Mini Heli Blog

Well, I think I’m Done with the Axe CP

I know I didn’t have too many posts on this blog about the Axe CP, and it looks like I won’t be saying much more about it at this point. I think the Axe CP was a really good helicopter to learn hovering in all orientations and forward flight and flying circuits. It was cheap enough to get into the hobby, and now has me hooked. The problem is that it’s just so small and fragile, and the replacement parts are too expensive.

A couple of weeks ago I had a pretty bad crash, losing orientation about 25 feet up and coming down on the rotor head. $50 worth of parts ordered from Tower Hobbies later, and I still had some pretty bad wobble, and as I was making adjustments, I broke a ball off of the swash plate and kinda decided that was enough (having just installed that swash plate). If it had a metal head, I’d have more interest, but setting up the metal head on the Axe CPv3 is gonna be a few hundred dollars and that’s just kinda nuts.

So it looks like I’m going to focus all of my attention and flying on the T-Rex 450. It’s the helicopter that I probably should have bought in the first place, but the initial investment is so steep, that I didn’t want to spend that much money if I ended up bored with it. It’s also nice that I didn’t have all of those crashes that I did with the Axe on the T-Rex, so it’s still in nice shape (although I’m sure that’ll change once I start trying 3D on it).

Axe CPv3 Using a Blade CP Rear Tail Rotor

The new Axe CPv3 has a direct-drive tail rotor that replaced it’s earlier version which was setup with a larger rotor that was gear driven in the CP. While this change definitely looks cooler and more scale, the direct drive rotor seems to break if you just look at it wrong. I’ve had it break in the air for no apparent reason resulting in a crash, I’ve had it just come off all-together on a hard landing (that didn’t hit the rotor), and if you do scrape it or touch it while it’s moving at all it’s a goner for sure. The other problem with this setup is that the non-geared motor gets really hot and I’ve already burned one out. These motors are $27.99 at my local hobby shop, more than the main motor!

So I decided to switch to the tail setup on the original Axe CP (which is the same as the Blade CP, Hummingbird FP, Sabre FP and most other micro helis) and so far it’s been great. I bought the CF boom for the Axe CP which came with most of the hardware for the conversion, and I used the gear, tail motor and bearings from an old Sabre FP I had laying around. Finally for strength, I bought the CF rotor for the Blade CP. Tail authority is just as strong if not stronger, piros seem faster and the few times that i’ve scraped the tail on the ground, it’s only knicked the CF tail, or brought it out of the gear, instead of snapping at the same point like all of the other CPv3 tails I went through. I’m also using the motor out of the Sabre, which is a $7 replacement part opposed to the near $30 Axe motor.

I also keep hearing that Helimax is coming out with a torque tube gear driven tail conversion for Axe CP, which I would definitely be interested in. It’s been on Tower Hobbies website for a while but each month the expected arrival date gets pushed back to the following month, so who knows if it will ever show up.

Differences Between Axe CP and CPv3 Tail Motor

The tail motor in the Axe CPv3 is ungeared and runs at a very high RPM, because of this, I’ve already burned out two motors at a very pricey $24.99 a piece. I’m sure these cost Helimax $2 each, but they overcharge for all of their replacement parts. They hook you in with an affordable helicopter and then get you when you need to replace parts. This is one reason why I’m looking forward to moving up to the T-Rex 450, because replacement parts cost about half as much.

Anyway, the last time I burned out a CPv3 motor in my Axe, my local hobby shop didn’t have the replacement motor for the CPv3, but did have the CP version with a brass gear on the end. They assured me it was the same motor, but when I got home, popped off the gear and put on the prop, I realized the shaft was much shorter than the original motor. The prop still fit on, but I’ve lost two props now, on a hard landing where the prop pops off and slams into the ground, breaking. I don’t think there’s any way i could further secure the prop, so it looks like I’m just going to have to replace the motor again when I get around to it. Anyway, Make sure if you replace the tail motor to wait for the correct one.