FT Explorer Build with APM 2.8 and Ardupilot

I have been working on an ft explorer with an APM 2.8 in it. Here are a few specs on the plane.

Motor: SunnySky X2216 1250KV
prop: 9x4.7 slow fly
ESC: 35amp Hobbyking
RX: FrSky L9R
flight controller: APM 2.8 running arduplane 3.3
GPS: NEO-M8N
battery: 3s 2200 or 4s 3000

I took it out this last week and flew on a 3s 2200 and it flew great. I had a 3 selector switch for Manual, FBWA, and RTL. I flew manually first flight and it flew great! It was definitely heavy and it cruised at around 3/4 throttle. Second flight I got it high and tried FBWA and it just wanted to track straight and cut throttle to about half no matter what I did with the transmitter. I flipped back to manual really quick and was too scared to try RTL. My laptop is around 6 years old now, so I couldn't pull anything from that as to what was the issue. Any tips?

third flight I threw a FPV setup in the front of it and loved cruising around in it. I even let some people try out flying fpv with it. First guy did great, second guy put it in a tree! We recovered it, but I need to build a new wing since it bent the wing about 15 degrees and took a big chunk out of the aileron. I am now in the situation where I'm trying to decide if I rebuild this plane, build a new skyhunter style plane, or a new versa wing. Any thoughts?


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Rebuilt the explorer, fixed the gps problem, and got a quick video of the explorer loitering! Need to get some sma to rp-sma converter for my helical and it should be able to go farther. Also need a 12v regulator for the fpv feed so I can run my bigger 4s packs! 15 minutes of flight time no problem right now, but want to be able to push 25-30.