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

[Sky Wolf]

I'd like to invite myself to that! He looks like one fun, personable guy I would like to meet! Congrats on the successful maiden Dave!

Alpha and Todd, you made my "Little-Big man" a very happy kid today. He's so ready to meet you guys! He was so ecstatic to read your quotes about him.

Thanks for blessing him today!

[xviper]

Yay I received my A-10! I hope nothing is broke by the damaged package.

Wow - another UPS "careful" treatment of their customers' property? Personally, I would have refused delivery. It's the only way to insure you don't get stuck for the damage.

[bcrc]

[QUOTE=T-CAT;n83304]

Hi bcrc. By headroom, I just mean it's always good to play it on the safe side with electronics and have a higher available continuous output current rating than needed. The Castle BEC 1.0 is stated to have 7A of continuous output current if used on the 2S input voltage that you said you will have it hooked up to. If you're using the stock servos, it's important to use have the BEC set to 5V output to the electronics. Although these stock servos are digital, and most aftermarket digital servos do well on higher than 5V, these were likely designed for 5V output, not anything above that for longevity and reliability. You may run the risk of destroying the servos in quick manner, and on a $800+ jet (that's conservative after considering adding your LiPo's, receiver, telemetry, etc.) that's an expensive risk.

Assuming Castle is correct on their published specs. (and they unfortunately don't provide full specs for every scenario of input and output voltage, as the continuous rating is dependent upon those two factors), having the BEC hooked up to 2S input voltage, the BEC 1.0 (the one know as the BEC 10A) has a 7A continuous output rating, the new BEC 2.0 has a 11A continuous output rating, and the BEC Pro has a 15A continuous output rating. The BEC 1.0 at 7A continuous when using the separate LiPo you're choosing is likely enough headroom, and it's lightweight too. However, on a jet this size, I wouldn't worry a bit about the small extra weight or size of something with a bit more piece of mind that has the higher continuous output like the BEC Pro or another BEC of your choice similar to it. If you were hooking the BEC up to 6S input voltage (like when soldering it to one of the ESC's power leads), I personally wouldn't feel comfortable with the BEC 1.0 at a 5A rating since it's already being taxed more with the higher input voltage and therefore lower continuous amperage rating. When a retract gets stuck, frozen servo, etc. occurs, a little higher available current output on the BEC is nice to have and safer. A nice happy medium is the BEC 2.0 for its still lightweight and compact nature, yet slightly higher continuous rating, especially at the low 2S input voltage you're using. Then again, the BEC 2.0 is brand new and not sure if any kinks have yet to be worked out, as that would be my only worry.

Thanks T-CAT: When I wrote my first question, I was having a brain burp and forgot that I am running 2-cell into the BEC, not 6-cell - so, I have plenty of amps available. I have mine set up with a CC BEC 1.0 set at 5.2V being fed by a 2200ma 2-cell. Everything works great, the fans run fine off their 6-cells, so I am going with that. I have used this BEC in other airplanes, so I trust it. Thanks again.
BCRC

[dkalwishky]

Wow - another UPS "careful" treatment of their customers' property? Personally, I would have refused delivery. It's the only way to insure you don't get stuck for the damage.

I'd bet if there was damage and a ticket was opened with Motion they'd replace the damaged parts quickly. I wouldn't hesitate to accept the package knowing this.

[dkalwishky]

Here's another Texas A-10 maiden.

Loved the video! Great job to you and dahawk! Can't wait to get mine in the air.

[1horse59]

I got a question for anyone that will help, what to do about BEC, does it suppose to get plugged in anywhere, or do nothing with it? Thanks in advance:Confused:

[dkalwishky]

It has to be plugged in, that's how the receiver and electronics get powered. You can plug it into any channel and then put a bind plug into the bind port and bind it. Once you've bound the receiver remove the bind plug and put the BEC cable in the bind port. That's what I did.

[1horse59]

It has to be plugged in, that's how the receiver and electronics get powered. You can plug it into any channel and then put a bind plug into the bind port and bind it. Once you've bound the receiver remove the bind plug and put the BEC cable in the bind port. That's what I did.

Thank you, I'll do that

[xviper]

I'd bet if there was damage and a ticket was opened with Motion they'd replace the damaged parts quickly. I wouldn't hesitate to accept the package knowing this.

That's the beauty of doing business with Motion. They'll take charge even when it's not their fault. Damage like that should be the responsibility of the shipping company. (Unless Motion switched the "FRAGILE" sticker with one that said, "INDESTRUCTIBLE".)

