Official Freewing Twin 80mm/90mm A-10 Thunderbolt II Thread

[catvman]

All my Hobby Squawk friends, my 3 month old grandson Noah has been diagnosed with a rare genetic desease which will require a bone marrow transplant. If a doner isn't found or doesn't take, we may lose him. I'm sure he would enjoy our hobby and I showing him how to fly. Not to mention all the great people in this hobby. He has been taken to Boston Children's hospital as my daughter lives in Vermont. I usually wouldn't post here but I believe you are a bunch of great guys. Thanks

I will be praying for Noah.

Ron

[downwindleg]

Thanks for the support guys and that's all I ask. This is my Grandson Noah and I'm sure he'd make a great RC Pilot.

That literally brings a tear to my eye. I have two grandchildren of my own and understand what you are going through. As others have said, we're with you all the way man. Brad

[abeeb]

All my Hobby Squawk friends, my 3 month old grandson Noah has been diagnosed with a rare genetic desease which will require a bone marrow transplant. If a doner isn't found or doesn't take, we may lose him. I'm sure he would enjoy our hobby and I showing him how to fly. Not to mention all the great people in this hobby. He has been taken to Boston Children's hospital as my daughter lives in Vermont. I usually wouldn't post here but I believe you are a bunch of great guys. Thanks

Praying for Noah and those close to him. I have a three month old grandson as well and can only imagine how hard this would be.

[Mike_Then]

I saw that too, but the set came with two Mav's and only one white stripe (as far as I could find on the decal sheet at least).

Did we ever figure out what the white stripe is for?

[T-CAT]

Did we ever figure out what the white stripe is for?

It looks like it's an option for the maverick. One goes with the yellow and red stripe at the nose of the maverick, and the other one with the yellow and white stripe at the nose evidently. Here is two pictures on Motion's website that shows each wing Maverick being different.

[crxmanpat]

Of all the pics I've seen, the combinations are red/yellow for war shots, and blue/white for inert.

[Mike_Then]

Excellent, thank you gentlemen!

[xviper]

Just pulled the pin on this one.
Been watching our dollar this morning and it took a bit of a jump up, so out of principle I ordered this plane. I was originally going to buy the FMS A-10 but the early reports showed some deficiencies that i suspected would immediately show up at my field. Those reviews didn't so much as say anything negative but it was what wasn't said when the subjects came up that spoke volumes. I cancelled my order with the LHS. Then our dollar took a nose dive and I renewed my interest in the FMS until the RC manager at our LHS brought his FMS A-10 for the maiden at our field. When both main retracts fell out on the first landing, I backed off again (along with several others at the field). I figure after reinforcing everything I needed to reinforce and buying the trailing link struts and doing all the work to install them, I may as well go more money and get the one that would really work for me out of the box and be done with it. FMS designs great planes. Freewing/Flightline designs great planes for grass pot holes. :Goodbye: I place high value on that alone. Our field very quickly weeds out the great planes from the really, really terrific planes. My Freewing 70mm Yak 130 very quickly showed how good and trouble free it is when compared to my flying buddy's FMS Yak 130. I have faith (at least hoping) this A-10 will astound me and the guys at all my flying fields who are also considering an A-10.

[gravity tester]

Of all the pics I've seen, the combinations are red/yellow for war shots, and blue/white for inert.

Yep. Yellow is definitely not a place to lean on while you are smoking... :)

For what it is worth: Mil-Std-709 is the bible for color coding stuff that goes bang. Have a gander at table 2. http://gigconceptsinc.com/files/MIL-STD-709D_1_.pdf

[Mike_Then]

Thanks again all. While still on the subject of decals, I have a question regarding drying/handling time. I'm pretty much done with the water slides; at least the complicated ones. I'll add the wing stars and bars as well as the No Step ones later. I wanna start putting it together. :) I've already found one water slide had fallen off and I've seen others that are perhaps not quite set up yet. What's the drying time for the water slides? Or at least how long does one need to wait before handling it and the decal not rip or come off?

