle I had -2 degrees pitch and about +8 at full throttle, that allowed the headspeed to come up alittle higher (better stability), before take-off.

Blade tracking is another common issue, I have found it easiest to use 2 different colors of tape on the blades, so you can follow which blade is running high. The IDEA is to lower the high blade, undo the linkage at the trailing edge of the blade & turn it 1/2 turn out, reattach it to the blade grip & recheck the tracking.
Uneven tracking blades can cause vibration, collective & cyclic control issues, and is often overlooked.

Shadow

greygoose - It was awesome. For the whole 3-4 seconds at a time I had it off the ground, it was a good feeling. Im sure I was smiling ear to ear.

Shadow99 - Great information. I need to check the tracking before the next flight just to make sure. Dont want something stupid like that to aide me in my first crash... although it would be nice to have something to blame other than myself [8D]

Looking forward to my addiction to this forum and new Axe!

Cheers
Greg

Well mine crashed on the 3rd flight. Lots of parts. I think it is a real keeper. I swapped the servo's out for HS-55's. I think the stock one stripped in air and brought the helicopter down. It was hovering so great too. Stable, just almost sitting there. Had it trimmed real well. I think this is a great little bird. I will be flying it lots more. If you break it, they will make more parts.


Dru.

Greg - make sure you have something holding the heli down while tracking the blades.

I suffered a huge emotional blow a couple days ago: I broke my blade grips. Why's that significant? Those are the first parts I've broken EVER in 4 months with this heli Total repair costs from the time I bought it to now: $2.99. Of course, it actually did me a favor. My tracking was off, and no matter how I adjusted it it wouldn't meet my standards. Then I had a collision with a water bottle I was trying to knock over, wrestled with my broken blade grips for 2 hours, got them off, put on my new ones, spun up and........ Perfect, dead-on, exact tracking! Also, I've got some nice heli weather here in MN (30 degrees Farenheit and totally windless) so I've been flying quite a bit, learning some new stuff (piros, normal-mode 90-degree stops, etc.). Now for a bit of advice: Fly with a 14C 3S 1200 mAh li-po and the heli will have (relative to stock) TONS more power, flight time, and maneuverability.

But it's not all good.

I managed to break off my Idle-up switch, so I opened the Tx, removed the broken parts, and wrapped and taped the switch leads together. It works, but now I have no idle-up. Does any know where a new switch can be obtained? Oh, and please don't suggest sending it away to be repaired. I don't want to waste any flight time

Problem here... Im 6 days new to the rc heli deal and as you probably know ive cleaned out the local hobbie store shelves... But ive come across a new problem im about 4min. into a pretty good hover when i loose all control of the tail rotor. I cant adjust left/right bias on e-board to compensate for the problem. The rotor still reacts to the controler but cant get it to stop spinning counter clockwise. Help Pleeeeease

and since ive bought it, the servo's have been pulsing when i throtle up. 1 ft. above ground in a steady hover and it will jolt towards ground and slam the skids, this happens every couple seconds, give or take. is this normal or do i have a larger problem at hand?

Funny you mention that, something similar happened to me last time I flew (that's not normal). I was in a different building for the first time. I'm thinking it could be caused by some interference from the building's metal framework/HVAC- I'll look into the effects of being inside a Faraday cage. I'll let you know if I have the same trouble when I go back to my other spot.

Are you inside a building? Has your radio gear functioned properly up to now? Problems there could cause your tail rotor trouble. Are there any loose receiver plugs?

Are your Tx batts fresh? Are you flying near power lines or metal poles, rails, or girders? Actually, any metal for that matter... Check for a broken antenna in the heli, loose plugs, and make sure your tail motor solder joints are tight and strong. Also, as a last resort, try replacing your tail motor. Try screwing in your Tx antenna. It may be loose. Ahh, so many possibilities..... Glitches have caused my Walkera DF#4 to go full-throttle and hit the ceiling twice (fortunately indoors both times and no damage) and once flipped the same heli completely upside-down[X(]

Man, that's annoying. I just broke my new blade grips and my hobby store ins't open til monday[&o] That's a total of $6 in repairs since I got this heli, which really ain't too bad... I suppose all my parts costs got covered with my DF#4...Something like $750 total in 3 years of flying on that heli[X(]