Official Freewing Twin 80mm EDF A-10 Thunderbolt II Super Scale V2 Thread

[Aros]

Aros! Looks awesome!! Really well done!
How did you do the rivets?

Thank you! I simply used permanent ink pens (fine point) in black and metallic silver. Just light dots along the panel lines and a lot of patience.

[e4dragongunner]

Aros! Looks awesome!! Really well done!
How did you do the rivets?

[f4u ausie]

Only 1. And only 1. Person. U me or anyone else needs to please is yourself..... And if U can please hugh along the way all the better 🙏. Cause he is the guru

[Aros]

She’s finished. Man a lot of labor goes into these repaints that we do. I am pleased with the results overall. From a distance she looks amazing. Inches away, well….

As long as Hugh Wiedman thinks it looks
good then I know all the hours of labor was worth it.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Ah yes, I am reminded of the beautiful job you did on yours! Would be a ball to fly ours together someday.

Your cockpit looks fantastic!

Well now I will be curious to see if her decal set still comes with the one backwards decal. Doh!!

Rivets are finally done. Whew!! Just waiting on the decals and then slapping on a couple coats of polyurethane and she’s ready for the flight line.

Definitely a Master Piece in the making!! :trophy: Those rivets are awesome!

[TwistedGrin]

05-17-2025 Maiden plus (5) flights today. Flying via SMC 6s 90c 5900mAh LiHv 4.35v fully charged batteries, no armament packages mounted at 50-60% throttle tracking active throttle time only gave me 7:38min duration with full taxi and two touch-n-go's landing at or near 3.85v per cell.

Holy freakin smokes what a sweet EDF. It's the SMC LiHv 90c 5900mAh batteries....and the aircraft flies excellent....lands super easy on grass field.

Highly recommend this bird and the SMC LiHv batteries

I did notice the aircraft took awhile to rotate...perhaps because I was still in 90% power during roll out....later flights "I Think" backing off the throttle just a tick gave me a "better" rotation. GSWAM is a grass field.....no issues with taxi, take off, landing, steering. The power plant is very strong.

Photo from Tuesday 05-13-25

TwistedGrin

[Aros]

Aros you must do the A10 in the Arctic, yours was the inspiration for me to do mine in the Arctic. Tremendous visibility and a crowd favorite. Install the Dirty Dee cockpit if you can and a Jet Hangar Hobby Full Body Pilot fits nicely.

When Callie sent my graphics, one side of the Arctic Thunder on the Alaska state was backwards, a mirror image. Took me a while to figure it out and she missed it as well. It was my Cuban born Mother-in-law who caught it first. And she barely speaks english. Must've been on her citizenship exam 🤣 cause I probably wouldn't pass. Assume Callie's corrected it.

Can you tell which is correct? (worth 10 MRC points):



Below is my A10, next to a 1/5 scale A10 Jolly Rodgers twin turbine. I easily kept up with him and of course mine is far superior. :lying_face:

Ah yes, I am reminded of the beautiful job you did on yours! Would be a ball to fly ours together someday.

Your cockpit looks fantastic!

Well now I will be curious to see if her decal set still comes with the one backwards decal. Doh!!

Rivets are finally done. Whew!! Just waiting on the decals and then slapping on a couple coats of polyurethane and she’s ready for the flight line.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Been working on converting mine to the Arctic Camo livery like I did for my V1. I forgot what a royal pain in the rear it is to do! It's coming along...

Aros you must do the A10 in the Arctic, yours was the inspiration for me to do mine in the Arctic. Tremendous visibility and a crowd favorite. Install the Dirty Dee cockpit if you can and a Jet Hangar Hobby Full Body Pilot fits nicely.

When Callie sent my graphics, one side of the Arctic Thunder on the Alaska state was backwards, a mirror image. Took me a while to figure it out and she missed it as well. It was my Cuban born Mother-in-law who caught it first. And she barely speaks english. Must've been on her citizenship exam 🤣 cause I probably wouldn't pass. Assume Callie's corrected it.

Can you tell which is correct? (worth 10 MRC points):



Below is my A10, next to a 1/5 scale A10 Jolly Rodgers twin turbine. I easily kept up with him and of course mine is far superior. :lying_face:

[Aros]

Thanks!

[e4dragongunner]

Well done sir!

[Aros]

Been working on converting mine to the Arctic Camo livery like I did for my V1. I forgot what a royal pain in the rear it is to do! It's coming along...

[GliderGuy]

I’m going to disconnect the steering servo from getting any gyro inputs and connect it directly lto the nose steering port on the control board. I will report the results of this experiment.

Sunrise flying the SR-71 in the morning (calm forecast), so maybe I’ll have time to change the A-10 set-up tomorrow afternoon.

-GG

Update: Very light sunrise wind. Flew SR-71 for 5 flights. FUN! Will take A-10 out this evening for more FUN!

[Alphonso]

Ah thanks for that clarification Viper, I'll stick with Assan then

[xviper]

I have completed my maiden plus one more flight. This A-10 flies better than the V1 and with much more power. I'll still need a couple more flights to fine tune the rates and expo to make the plane fly more smoothly.
As for the steering gyro, I feel it is not as sophisticated as the Assan stand alone. One big detriment is that it works even when the gear is up. The Assan (and others) turns off the gyro AND rudder stick inputs when gear is retracted. I prefer this over the steering servo working away all the time. What Hugh said holds true. So far, the steering gyro in the stock set up works perfectly for holding a straight line on the ground. Should it "glitch" as with GG after many flights, I will install the Assan. I also discovered that "auto level" on the stock gyro does NOT appear to work even though I turned it ON (or so I thought, at least according to the indicator light). I'm using a Lemon 10-ch stabilized RX with its gyro NOT activated. Should the stock gyro also present with issues, it's easy enough to remove it and activate the Lemon gyro. I find the Lemon gain numbers to make more sense to me.