[ColtPilot]

Started doing some paint work on the A-10. The vertical stabs are done and the cockpit area. I hope I can find a way to put the pilot I have in it. Will take some thought and work. Time for bed work in the morning.

[TiredIronGRB]

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.

Can you give us an update on Noah?

[dahawk]

I'd like to invite myself to that! He looks like one fun, personable guy I would like to meet! Congrats on the successful maiden Dave!

Thanks Aros! You guys really hit it out of the park on this one. The flight envelope should appeal to everyone. Fly circuits like a big trainer. High speed passes. Perform scale like warbird jet maneuvers. Fly close air support. Great vertical. Fly's great slow or fast .

Something for everyone wrapped up in one good looking package. Lots of oohs and aha especially about the foam quality.

Going to be hard to top.

[gravity tester]

Hi all-
Another successful maiden to report. :)No video, unfortunately, bc the landing was all grease. Seriously, I swear. ha ha. Been reading for weeks about speed and bouncing and was mindful on the approach and it was clean. A few clicks of up trim and a couple of left aileron and it was all awesome-sauce for the most part. The club videographer thought he was taking video, but it turned out he was only taking stills. :-( I blame the Russians. Seems logical. Anyway, I will skip all the super flight detail and just echo what everyone else has written. This bird is just killer in the air and on the ground and I can't wait to get back out there. What a rush.

That said, I did want to point out a couple of things as a heads up. I haven't seen any similar reports, so I thought I would mention it:

Thing 1: On take off, I noticed a small piece of white "something" blowing away from the airplane. The ship was stable and flying well so no panic initially. I thought it may have been a piece of ordinance but after I got caught up with the jet and my knees stopped knocking, I asked one of the guys to check and see if they could see anything on the runway. They brought me back the plastic triangle bracket from the auxiliary nose gear door. You know, the one that keeps the door away from the scissors link so the gear doesn't jam? Yeah, that one. Gulp. The gear went up OK, but now sheer terror at the thought of the gear not coming back down set in. Skipping to the punch line, I was lucky. The air pressure from the forward speed was just enough to allow the door to clear the link and the gear to get down and locked. Subsequent ground testing showed that the door jammed the gear every time on extension without the bump out bracket. Needless to say, not worth the risk of flying until fixed. The fix was some clean up and epoxy followed by a couple of #0 screws and nuts to secure the bracket to the door top and bottom. And a change of underwear....

Thing 2: Didn't discover this until I was breaking the plane down for the ride home. The left wing rear mounting tab was broken off inside the fuse socket. Not sure how or when this happened. The screws were not over-torqued and I am not sure that would matter (??) since the tab fit is pretty tight in the fuse and the brass nut is the full thickness of the tab. My point is there wouldn't be a ton of cantilever stress on that tab - especially in the area it broke. Not quite sure how I am going to fix that yet but thankfully it is not super structural. Very necessary, yes, but it's not exactly the same as buggering up the main spar in terms of load bearing or ability to fly. Again, I only mention this as something to look out for. Curious if anyone else has seen similar?

Cheers,
Dan

[ColtPilot]

Can you give us an update on Noah?

His calcium has stabilized, and found a marrow match. Now it's wait and being transferred to another hospital for more testing. He is now 4 months old. Thanks for asking it means a lot.

[TiredIronGRB]

His calcium has stabilized, and found a marrow match. Now it's wait and being transferred to another hospital for more testing. He is now 4 months old. Thanks for asking it means a lot.

Thanks for the update, that sounds encouraging...everyone at my church is praying for him ;)

[Aros]

Prayers for Noah! Encouraging news!

[Brandon Moon]

Mine and my family's prayers for him as well.

[Dewey H Lee]

We ate praying also for him.

[TomPatton]

Definitely encouraging news... Keep the prayers going!!!

[TomPatton]

Glacier batteries, anyone have experience with them?
Buddy RC sells them here in Ohio. I haven't seen on here where anyone has mentioned them. The guys at my field fly them in their 3-D choppers and are really happy with the performance. They say they run cooler also.
Motion is out of stock on batteries again, and I would like to purchase some spares.
Also glacier has a 5800mah 45c that is 4.6 oz's heavier than the Admiral 5000, and $14 dollars more. Would I gain any more time or power by using this over the 5000.
The thing is, I just checked Buddy RC, and they are out of stock now also.
MRC must have sold a ton of the A-10's and Avanti's for everyone to be out of stock.
It would be interesting to know exactly how many were sold...
Thanks...