Discussions

Flew my SkySurfer/Bixler today for the first time with the ArduPlane.  I've been flying the plane for the past few months when i had time/weather at the local AMA field with an instructor learning to fly (don't really like crashing/breaking things :P), Finally started flying solo a few weeks ago and got around to testing the arduplane today.  I have one of the DIYDrones Store's Bixler chassis (pan/tilt cam mount on the way!) and its pretty nice for keeping all electronics (Mounted battery under the wing to maintain CG with the extra nose weight).

Only tested out Stabilize and FBW_A modes, which worked perfectly even in the strong headwind.   A couple of the older guys at my club were actually impressed with my landing in a strong choppy wind with the bixler as it tends to get tossed around, FBW_A mode made landing nice and easy :P  Though i'd like to see how FBW_B handles in terms of glide slopes on landings in the future.

Camera is on the way, and when thats in i'll be testing full auto missions, and RTL.  For now I'll continue playing with Stab and FBW modes as they're fun as hell :P.  
Stuff I'm using:
Bixler/Sky Surfer v1 (same plane different name)

DiyDrones Electronic chassis for the Bixler

Turnigy 9x radio with ER9x firmware and 6 position switch from ebay

APM 2.24, xbee900, magnetometer and differential pressure sensor attached

2200mAh 3cell lipo

Havent tested how long i can fly (i lost my Attopilot voltage/current sensor and have another on the way so i can measure while flying and get good accurate flight time estimations)

Also i had to slightly tune the 6pos switch.  The one thats in the blogposts and on ebay for the Turnigy9x radio works perfect, problem is the values are tuned to a stock turnigy9x radio.  ER9x firmware "calibrates" sticks and pots, so when calibrating the 6pos switch it didn't end up with the required values.  To compensate I simply changed the endpoints for the output channel, and mixed the pot to a curve that i tweaked while watching values in the mission planner, works great now :)
Suggestion to anyone using it though, Always nice to have a CutOff of sorts, rather than try to turn the knob all the way back to manual, I have a switch set to fix Mode channel output to Manual when flipped (and the knob when the switch is off).  can never have too many failsafes :)