Just bought the Axe and looking for any tips on setting it up for first time flight. Any suggestions or simple mods welcome, thanks

I find that setting up the swashplate to slightly tilted foward and slightly tilted to the right gives the best lift off and hovering (Lots of tweaking in this department)
Get lipos 1320's any brand. Get up in the air a bit say waist high then you don't have to deal with the rotor wash (seems like I broke alot more tring to skate the ground) A new pilot will find that the slightest wind will make this heli go crazy be ready to counteract or land.

First balancing the rotorhead and blades will go a long way toward making flying easier.

Installing 1/16 wheel collars help by slowing the cyclic response making the heli a little easier to control.

Another easy mod would be to take the heatsink off the main motor and notch it so the side vents of the motor are exposed. This allows the motor to run cooler and last longer.

Great tips, thanks guys

hi...the biggest thing is make sure your swashplate is set at specs,,,,it flys best........and make sure your s. o.g. is close....its set up good from the shop but check your swashplate,,,its the onlt thing i could notice.....

Some of the information might be more general n00bie information, heck I'm still a n00b as it is.. but anyway...

If you ever need to adjust the zero pitch (neutral for the sake of relation to engagement of thrust for lift) of the blades, before flight or after repair:

Disconnect one of the main rotor motor power leads, and disconect the Tail Rotor's Ultra Deans connector, power up your radio, and then plug in the battery to the Axe. With the throttle already down, flip the 'Idle up' switch up and down, the pitch will change, and then attempt to zero. At Zero pitch the main rotor blades (and the flybar paddles for that matter) should be on a parallel plane/level to the ground. (You'll notice that the main blades can rotate counter and clock-wise, but they do that in tandem). After you idle up and down, rotate the blades so one of them is level with the ground/table, and look from the tip of that blade down through it at the other blade. If either of the blades need pitch adjustment, it should be reasonably obvious. Adjust the blade grip linkages in and out by twisting them 180 degrees at a time until both blades seem reasonably level.

Check the tracking of the blades at this point; if you haven't already marked your blades, now would be a good time.

Controversial Mod:

Besides leveling the swashplate, I had read previously that another first time flyer had brought his servo linkages in about two holes closer to the center. This reduces overall arm throw and essentially makes the copter less sensitive to twitchy input and overzealous response from the Tx. The problem lies in the knowledge that you are removing the 90 degree specification of the server arm to linkage setup.

I have done this to my Axe CP with no known harm to either the servos, or the bird itself. It flies fine. For a beginner it seems like a fine thing to do. You'll need to widen out the holes in the servo arm to accept the linkages farther in, and may have to adjust the lengths of the linkages to brig the swash back to level (which then declares the pitch of the main blades). From my review it adds about a milimeter of linkage length. If you do this mod you WILL need to go through the aforementioned pitch adjustment, but believe me, the first time you crash your Heli good, you'll likely need to know the above process anyway after repair.

Good luck!

im new to this heli thing too. ive had my axe since mar 16th. im already flying waste high with a little caution off course. yes i broke more parts hopping around the floor than being 4 feet up out of the downwash. I have ample parts in my personal stock now in case of a crash. ive crashed 3 times now and learned my lesson. the only things ive done to my bird are as follows:

1). bcp paddles
2). 1/16th wheel collars at the paddles.
3). carbon fibre arrow shaft for tail boom $6.00 at archery shop.
4). bcp tail blades and rotor gear
5). cut heat sink to expose cooling holes on motor.
6). hs-55 servos
7). tweaked tr trim pot (holds good all tx trims centered.)
8). bought 3 extra stock batterys and a charger.
9). extra replacement stock tail motor (free).
10). factory spindle u/g with hex head screws (hmxe7814).
11). cut rounded tips off main blades straight across (better gyroscopic stability) i find anyways...works for me..more head speed no vibration at half throttle and less mass in rotation.

You know this heli wasnt designed in my opinion to go all out and mod it to the max. the little mods ive done and added as suggested online work for me and i dont find any other reason to go further with it. my next heli will be the prize purchase for me. this is a begginner heli and should remain as such. its plastic for gods sake and cost $200 what more do you want. i like it and fly everyday and its just darn good fun if your not after tearing up the sky and want to fly a heli circuits and have some scale flying. works for me thus far. just my opinion. i dont understand this facination with more power and speed on a plastic heli. i dont get it. more chance to really demo it big time and have to buy another kit cause the old one is unfixable etc. just me.

