[Paparazzi-devel] Update on my X8 with Paparazzi

[Chris]

Hi.
First i wish to all of you reading this a happy new year and health to 
you and your whole family.
Yesterday i had a perfect field day (at last i would say) testing my X8.
The plane took off from a ramp with bungee set at 30 kg flew straight up 
with authority
and motor off, went to photograph a near by stadium and returned safely 
to earth by parachute
at 2.5 m/s.
Te AP is now trimmed right and it works fine.
For this flight i used a Hyperion ZS4020 775Kv motor with a carbon 13x8 
propeller
(similar to Graupner's 13x8), consumption at WOT was 76A static  and 67A 
in flight,
cruising current @ 50km/h was about (i didn't got that right as i was 
busy checking the AP so it is an estimation) ~7A (110W) and the battery 
used was a 4S 15Ah lipo.
AUW was 4.9 Kg.
Now that the take off part is easy i can experiment with higher pitch 
propellers more suitable for
cruising at high altitude efficiently.
Does anyone have a flight plan example of how to use the catapult module?
I was afraid to use it as i don't know how to implement it in the flight 
plan for sure.
If i can achieve auto take off also then the airlane is a true UAV.
I am now in the process of building a real catapult 3m long and my 
options are
either a winch attached to the catapult and some pulleys or bungee 
rubber and pulleys.
Chris