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

[Clearblue]

Congrats on all the maidens over the weekend. For me, the airplane gods were not smiling. Took the airplane up for flight #3 and finally began to relax and enjoy the way the plane grooves. Half throttle was plenty for scale speed. Does nice axial rolls without differential....( no seperate aileron servos). My runway goes exactly north and south and on saturday it was coming s s e. Waited for 5 hours for the wind to die down to fly comfortably. Anyway, on landing approach, a blast of wind from southeast caught the plane and tipped the right wingtip into the ground. What followed was a major cartwheel that tore the nose and right wingtip off the plane. I will try to post video at some point from a friend that caught everything but the cartwheel. Anyway, was able to taxi back to the pits but serious work to be done. Everything worked well except that damned crosswind! Ordering parts tommorrow, Brad

Damn! I hate to hear that Btad. We had light winds yesterday morning, slight cross wind. But as the morning went on. Yep crosswind, straight west. I didn't go again. But I did get two flights on her. What a awesome flyer! I do need to turn down my rudders. Maybe set a dual or triple rate? I tried correcting for the slight drift in on my first landing, due to that crosswind. and :Scared: It was a almost filled my britches moment! ;)She's Just a sweetie really. It's what I call a point and shoot aircraft. I like that. Just need to work on Nose high, power on decent and landing. I haven't tried full flap yet, next time.
Jim.

[TSHobbies]

you guys using the admirals, where exactly are you placing them? did you move the control board back so you can set them further back?

[zorkahn]

Well I maidened my A-10 Sunday. First two flights were great with greased landings. Third flight the landing got the dreaded death bounce and came down hard on the nose gear. See attached photos of the damage to the retract housing in the fuselage and the retract flange. I see Motion RC sells the retract housing but how would you get the big retract housing out of the fuselage? Any suggestions? I am going to try to epoxy everything back together but not sure it will hold.

Plane flies great! Pilot just has to learn how to land this baby!

Mark

[Nitromag57]

Problem found. Seems the brand new spektrum AS3X AR9350 reciever I bought for it doesn't seem to be working. Stuck an AR9020 I had spare in and everything works. Still annoyed though since it's a brand new reciever.

did you use the bind plug when you bound radio? i had similar issues the 5v bec can be plugged into any free open channel on receiver... also make sure you have polarity from bec in receive,try again follow steps I listed the receiver should work!

[Crashmaster]

you guys using the admirals, where exactly are you placing them? did you move the control board back so you can set them further back?

I have a set of the "new" Admirals. I think the "new" packs are shaped differently than the "old" Admirals. They are the 5000 MaH 6s 50c packs. I fly with the rear pack sitting on the front of the control board almost against the servo extension plugs. The control board has not been moved - it remains in its stock position. The front pack hangs over the foam "shelf" and is sitting just a millimeter or two away from the rear pack. If you looked at the installed and secured packs from the top, it would look like they are almost sitting end-to-end.

[sisaksen]

Congrats on the maiden. I took the advice from others here and put the CG at 84. 2 clicks of aileron was all the trim needed. I too used Admiral 5000's. 3 minutes and came back with 60%. Kept it around 50% throttle during the flight. I have my steering / rudder at 50%.

Did you stack your batteries to get the CG at 84mm? Or do you have a different setup of motors and esc's?

[Crashmaster]

Third flight the landing got the dreaded death bounce and came down hard on the nose gear. See attached photos of the damage to the retract housing in the fuselage and the retract flange. I see Motion RC sells the retract housing but how would you get the big retract housing out of the fuselage? Any suggestions? I am going to try to epoxy everything back together but not sure it will hold.


Mark

Congratulations on your maiden, and I'm sorry for the damage caused by a bouncy landing.

A friend of mine and I both had the same issue with very similar damage as shown in your pictures. My friend fixed it with the methods I will attempt to describe here. I copied my friends methods and they worked well. I am going to assume that by "retract housing", you mean the plastic nose gear mounting block that is securely glued inside the fuse. We performed these repairs without removing the mounting block.

First - it also appears that your black case on the retract that houses the trunion and retract mechanism is broken near the front mounting holes. I just bought a part from MRC and replaced it. I did not even attempt to fix or glue it.

Picture 1

The small square tab that broke from the plastic mounting block - glue the piece back on with CA and clamp it down so it will lay flat to the plastic mounting block as the CA cures. Apply additional drops of CA on the corners of the repaired tab from the inside of the block through the top of the block that you can see inside the fuse where the front battery normally sits. Once cured, remove any clamp you may have used and insert a square hardwood block to the inside of the plastic mounting block and secure with epoxy. The hardwood block is inserted from the other side of the plastic gear mounting block from inside the fuse and should bottom-out on the gear mounting hole from the inside. When you mount the gear, you should drill a hole in the mounting block and thread the gear mounting screw through the block for added security. A little CA in the hardwood block after you have threaded the gear mounting screw will also help.