[Alphonso]

The nose wheel gyro returns to center one or two seconds after responding to a correction with no other control input. I think that is long enough to turn final without rudder and touch down.
this is the case with an Assan nose gyro. If the Spek doesn't do that then that is not ideal.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thanks XViper. You just saved me a lot of unnecessary poking around.

I will probably bypass the nose/gyro connection and connect the nose steering servo directly to the control board nose steering slot. The left jig or any jig on landing is an issue. I have not felt the need for steering gyros on any of my EDF planes, anyway.

You are gonna LOVE this V2 bird! Factory default gyro settings are OK! She flies rock solid.

-GG

Not all steering gyros are the same. Not sure about the one in the new A-10, but with the Spektrum AS3X Plus gyros and independent nose steering, it becomes active when gear down, then responds to left/right off rudder. So if you make the final turn using aileron only, the nose steering believes the aircraft has veered left (assuming a counterclockwise pattern) and will correct in air to the right. If you done some of that turn with the rudder, when you line up with rudder on the landing strip, the nose wheel will be straight. Most people don't use much rudder when turning which leaves the nose wheel on a gyro not straight. On the other had, the stand alone Arduino steering gyro doesn't have that issue if you don't use rudder to turn as the nose wheel follows the direction of the rudder alone.

I do like the steering gyros but you need to realize what it is doing and why otherwise bad things can happen. :face_with_symbols_o

[GliderGuy]

Thanks XViper. You just saved me a lot of unnecessary poking around.

I will probably bypass the nose/gyro connection and connect the nose steering servo directly to the control board nose steering slot. The left jig or any jig on landing is an issue. I have not felt the need for steering gyros on any of my EDF planes, anyway.

You are gonna LOVE this V2 bird! Factory default gyro settings are OK! She flies rock solid.

-GG

[xviper]

Or…bypass the gyro and connect the nose servo to the control board. I’ve never used a steering gyro on any plane, so bypassing won’t create issues for me.

Or…I have the gyro programmer and can take a look at the settings. But looking for what? Adjust to what?

Thanks!

-GG

I've always "wondered" about integrated steering gyros that come with Freewing planes. The one on my B2 eventually worked, once I learned NOT to ram the rudder stick around excessively to make it go down the runway straight - a slow and steady course correction worked best. I haven't maidened my A-10 yet so I won't know till I do. I a sense, you have used a steering gyro on a plane, just not a "conventional" one. You might consider the Assan. I have several of these in my planes and they all work really well. I have a new Assan ready to go into the A-10 if I see a need for it.

I also have the programmer and after checking all the parameters, I can't see where the steering gyro settings are. Perhaps it is integrated into the gain for the rudder. I know the gains for all the control surfaces are very high, yet the resultant compensatory movement of the surfaces are quite small in comparison to other types of gyros like the HobbyEagle and Lemon stabilized RXs. I supposed you could try to turn UP the gain on the rudder a bit at a time to see if it affects the steering side of the equation. Rudder gain, in general, is the highest of the 3 control surfaces, except in the case of this A-10, where at least on mine, it's the AIL gain that is the highest (@100 - as with Spektrum, the numbers don't necessarily translate into % or anything I am aware of). I don't know why, but since you say the plane flies well as is, it must be OK. I've also applied "self level" to one of the switch positions to see how effective that is.

[GliderGuy]

Ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?
- Taxi is straight…no turning
- Take-off is straight
- Flight is straight and level
- Stock set-up with nose steering done by the gyro
- Not pilot induced…tried some “thumbs off stick” landings to eliminate the pilot

She sometimes is landing with the nose wheel set for a slight left turn. Upon touchdown, she wants to go left (a little)…enough that I must immediately correct or she angles toward the runway edge.

Interesting that after the initial left jig and if I don’t correct…she will then roll straight. Straight towards the runway edge, that is. Also, after the initial left jig, she will roll straight after correcting, too.

I tried bumping (not holding) a touch of right rudder before touch down…that seemed to work. But, this can send her off runway heading before landing. Also, I tried making both left and right patterns. No difference. Was thinking the gyro might be taking a “set”.

I’m about to adjust in a permanent right turn into the nose wheel steering adjustment because that’s easier to deal with on take-off than a sudden left jig when the nose wheel touches upon landing. A few times, the jig has been enough to cause the right wing to dip down. It’s also gonna create excessive scrub wear on the nose tire.

Or…bypass the gyro and connect the nose servo to the control board. I’ve never used a steering gyro on any plane, so bypassing won’t create issues for me.

Or…I have the gyro programmer and can take a look at the settings. But looking for what? Adjust to what?

Thanks!

-GG

[Aros]

As Alphonso noted in his post above…the A-10 with flaps, and in spite of its weight, should be floated in on approach.

Reviewing the video posted by Aros…Try slowing her down an LOT. Otherwise, you will find yourself flying again after touchdown. Reduce power to zero on final and establish a steady glide with a little up elevator application.

If you get too slow, she will let you know (sink rate increases) and you can burp the throttle.

-GG

Agreed. Being the maiden I always tend to side towards extra speed on landings until I have a few flights under my belt. I remember doing the same with the V1 and after a handful of flights the landings were slow greasers every time. This model is really a joy.