The axe is a very good heli to learn all the things you've described, douglas4, but it doesn't offer a lot of control. The common curse of the motor-driven tail helis is that they don't provide control over the tail the way that the pitch-controlled, driven tail birds do, and control of the orientation of the heli is critical to aerobatics. I have a very finely tuned Blade CP Pro that I enjoy flying around, but it can't compare to either my MX450XS or my King v2; when I do a stationary flip with the King, if the tail flips out it's because of a problem, but with the Blade, it's just because that is how it flies. Fly the blade around for FF and upright maneuvers, then when you're ready to do aerobatics, get a helicopter that does them well. The tail-motor helis don't.

I've done several mods to my Axe CP, more in the interest of learning how it works and building my knowledge for a future helicopter than anything else. The best "mod", as many have stated, is lipo batteries. They're lighter, smaller, and last much longer. If you really want to fly this thing, you have to have them. The second best mod was the addition of a GY240 gyro. The 3-in-1 board that comes with the Axe is very basic and will cause you to spend a lot of time correcting the tail. Once I had the gyro in, I went ahead and went all "separates" by installing an ESC for the main motor and removing the 3-in-1. I have the hs55 servos but I have not installed them.

You might want to consider the carbon tail boom--the aluminum piece will bend on a hard landing. douglas4's suggestion of a carbon arrow shaft is great. I bought the Helimax piece. You should also keep several spare parts on hand, notably rotor blades and blade grips.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, you can save yourself a lot of grief and expense by investing in the RealFlight simulator. It sounds like a lot of money, but piling into the ground in the sim time after time will make you feel much better about the purchase.

The best mod for the Axe or any heli for that matter is practice.
Anybody can plop down hundreds maybe thousands of dollars on a heli and still be the worse pilot ever!!

I have seen videos of Axe CPs doing aerobatics and for that matter I have seen numerous motorized tail helis doing all the same things that the pitch controlled tails do. Motorized tails may not have the same snap or quickness as a pitch controlled tail but they can and do all the same things.

Want proof?? Do a search on youtube for electric helicopters and I beleive on this forum there are videos from a flying competition featuring many motorized tail helis (micro and minis).

I have not dedicated much time on a sim yet. I fly my AxeCP in a very tight area (about 6 x 6 with furniture on 3 sides) and believe me it is not easy with so little room for error and the rotorwash bouncing off the furniture and making the heli jump and drift in random directions. But I can fly it in that small area! Every day I get little better at keeping it in one place under those conditions. The few times I have been able to go to a large indoor area, I have hovered to near perfection. Have I crashed my heli? Yup, Plenty of times. Have I had to spend money on parts? Yup. But my motivation is the money, crash less therefore spend less. Sims are great but nothing like the real thing. Do you think those guys who drive racecars spend time on a sim between races? NO! They get in a REAL car and drive it around on REAL tracks.

Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, even pros do it.

[/rant]

The only thing I've done to mine was to open up the vent holes in the main motor heat sink so the fan inside could get some air, and to upgrade to ThunderPower 1320 Li-po's. It flies better than I can for now, so no sense in replacing parts until it runs low on performance.

Practice and have a plan. Radd's school of flight is helpful.

About the vent holes in the motors, I vaguely remember reading about someone doing this to their tail motor as well. Can you give me a link or possibly some quick steps for creating these vent holes in my main and tail motors?

Pic is worth a thousand words...

Ah, that does help a lot. I'll investigate further when I get home. Thank you!

I would suggest going to a local sporting goods store and buying ping-pong balls to put on the end of the training gear in stead of those Styrofoam balls. The Styrofoam gets sanded down when you practice on driveways and gets sticks to the driveway easier. With the ping-pong balls it is smoother and helped me when I started to learn how to hover.

