Straylight

This is my bread board layout for testing the flight control of the Boomerang.  The board shows roughly where the components will be mounted, with the autopilot at the approx CofG.  The first problem I found was that I did not order any male-male servo leads to connect the autopilot to the Rx.  I had to wait 3 weeks for them to come from Diydrones.  Then I found that the NiHi battery in my Multiplex Cockpit SX transmitter would not hold its charge, so I had to order a replacement from Modelsport in the UK.

With the transmitter working, I first connected the rx directly to the two servos and the ESC.  Then setup a new model on the tx with the following:

• Name: BOOMER
• Memory Number: 0
• Model Type: EASY
• Stick Mode: 2 (Left = Rudder & Throttle, Right = Alieron & Elevator, Slider = Spolier
• Throttle Idle: 0 (Back stick)
• Throttle Check: 1 (Active)

At this point, I did nothing with the Servo or Control Settings.  However as the Boomerang is a flying wing, I set Mixing for DELTA configuration with 100% mixing in the stick up position and -100% in the stick down position. This uses Ch1 on the left elevator, Ch2 on the left and Ch4 for the throttle.

On testing, this all seemed to work with the Motor running up to full speed on the throttle and the elevator servos working as expected – both up or down on the Elevator stick and opposite sides up and down on the Aileron stick.

I finally decided that it would be wise to learn how to fly an RC plane first, before risking my camera, autopilot and telemetry in the Boomerang.  This is the trainer, an Albatross from CrashTestHobby  This an EPP foam plane that, according to the blurb, is ideal for learning as it is self stabilizing.   Take your hands off the control sticks and it should just return toi straight and level flight.  There is also a very impressive video of it surviving a fairly serious looking crash.

Once you get the hang of it, working with the EPP foam is quite easy.  The whole plane is solid foam, so you have to cut out slots and holes in the foam to mount the components such as battery and receiver.  I bought all the parts from Hobbyking   No problem really, except that it took about 5 weeks to come from China and get through Italian customs – that was probably the longest delay.  Only one gotcha so far – the battery has a different charging plug to that on my Multiplex charger, so I have sent off for an adapter lead to a company in the UK.  Hope it arrives soon as without it, I cannot charge the battery and try the plane