RE: Anyone else having Boomerang kit probs.
Just a bit of history for you guys who have been in the jet hobby for less than 5years.
Alan Cardash did offer a kit that would satisfy all you guys that are p**sing about the BXL....it was the original Boomerang, an all balsa built-up model,that required a skilled balsa kit builder to assemble straight, much like a Carden 40% Extra. Lots of balsa bits and less than ideal instructions. I still have mine. It was at least a 100hr build job, then glass it and paint it......another 50 hrs. It had fixed gear and was bigger than the XL by about 10%, just big enough not to fit into my Town and Country MiniVan with booms on. It was initially introduced to USA at FJ in Bunnell, FL, I think it was 2003 with a then unknown but up and coming hot stick from the U.K. name of Ali Machinchy........everyone took notice.
But everyone complained it was too hard to build, so sales were slow. So that's when Alan went to the purpose-built BXL. My buddy and I got 2 of the first BXL that were container shipped to USA. That was somewhere late 04 or early 05. We both are still flying ours, mine with an old Rhino and the other with a P-120 originally. With 8-10 hour workdays, a BXL can be box-opened on Friday and flown on Sunday.
Ours were built stock, with original hardware and cyano hinges......zero problems on all the Boomer line built locally, at least 8-10 of them, IF and only IF installed correctly.
From the start, it became obvious that the BXL could use a little touching up with Hysol here and there and of course, you must seal the leading edges and gear wells with tape. I use Flite Metal, but any strong tape will work. As ours is a grass field, we always beef up the gear blocks with some 3mm C/F plate...
All told, my kit with an old P-120 followed by a Rhino later, set me back less than $3500 complete and has provided about 250 uneventful flights. My buddy, between an Elan and BXL has more than 600 flights without any major structural problem. Little cracks here and there, but I have those on my $15,000 BVM F-100. I did recover the center section with Ultracote a couple of years ago. No real need to glass and paint IMO. With temp changes, break out the heat iron with a sock on it and tighten the wing and stab covering in about 20 minutes.
So in today's world of unemployment, loss of home equity cash cow, and overall tightening of the belt, all of Cardash's line makes sense to me, even though I am a BVM freak thru and thru with an almost complete collection of his models. The BXL is for relaxed flying and training turbine newbies...and it fits in my Town and Country Minivan with booms and stab on and wing tubes in place(I did have to shorten the main spar about 3/4")........5 minutes to assemble at the field...
Props to Alan and Patricia, and Ali for his test and demo flying of all the Boomers