[gravity tester]

My weak contribution to the knowledge pile: I decided that the UHF/Tacan antenna was within "SWOS" limits (stand way off scale) close enough to the canopy release lever to do something about it. I made a G-10/plywood sandwich, sufficiently scraped up the metal lever so the glue would stick and epoxied the new antenna over the lever. So the top now has the scale amount of protrusions, just a tiny bit off in location and I have something to grab with my fat fingers to get the canopy off.

Couple other mods I have done are painting the gear, adding the vent hoods on the side chute door ("A" version had 'em) and making the false canopy shadow a little bigger to pull it within my SWOS personal picky limit. Also moved the fuel drain vent to the scale spot off center. All the white stuff is foam spackle. I am filling in a few spots that are bugging me as well as filing down as many of the little molding stars that jump into my vision.

I am using a Jomar retract/door sequencer to keep the door open when the gear is down. It needed a Y cable but was a uber-easy plug and play.

[crxmanpat]

Thanks again all. While still on the subject of decals, I have a question regarding drying/handling time. I'm pretty much done with the water slides; at least the complicated ones. I'll add the wing stars and bars as well as the No Step ones later. I wanna start putting it together. :) I've already found one water slide had fallen off and I've seen others that are perhaps not quite set up yet. What's the drying time for the water slides? Or at least how long does one need to wait before handling it and the decal not rip or come off?

Here's my process:

Soak the decal in warm water for 15-20 seconds, then lay on a non-porous surface (I use my cutting mat).
Wet the area where the decal will be applied (I just use water, others use various other liquids like Windex and such).
With the backing paper still on, slide the decal off the paper directly onto the location on the plane.
Wet the area around the decal again if needed to get the decal in the exact spot you want it.
Apply a dry paper towel or soft cloth directly to the decal to remove excess liquid. On the bigger decals like the Stars & Bars, bubbles can be removed by gently wiping from the bubble to an outer edge. This also helps to remove any excess liquid trapped under the decal.

I usually give my decals about 5 minutes to dry, then apply a decal setting solution. My go-to setting solution is Walthers Solvaset.

[ckankel]

Wow! Just realized how simple adjusting the nose wheel steering is. The more time I spend with it, the more impressed I am with how well thought out this plane is.

[crxmanpat]

I still have 7 sets of ordnance decals left from the first run. For those who ordered before Noon Pacific yesterday, your decals went into the mail yesterday. I have more decal paper coming, so when these 7 go I can make more as needed.

For details on ordering see the Modifications thread.

[Fast Eddie]

Has anyone taken a grey part to Home Depot for a scanned color match? Was the match / sheen correct ?
I'm waiting for pre order #2 and gathering materials.
And from what I have been hearing, the 5mm square CF tubing glued in to the inside of fuselage walls is helping reduce fuselage flex and strengthening that thin area

[Grossman56]

Thank you Aros!
PS. I thought Grossman or someone was going to clean up the English translations / grammar for the new manuels.

I did quite a few manuals and so far none have been updated, up to the guys at Motion, these new ones have just come out, I asked to get them early but got no response. Currently on the way to Nefi. when I get home I'll start working on them.
I'll keep you all updated.

Grossman56

[Lon]

Has anyone taken a grey part to Home Depot for a scanned color match? Was the match / sheen correct ?
I'm waiting for pre order #2 and gathering materials.
And from what I have been hearing, the 5mm square CF tubing glued in to the inside of fuselage walls is helping reduce fuselage flex and strengthening that thin area

FYI: I had some Tamiya XF-19 Sky Gray at home. Decided to try it to paint servos...I tried it on a elevator servo. Was such a close match, I ended up painting all my servos...Airbrushed in great!

[Fast Eddie]

FYI: I had some Tamiya XF-19 Sky Gray at home. Decided to try it to paint servos...I tried it on a elevator servo. Was such a close match, I ended up painting all my servos...Airbrushed in great!

Thanks Lon,
I should have that one, I'll try it
Thank you

[Mike_Then]

Thanks for all the help guys. Almost done. Just have to mount the receiver, secure the batteries, apply a few more decals, and it's ready for the maiden flight. Saturday still ain't looking good but I'll have to make do if I don't want to wait another week.

[Aros]

Looking good! I'll be working on mine just as soon as I get off work tomorrow when she's expected to arrive!