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.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Heli-Max
• AXE-EZ
• Inverted
• RC
• helicopter

[Holthier1]

yo guys that was awesome never thought about inverting the rotors on a coaxial before good idea i'll have to try it

[StormyMaxPerry]

Just to let you know beforehand - if the heli tries to pick up speed in any direction, stop the acceleration ASAP or the blades between the upper and lower heads will contact each other. Comes down really fast after that happens! Maybe I should upload the crash videos... Anyone say "Aye" to that?

[laxkid922]

have you broken anything while landing? it seems that you could break the blades or something because they are pretty fragile. that pretty sick though. how'd you do it?

[StormyMaxPerry]

Landings, as in 'planned contact with the ground', haven't caused damage at all. Soft grass is the key. But having the two sets of rotorblades inter-strike while airborne is disastrous! While inverted, the EZ is negatively stable and wants to pick up forward velocity. The faster she goes, the more the two sets of blades til towards each other. Eventually they make contact and down you go. That's what breaks stuff! Read the "(more info)" section for...more info :D

[RozzieRox]

Very Cool ! Now I'll tell you what would really add a lot to this. Let Max or Perry ride the Helicopter!

[StormyMaxPerry]

Ah, no. Fun idea initially but whirling blades (of any size) and birds need to be far, far away from each other. The though of what could happen literally sickens me...

[baroud13]

Aye

[knifeedge63]

aye

[eamonnteh]

Aye

[NightFlyyer]

Cool. I have 2 friends of mine who did this to their CX2's they all have the same problem....Landing. LOL. When I tried flying theirs, I had my friend catch it by the landing skids as I hovered upside down. He leaned waaaay over too.. ha ha.

Great job. 5 stars.