bought this heli a couple of weeks ago.
Was not able to tame it down in any fashion. It is all over the place....cannot even get it to hover without it going crazy.
My buddy, an experienced heli flyer was baffled also, and could not trim out the heli to make it flyable.
I flew his trex and man was that easy to fly.
He also offered to sell me his titan tt350. I flew that one also and again had no problems hovering at all.

I bought this cpv3 and spent a lot of money fixing it and upgrading like getting a HH gyro...but this thing is very unstable.
For anyone that is interested in starting out with a axe cpv3...i would recommend against it.
Go for a TREX or the thunder tiger.

Send it to helimax. How did it fly before u put a hh on it? Mine flies great. I love it. You have to have the head speed mach 2 and it flies awesome. I always fly with idle up on. I also moved the control arms in one hole and I have 2 flybar weights on the flybar. Mine flies hands off in the hover. Handles 12-15 mile an hour winds great. I was kinda pissed in the begining because mine was hard to fly. The trick to that thing is a fast head speed. Don't give up yet. Ill send you my old kalt 30 for it if you want. Just needs a radio rec. Has jr servos and a jr gyro. Old school but flies good.

flew my heli today flies great had know problem with hover.Much nicer to fly then the blade 400.

I almost gave up on my Axe CP for a year. I recently took her out and ordered some parts to fix her and hopefully she'll be back in the air soon.

I don't know how accomplished your buddy is and i'm not putting him down here.

I would classify myself and in Intermediate pilot, tic-tocs, flips, inverted flying and hovering.
I've spent a lot of time learning to be good at setup, you can't be a good flyer if you are not good at setup.

So I bought my little boy the Axe CP v3 and right out of the box it was flying pretty good.

After a few fun training sessions with him I decided to dial the heli in a little more.
I increased the gyro gain, leveled the swash plate.
I was very impressed how solid this thing was after a putting a little bit of my know how into it.

I can say that the on board gyro is not all that great. When you punch the collective you can see the tail kick to the side.
This wouldn't make for a good 3D heli because of the poor gyro, but I've now purchased the mini ESC so that I can put GY-401 gyro on it. That should be a fun project.

If your heli is way out of control, something is wrong with the setup, this little bird is the most stable bird in it's class.
Try the Blade CP and you'll see how out of control a heli in this class can be.

Agree. I'm now in this learning phase.
Received the parts today. Hopefully can work on it tomorrow.

i have that same heli not that easy to fly . if i was you i would get a SIMULATOR practice practice . to fly a axe cpv3 with no heli time on a sim you will crash . sounds to me like your heli is out of wack. good luck and dont quit

I fixed the bird and tried to set it up the day before yesterday. It was windy here in Germantown, MD. The heli lifted up and slowly drifted (banked) left. Trimmed it but got little response. The battery ran out just for only trimming. The second pack ran out after some power ups/ "light on skid's."
I think I have to find an experience pilot to help me with setting. Funny thing is I also got a HBK2 even before really trying the Axe CP.
Yes, I'm shopping for a sim right now. I narrow down Realflight G3.5 and FS One (Hangar 9). Hopefully will get one next week.

Do the helicopter servos respond accurately and quickly to the transmitter? Mine was very hard to control. Turned out that the for/aft cyclic trim/control lever on the transmitter was slow to respond and eventually stopped working completely. The front servo moved very slowly. (The servo worked ok on another channel) A new receiver appeared to fix it, but the problem came back again. Eventually Helimax did replace the transmitter. The next flight was great. However, as soon as I touched the tail rotor trim, the tail motor lost control. The new transmitter had the same problem as the original transmitter only on a different channel. Switching between the two transmitters, I can get each function of the helicopter to work properly. I just can't get all functions to work with only one transmitter. At that point, Helimax didn't want to believe they sent a defective transmitter. Emails went unanswered. I gave up on getting a response form them. That's why my Axe CP now has an Airtronics radio in it. (It still needs tuning to fly well) Outside of replacement parts, I do not plan to buy another helicopter from Helimax. P.S. I always liked Airtronics radios for aircraft but I understand the Axe receiver matches Futaba. The 3 in 1 would not arm for the Airtronics. Therefore, I wound up replacing it with two separate ESC's and a gyro.

Hi Emfanone,

It looks like my radio stuffs (including the servos) are working fine. I unplugged the main motor and test all the control. They response well. I flew gas fixed wing before and I am fairly familiar with the radio. I have no experience with the gyro and little experience with the ESC though. However, I can say that the electronics work fine. I think helos are precision machines which means they must be trimmed precisely to fly well and this is where I have zero knowledge and experience. So I need to find someone with knowledge and experience to help me.

My suggestion is finding someone to help you to check the whole thing. I have the impression that there is a combination of problems with your Axe's electronics, not only the TX alone. If this is the case, then you need to talk to Helimax and send the bird to them to fix or exchange. It doesn't make sense to spend more money for the electronics unless I need to improve the Axe's performance. And I would invest into a higher class helo rather than upgrading the Axe.

