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

[Pete Lane]

Yes...go black please !
I am going yellow and black. and was going to expidite.
We waited this long. Prolonged inverted flite
Will minimize gator attacks.

Plane

[ColtPilot]

Both wings done, tail needs decals, next nacelles and fuselage. Put strobe lights in the wing tips and will have to see how they work. Noah is under going some chemo right now with the transplant pushed back a couple more weeks, but it's going to happen. He is a tough and strong little guy.

[401 FOOT CEILING]

See for yourself. Painted the servos and it is almost a perfect match. Tamiya XF-19 Sky grey.

Yes, it is pretty close, perhaps the color is just a bit lighter. I painted the servos, too. To my eye, it seems that the factory paint has just the tiniest hint of blue in the paint.

[401 FOOT CEILING]

Just (t)ooling around:

[ColtPilot]

Just (t)ooling around:

The A10 C no longer has the penny pod. But makes for a great practice piece for rivet lines.:Cool:

[Shirty]

Thanks Shirty. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you like yours or did I miss the maiden report? This thread moves quick.

G'day mate. No, haven't maidened mine yet. Did the build and got her taped up for paint over a week ago, but it's been freezing cold and pouring rain for the past week over here so my mate who's helping with my repaint, said best to wait for better weather. Hopefully the rain clears this week, though the forecast isn't looking good. It's killing me watching all these great maiden vids and reading all the great comments in the flight reports - and mines stuck on the table. Twice I've almost gone bugger it, and started to peel the tape off lol. Fingers crossed we can get the paint done soon, I'm hanging to fly this one and make a nice vid of it.

Just a general question for anyone (and forgive my lack of a-10 knowledge, I don't know too much about the real a-10's but I've been watching a lot of YouTube vids lately haha), but why is the front of the right landing gear pod painted black? I've seen many models and vids of the real thing now, and most have it the same colour as the wing. Just curious, I like it and taped it up to keep it black, but again curious to know the real reason for it. Cheers fellas.

ps: that black scheme looks awesome! And grats on the maidens boys. :)

[Pete Lane]

The non painted pod is where the tip comes off for refueling.

Plane

[wvrailfan]

For those needing touch up or cover up paint, I used Rust-Oleum 2 in 1 Filler & Sandable Primer right out of the 12 oz spray can to paint the vinyl film I put over the servos. The color difference is not discernable to my eyes.

[TSHobbies]

I finally got mine opened up and started on the paint work today..I felt the factory paint was a little too dark and blueish for the 23rd FG references Im using, sp shes gettin a full repaint.

[sam51401]

I believe this had been posted earlier but the right wheel pod nose section is painted black as that is where the glideslope and several other antenna are housed instead of the nose. May have had to do with the cannon vibration or such but the black paint is a special coating that is for radomes and doesnt interfere with the signals.
The Single Point Refueling port is in the left pod.

[Shirty]

Ah, ok. Thought it being painted black might have something to do with some electronics. Good to know. I'd like to be able to answer that question from my clubmates when they ask why I left the pod black... cheers fellas. :)

[ColtPilot]

The graphics from Callie for my RED DEVILS make over. It's going to be fun putting this long piece of vinyl on the fuse.:Silly:

[gravityworks]

Yes...go black please !
I am going yellow and black. and was going to expidite.
We waited this long. Prolonged inverted flite
Will minimize gator attacks.

Plane

Prolonged inverted flight Will minimize gator attacks lol :) have a question for you all.. with gear up and full deflection my nose tire hits the foam when giving full left rudder. anybody eles seeing this?

[Alpha]

I have to admit this is the first airplane I've assembled that uses a "control board" for all the electronics to run through. Does everyone feel comfortable using the board as designed or are you choosing to bypass the board with the more critical control functions??

Hi JetFlyer, it's a good question. Hopefully these data can help you decide what you're personally comfortable with doing.

Statistically speaking, we have tens of thousands of circuit boards in circulation worldwide, and checking our latest data in our tech support system, the reported issue rate is less than 0.001%. Yes, some pilots have seen issues over the years in various aircraft, but aftermarket replacement components aren't 100% perfect, either.