TO MCFLURRY:

Well i must agree with all the above posts. Ive had my axe since march 16th and im already hovering in one spot and sometimes i wander around a little bit. but for the most part i can keep a steady hover. I can tell you this it does take alot of concentration to hover and even fly this thing. i practice everyday after work and all day on the weekends in between charges of course. unless im out but when im home im back at it again. i love this heli thing should have done this years ago. grrrrrr...! oh well never too late. um correction on my last post $6.00 for one tail boom. I bought 4 for $5.00 from the local archery shop and the guy even cut them to length for me right there. i keep buying parts everyday payday so i have ample stock in case of a you know what *crash*. oops did i say that out loud. anyway long story short mcflurry you wont regret buying the axe cp. i havnt yet and if you worried about crashing "oh well" part and parcel of becoming a heli pilot in the beginning stages. i thought i wouldnt crash ya was i a dummy. ive had 3 and every one was a learning lesson on what not to do the next time. oh well i though back to the table replace the broken bits and go back at er. ok im ok now. by by.

Extreme Noob here..... exactly how does one "level the swashplate" ?

TOsprey21

To level the swash plate means to make sure all you servo links are 90 degrees to the servo horns. the swash should be level all around. if its tilted to far in one direction when you spool up and get some air the heli will go in the direction of the tilt. but not all axe cp's have level swash plates to fly from what ive read. mine has a slight right tilt and slight forward tilt and she hovers steady in one spot. when i say slight i mean every so slight. barely noticable to the naked eye. my trims are just 2 clicks either way. nature of the beast i guess. i like my axe cp so much im thinking about buying another one and maybe putting a scale body on it. but there doesnt seem to be anything out there really that would fit the frame from what ive seen. hmm..?

I bought my Axe CP about a month ago and from day one it’s been bad, but getting better. I love it. Before I even got off the ground the tail motor filter cap leads were bent together (shorted) and fried the tail drive of the ESC and the tail motor. It spun around and around and around then crashed. I ordered a new esc and tail motor from tower and also a new set of main and tail blades. Emailed HeliMax about it and they sent me a new tail motor and ESC. WOW. So far I like the company.

Got it back together and found that the servo links were all out of adj. The swash was tilted forward and left when all set at 90 deg. It wanted to pull forward and to the left. Got that reset and it is starting to hover. Still all over the place, left, right, forward, backwards. Put on a set of carbon fiber blades for the Venom Night Ranger 3D, very nice. Had to sand them down a bit to fit but what a diff they make. VERY SMOOOOOOOOTH.

My last crash took out the main rotor gear, tail boom, tail rotor axle, main blade grips and main rotor shaft. Just got it back together today and went through 4 bat packs before a micro burst (a little wind) pulled it into my grill on my deck. But I can hold it in a hover for 10 to 15 sec at a time now. It was great. It took out the feathering shaft and a blade grip and my new set of carbon fiber blades L.

I’ve gone through my fair share of parts but I’m HOOKED. Love it. The Axe is great. It will take time to learn how to fly it but I’m getting there. It’s nice to see the new lower prices on some of replacement parts too. Great to find this place so we can learn from each other. It’s been a big help for me.

While waiting on new parts to get here I did the HH mod from Heli-Max using an E-Flite G-90 gyro and a T-5 ESC. Have to wait for new parts to get here before I can try it out but on the bench it comes on when I try to turn the Axe by hand. Still using the OEM batt’s but LiPo’s will be the next step. This must be how a drugy feels. Got to get my fix. I’m high on heli’s.

Take care all.

douglas4, thanks for the tail boom tip. I was/am into archery - even have an archery set - and it didn't even occur to me to use an arrow shaft. I'm gonna have to use that. I actually do have the Axe and have had it for a couple of months. To prove it, I've crashed it three times and have put nearly $100 on top of my original purchase...haha. But yes, I agree, I love this little bugger and am also have a lot of fun. Aside from the occasional drift, my hover sessions are progressing well.

Oh, and did I read that right? You've started helicopter flying lessons? I have an airport 30 minutes away that offers private pilot license courses and I'm actually considering this myself (in spite of the $12K price tag [sm=omg_smile.gif]).

wasnt me starting heli flying lessons. i thought about that when i was in my 20's. $46,000 then now its like $69,000. i cant afford that. um but i did crash my heli this weekend due to radio interference. the heli did the floppy chicken and dem'od itself. i have most of the parts to get back in the air but im missing the main gear...main shaft...and rotor baldes and centre hub..... and they were out of stock on them. grrr. im still gorunded till they come in stock.