HOW TO: Inverted Heli-Max AXE-EZ Coaxial R/C Helicopter

This is something I’ve been wanting to try for a long time: Fly a trainer coaxial heli inverted. It’s really very simple to do, place the rotor blades from the upper rotor head on the lower head (after flipping them over first) and do the same for the lower blades on the upper head.

Three things are now a problem…

1: Landings are potentially damaging unless the heli is plucked out of the air while hovering (NOT RECOMMENDED!). Flopping it down on soft grass seems to work OK though.

2: The throttle is “wrong” as compared to the throttle of a normal collective pitch heli (can be tough to unlearn). Raising the throttle stick causes the heli to climb. That’s not what I’m used to and why I made the audible comment, “I can’t fly this, it’s all wrong.” Had to think too much about the throttle direction and that delayed my reactions for the other control functions.

3: While inverted the AXE isn’t as speed stable as right-side-up. By that I mean, its flight speed can “snowball” or run away with itself. If it’s allowed to fly too fast, the rotor blades WILL intertangle and you get an instant crash. Trust me on this! This very thing happened on the flight just before and just after this one. That last flight resulted in broken parts.

Thanks go to E.D. StCyr for shooting the video and pushing me to try the modification.