Picture 2

Hog foam from the other side of the mounting block from inside the fuse NEXT to the mounting block (near where the front battery is secured) until you have completely exposed the gear mounting hole. Use CA to glue the separated portion of the mounting block back to the rest of the gear mounting block. You will definitely need a small C-clamp to keep the separated portion flat against the block. As with the other fix - apply a few drops of CA from the inside of the mounting block (where you hogged the foam). Allow time to cure or use kicker. Once cured, the fix is pretty much the same as the first hole. Slide hardwood blocks down the side of the gear mounting block where you hogged the foam and secure with epoxy. Make a hole in the mounting block from where you mount the gear as you did before.

I suggest that you open the gear to remove the spring "shock absorber" and remove 3-4 coils to subdue the "bounce" that you experienced on your last landing.

I hope this helps.

[xviper]

HOWEVER, don't be stupid and plug a receiver battery (like a 2S LiFe or a NiMH) into an open port on the receiver instead of the flight battery. This WILL fry your BEC, ask me how I know...:Angry:

The problem with what you did was you had BOTH the BEC and a separate battery (your 2S) feeding the RX at the same time. If you are going to use a separate receiver battery, you must remove the BEC from the equation. It's called a Battery Elimination Circuit for a reason. If you don't eliminate the separate battery, then you need to eliminate the BEC. Powering the RX with 2 different sources is just asking for trouble, especially when one is a much higher voltage. When using a separate battery (that goes into the RX) or using an auxiliary BEC (not the stock), the red wire(s) from the stock BEC(s) must be pulled so you don't have conflicting receiver power sources.

[GTiR1080]

did you use the bind plug when you bound radio? i had similar issues the 5v bec can be plugged into any free open channel on receiver... also make sure you have polarity from bec in receive,try again follow steps I listed the receiver should work!

It bound up fine and I was using the bind plug. I just using a separate battery, no power through the BEC because I can't plug my batteries into it yet. Wrong connections. Stuck a different reciever in and it worked though. Thinking there is either a problem with the AR9350 spektrum reciever or I have to set up stuff to do with the AS3X. Thinking I'm just going to leave the AR9020 I put in there instead now.

[downwindleg]

Damn! I hate to hear that Btad. We had light winds yesterday morning, slight cross wind. But as the morning went on. Yep crosswind, straight west. I didn't go again. But I did get two flights on her. What a awesome flyer! I do need to turn down my rudders. Maybe set a dual or triple rate? I tried correcting for the slight drift in on my first landing, due to that crosswind. and :Scared: It was a almost filled my britches moment! ;)She's Just a sweetie really. It's what I call a point and shoot aircraft. I like that. Just need to work on Nose high, power on decent and landing. I haven't tried full flap yet, next time.
Jim.

Thanks Jim, I was in total shock when it cartwheeled. BTW on my rudders for steering I just increased the exponential to 50%. That toned down the tracking sensitivity. Some people prefer dual or triple rates but I don't like having to mess with the switches any more than I have to so I use 25 to 30% exponential on elevator, rudder, and ailerons in stead. But as I said..went 50% on the rudder. Brad

[Sky Wolf]

Problem found. Seems the brand new spektrum AS3X AR9350 reciever I bought for it doesn't seem to be working. Stuck an AR9020 I had spare in and everything works. Still annoyed though since it's a brand new reciever.

A Ha! I thought I was going "NUTS":Silly:.

So its true...the AR9350 doesn't work in this plane for some reason. Finally, a second pilot who has tried it.

I wonder I why it doesn't want to bind to this plane, yet other receivers will? The message I got back from Horizon was this:

"Those receivers are orientation specific. If they are not sitting in the proper position, or inverted they may not link or bind.
Aside from that, without deeper investigations, we would not be able to tell you what is going on."

Well, I moved that receiver into different positions, but continued to get the same results. Beep, beep, beep, beep! I hate beeps that won't stop!!!:Scared:

That receiver is too darned expensive to not work with simplification.

