Trim is definately part of it but it sounds like the loose boom is your problem. Remember the only way to get a 2 channel down is to let it come down or if you get in real trouble (like winds blowing it away etc) to cause it to death spiral, so make sure you dont trim it up too much or you'll just porpoise constantly and eventually crash from a stall. it should climb at full throttle and maintain level flight at half, roughly of course. Anyways, get the hang of it then you can pick up an Aerobird, Stryker or a Slo-V and start learning the up and down parts. TO be honest if I had to start over, I would have gone with an Aerobird first...I actually find my Commander the hardest one to fly these days, its scary not having any control over coming down fast in a pinch.

PS-The night flight module is a blast on my SLo-V and where I am the wind calms down at night

Oh, one last tip, if you happen to end up in a tree, make sure there aren't any bee's nests in it before you try and climb it .... ouch [:@].....Anyways after the bees had there way with me I remembered a tip from someone at the LHS, I taped a spool of kite string to a baseball I had in my trunk, threw it over the offending tree limb (away fromt he plane) and used it to shake the limb and free the plane. God if I only thought of that sooner.....