From my vantage point at the factory, where I deal in huge data sets literally a thousands times larger than a single person's sample size, the goal of any good supplier is to reduce that issue rate as close to zero as possible, while accepting that Perfection is Improbable. That's why every consumer goods company has a customer service department. Unless you're the Maytag Man, ha!

In terms of servos, recent FW aircraft report a rate of 1.3 issues per 5,000.

Losing a cell in a battery, receiver brownout, sudden stiff crosswind, gopher hole, plugging in the Y-harness incorrectly and reversing ailerons, stalled servo or motor, desoldered connector, confronting an angry tree that magically reaches up out of nowhere, etc, etc, etc... This hobby skirts the odds in so many ways every time an aircraft leaves the ground and actually makes it back safely.

As a pilot, I choose to check everything thrice before maiden, and check everything again every so often as part of a normal maintenance schedule. Same as I would on a full size aircraft. From there, I choose to have fun and let the statistics fall where they may.

When you fly 4,500-5,000 flights a year, things happen. Midairs, brownouts, bum servos, pilot error. When the time comes, I try at least to make the Kill a [safely] spectacular one. :)

[TSHobbies]

something that just occurred to me while painting the light grey scheme....aint no way Im gonna paint the false canopy on the bottom...scale enthusiasts may cry,but for me., thats just a really bad idea lol

[Alpha]

Not sure if is normal, but while working with the A-10 here on the bench, I noticed that the stock 8a ubec gets pretty warm. Is this normal? The clear heat shrink gets warm and soft. This is my first time having a bec in a plane and just want to make sure if it's normal. Plugged into new Specktrum AR8010T - Aux. I did purchase a ZTW 10 amp ubec as a spare that was listed in A-10 spare parts and will change out if needed. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks all

Hi Fast Eddie, the UBEC is essentially taking the 25v from your flight battery and knocking it down to 5v. Some of that excess is converted to heat energy. Warm is to be expected, hot if over time is acceptable, but too hot to touch for a couple seconds or melting should be avoided. The normal expected interval from power on to taxi/flight/taxi to power off is normally around 10 minutes. If you plan on "working on" your model for significantly longer, like, 30 minutes, it doesn't hurt to plug a 2s or 3s battery into the battery connector instead of a 6s battery. I soldered up an EC5-to-Deans adapter for this purpose. Having a lighter battery during setup also helps when I'm flipping these big planes upside down to change linkages, etc.

[Pete Lane]

[Pete Lane]

Live product customer service.....even fielding questions on a holiday weekend . Simply the best !
Motion kindness included with each kit.


Plane

[T-CAT]

G'day mate. No, haven't maidened mine yet. Did the build and got her taped up for paint over a week ago, but it's been freezing cold and pouring rain for the past week over here so my mate who's helping with my repaint, said best to wait for better weather. Hopefully the rain clears this week, though the forecast isn't looking good. It's killing me watching all these great maiden vids and reading all the great comments in the flight reports - and mines stuck on the table. Twice I've almost gone bugger it, and started to peel the tape off lol. Fingers crossed we can get the paint done soon, I'm hanging to fly this one and make a nice vid of it.

Just a general question for anyone (and forgive my lack of a-10 knowledge, I don't know too much about the real a-10's but I've been watching a lot of YouTube vids lately haha), but why is the front of the right landing gear pod painted black? I've seen many models and vids of the real thing now, and most have it the same colour as the wing. Just curious, I like it and taped it up to keep it black, but again curious to know the real reason for it. Cheers fellas.

ps: that black scheme looks awesome! And grats on the maidens boys. :)

Ha-ha, I think we've all been in the same spot with the weather and watching videos of others fly theirs just to pass by the time until you get to fly yours. I'm looking forward to seeing the repaint, as well as your maiden. You'll have a blast!

[HellHathNoFury]

Hey Shirty... A quick squiz of that pic & I thought it was a new type of Livery..LOL