[TSHobbies]

I have a set of the "new" Admirals. I think the "new" packs are shaped differently than the "old" Admirals. They are the 5000 MaH 6s 50c packs. I fly with the rear pack sitting on the front of the control board almost against the servo extension plugs. The control board has not been moved - it remains in its stock position. The front pack hangs over the foam "shelf" and is sitting just a millimeter or two away from the rear pack. If you looked at the installed and secured packs from the top, it would look like they are almost sitting end-to-end.

thats how I have mine and its nose heavy ...either that ,or I dont have enough 'up' elevator when in neutral position.. but the trailing edge of it was centered on the two censor bumps of the tail

[zorkahn]

Congratulations on your maiden, and I'm sorry for the damage caused by a bouncy landing.

A friend of mine and I both had the same issue with very similar damage as shown in your pictures. My friend fixed it with the methods I will attempt to describe here. I copied my friends methods and they worked well. I am going to assume that by "retract housing", you mean the plastic nose gear mounting block that is securely glued inside the fuse. We performed these repairs without removing the mounting block.

First - it also appears that your black case on the retract that houses the trunion and retract mechanism is broken near the front mounting holes. I just bought a part from MRC and replaced it. I did not even attempt to fix or glue it.

Picture 1

The small square tab that broke from the plastic mounting block - glue the piece back on with CA and clamp it down so it will lay flat to the plastic mounting block as the CA cures. Apply additional drops of CA on the corners of the repaired tab from the inside of the block through the top of the block that you can see inside the fuse where the front battery normally sits. Once cured, remove any clamp you may have used and insert a square hardwood block to the inside of the plastic mounting block and secure with epoxy. The hardwood block is inserted from the other side of the plastic gear mounting block from inside the fuse and should bottom-out on the gear mounting hole from the inside. When you mount the gear, you should drill a hole in the mounting block and thread the gear mounting screw through the block for added security. A little CA in the hardwood block after you have threaded the gear mounting screw will also help.

Picture 2

Hog foam from the other side of the mounting block from inside the fuse NEXT to the mounting block (near where the front battery is secured) until you have completely exposed the gear mounting hole. Use CA to glue the separated portion of the mounting block back to the rest of the gear mounting block. You will definitely need a small C-clamp to keep the separated portion flat against the block. As with the other fix - apply a few drops of CA from the inside of the mounting block (where you hogged the foam). Allow time to cure or use kicker. Once cured, the fix is pretty much the same as the first hole. Slide hardwood blocks down the side of the gear mounting block where you hogged the foam and secure with epoxy. Make a hole in the mounting block from where you mount the gear as you did before.

I suggest that you open the gear to remove the spring "shock absorber" and remove 3-4 coils to subdue the "bounce" that you experienced on your last landing.

I hope this helps.

I the first photo you said you ordered the part. Is that the complete retract or just the plate? If so where did you find the plate?

thanks,
Mark

[GTiR1080]

A Ha! I thought I was going "NUTS":Silly:.

So its true...the AR9350 doesn't work in this plane for some reason. Finally, a second pilot who has tried it.

I wonder I why it doesn't want to bind to this plane, yet other receivers will? The message I got back from Horizon was this:

"Those receivers are orientation specific. If they are not sitting in the proper position, or inverted they may not link or bind.
Aside from that, without deeper investigations, we would not be able to tell you what is going on."

Well, I moved that receiver into different positions, but continued to get the same results. Beep, beep, beep, beep! I hate beeps that won't stop!!!:Scared:

That receiver is too darned expensive to not work with simplification.

I even tried mine out of the plane sitting flat on the table with just a single servo in it and it still didn't work.

[dahawk]

Club member was standing next to me with hat cam. Kind of hard to see but the point of showing is to demonstrate how well this plane handles a 15 mph crosswind. Makes an "average" pilot look good.

She's already a hit at the field.

https://vimeo.com/224022394

Hawk

[Patrnflyr]

A friend of mine flies his with this receiver and no problems at all

[ColtPilot]

Work in progress. Just finished painting the fuse. Darn tape pulled some paint off. Will have to get some touch up gray.

[Crashmaster]

I the first photo you said you ordered the part. Is that the complete retract or just the plate? If so where did you find the plate?

thanks,
Mark

I had to order the whole retract as the black case, trunion and pin were out of stock. The metal plate did not come with the new retract. I just bent the old one back into shape and reused it.

I hope this helps.

[Twowingtj]

Work in progress. Just finished painting the fuse. Darn tape pulled some paint off. Will have to get some touch up gray.

Looking good! That purple table really makes it popLOL:Cool:

[Fast Eddie]

Did you stack your batteries to get the CG at 84mm? Or do you have a different setup of motors and esc's?

Did not stack, stock set up. I can send pic tonight of battery location. Using 2 Admiral 5000's