Don't give up bro. It's your money and it's your right.

Happy New Year and Happy Flying!

I bought recently an AXE CPV3 and only used twice and broke blades, i replaced with carbon fiber ones and flew and it worked, then I have charged the battery twice and I cant get the main blades to start up? only tail works, I have the throttle in down position and still nothing, I have unplugged and restarted 50 times at least. any help would be great.

anyone want to buy mine?

Make sure the throttle trim is all the way down and try again.

I recently bought an Axe cpv3. I have no experience with rc at all. My brother in-law tried to talk me out of buying it as a starter. but after flying (or trying) his and of course crashing a few times, I was hooked. I bought the heli and a collection of parts. I figured if I ended up spending $2oo in parts learning to fly I would break even, ( I was going to buy a simulator).
So I have a collection of broken parts, mostly blade grips, but no where near the $200 mark. So I feel victorious.
Mine seemed like yours, was all over the place but one day I was able to fly about 10 or 12 batteries worth of time and that got me past initial jitters and can now hover nicely .....but
I put on a 401 gyro and esc but I cannot get the gyro to quit with the flashing light...book says no tail input from receiver. All seems to be hooked up correctly. Had my brother in-law help me switch it over with the connections and he is a rc junky..he's got stuff from 25 years ago. Any way, I have to lean on the left stick and provide constant right rudder. i can fly it fine but a pain and not how it is supposed to work. Adjusted 1 by 1 the settings and could never get any change in the turning. So finally took it off and back to stock and low and behold I have the same issue, tail wants to go to the right. Tried trimming but full trim same exact issue...went thru all the settings in the 3in1 and no change. A little frustrating so how does a guy know if the 3in1 is actually working or the gyro for that matter? Does the gy401 even work with the stock radio? It seems the directions talk about several settings that are not on my radio..
It flies the same with the gyro hooked up or not now....

So any idea's on the 401 and the stock 6 channel Futuba that comes with the Cpv3.

The stock radio is only 5 channel. So I don't know how the 401 acts without the gain (sensitivity) cable plugged in. Thus I never tried the 401 on my Axe but did install the 240 and replaced both ESCs about 9 mos. ago.

Having said that, with the Axe, if the TAIL is drifting to the right then the tail motor is not spinning fast enough.
This could be an ESC problem but you said you have the same problem with the stock 3 in 1 and with your newly added external Gyro/ESC.

Most likely it is the tail motor failing. It will also be sluggish in flight but you may not be able to tell that yet due to your limited stick time. If you see excessive sparks or arcing inside the motor at the brushes that is it for sure.

This [short] motor life issue has been a complaint for as long as the Axe has been around. It is especially aggrivating given the cost of replacements.

yes it is only 5 channel. I guess I have been looking at a 6 channel and will probably need to step up. The stock on is ok but probably not when newby status wears off. The tail issue started after I installed the 401 but remained after putting it back to stock. So this is after only running thru maybe 15 or 20 batteries. I replaced the tail motor with a new one and broke it in, does the same. In all the adjustments I have not seen any of them change much of anything.

No sparks or arcing and it really doesn't seem sluggish. If I crank the stick over it will spin the heli very quickly. I can hold it very still in a hover but it is a constant lean on the right rudder and probably anything more than a hover will be....undisirable.

Does Tower have qualified people to talk with? I was asking a lady about a battery that said it was a substitution for the battery that comes with the Axe. Straight from the parts list of the Axe. So she tells me it is a bigger battery and will not work with the Axe. So I say, why is it listed with the Axe parts and she says because it is a substitution for the battery that is listed in the parts list. And again I replied why is it listed in the parts list for the Axe....I got no where and still do not know if that 1150 battery will work other than sticking out a bit further.


Hey, thanks for the input. It would seem that most usable info for a newby will be reading posts. I appreciate your info

I also thought about giving up on my AXE CP V3 after three crashes and rebuilds. First crash was due to TH crash and dent sale purchase (do not this with heli!), as it suddenly flipped on me. The autopsy found a flat washer installed where a sleeve washer should be used by prior owner. Second crash was due to a damaged tail motor that was replaced for free from Horizon Hobbies (big thank you). Third was my lost in wind with heli farther away then I should let it go now.

It hovered nicely for three flights today! Keep trying (and spending $$$) and you will get it, along with much time on GP Real Flight simulation.

I got Realflight G3.5 a week ago. In this sim, among everything, the Axe is the worst thing to start with [&:]. I can do nice hovers with almost all other choppers, but not the Axe. I think I made a mistake to buy the Axe as the first beginner heli. However, I do not plan to give up. I work on the sim for a while first...

If you can do the ugly girl, you can do any gurl...