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

[Clearblue]

With Every picture I see of this amazing Hog, Makes me want it even more! She just looks so Awesome...

[Alpha]

Thanks, Clearblue!

To be clear for those who keep PM'ing me, the pylons fully separate from the wing, and the ordnance can be connected in any combination to the pylons. The A-10 uses the same MWS (Modular Weapon System) mounting clips that all of our Freewing EDFs since 2014 have used. So if you have 90mm F-16 ordnance, for example, which is ~!0.7 scale, you could slide them onto the A-10's pylons if you don't mind a slight sizing difference.If you wanted to mount eight of the 1:13 scale 80mm F-14's Phoenix missiles on this A-10, knock yourself out (if the scale nuts don't do it first!). But the point is, the connector itself is standardized for all Freewing's jets from 2014 forward. I use a Mobius camera with the MWS hot glued onto it, so I can quickly swap between any pylon on any aircraft. If you need spares to mount your own camera, bombs, etc, here they are in Spare Part packaging:

https://www.motionrc.com/products/freewing-f-16c-90mm-weapons-attachment-hardware

[RCjetdude]

Thank you for your service to our nation, Warhammer34! Welcome to Hobby Squawk!

It's too bad you couldn't make it out today, T-cat, but there will be many other opportunities to take a test drive in this bird. We had a good time today even though winds were 10-15 with gusts up to 20mph. No reason not to take the A-10 and Avanti out for some fun. Tony rang out the A-10 with full ordnance. He'll probably chime in at some point but we all agreed the difference in feel between empty and full ordnance is not massively noticeable. Even in 15+mph wind, you'd think the aircraft would be hugely impacted by the drag of eight munitions, but it wasn't so. Evelyn captured some nice video of the Hawg tearing up 300 foot loops with ease. According to my log, this particular bird past 110 flights today. That makes 260 test flights on the various test aircraft, which surpasses our usual 200-220 flight test regimen.

Speaking of which, Motion RC will be participating in the 2017 Arizona Electric Festival as a sponsor and we plan to have the Freewing 80mm A-10, Freewing 80mm Avanti S, and FlightLineRC 1600mm Spitfire Mk.IX there for show n' try.







The Avanti was fun, too. We were hovering it, sometimes inverted, alongside the MiG-21 in the strong wind. Good times.

Thanks Alpha, the A-10 (old "one eye") looks really sweet loaded out like that. Looking forward to it.

Steve

[T-CAT]

Excellent photos! The A-10 looks amazing with it loaded up and ready to rock-n-roll :cool:. It's probably worth the performance penalty ;). That Avanti for sure has my name on it, LOL. I'm itching to have some fun with it, slow flight, fast passes, knife edge, some vertical and inverted....it does it all. I really love that you folks chose a yellow color scheme. Red jets are all over the place as it is, although it looks like, but it's great to have something different.

Alpha, let me know when you are out at Apollo again and we'll coordinate schedules. I'd love to check these out.

[F106DeltaDart]

Nice! I love that photo of it fully loaded on a low pass. I swear this airplane looks better every time I look at this thread! I might just have to clear out that extra hangar space to make room for this monster.

[xviper]

I just rewatched the video of this plane showing a hard landing on rough surface. It's actually quite stunning how it came through it.

I have always been very concerned about how a plane's landing gear can tolerate such abuse. After hearing about a retract on the "other" A-10 (currently taking pre-orders) making a somewhat unceremonious departure from the gear bay housing after hitting a "gopher hole", I think this A-10 sets itself apart from the other one. Virtually every FMS and mostFreewing planes (both prop and EDF) I've owned has eventually ripped out a retract on my field. I'm sure even the FL A-10 won't survive a gopher hole but it might stand a better chance of surviving a hard hit as seen in the video. I currently put my name on one of the FMS A-10's my LHS has coming in (and it's mostly because I have a gift card for that store), however, I think I will take my name off that hold. These trailing link mains are the best for the kind of field I have. (I've even installed a set on the 90mm Venom that I got from Motion.)
Someone posted on the other forum that today's foamie jets simply are not meant for anything but paved runways, "period" and that we might reconsider buying such models if we don't have access to such a runway. Sorry, but I call BS on that one. Why should those of us who are restricted to rotten fields be excluded from the fun? We should be allowed to accept the risks and be able to choose the best model for the operational conditions at hand. The fact that Motion has developed these latest models with grass operations in mind, tells me that they have not overlooked or ignored the "crappy field" guys. I still don't know if I can cough up with the money to buy one of these since there are a couple of other FL planes I'd like in the hanger, BUT, thank you very much just the same and well done.

[RCjetdude]

Most people don't have access to beautiful long, smooth paved runways but the bigger foamies with good gear can take it. Even the gear in my Mig-21 are solid after almost 40 flights off of a canvas runway.

[F106DeltaDart]

Yep, these are definitely tough gear. Maybe one of you guys will want my stock gear? I have a semi-smooth geotex runway, so I will be putting scale gear on mine. On a bird this big and impressive, I want gear that is of the same scale integrity as the rest of the airframe. Also planning on adding the correct main doors as well.

[TiredIronGRB]

I fly everything you can think of off my grass runway, from an LX B-25 to a UMX P-47...I plan to get this A-10 and probably never fly it on a paved runway. Our club has a paved runway about 15 minutes from me but I prefer grass over paved two to one.

[Dlxpkg2000]

Not that I am not buying this HAWG anyway, But when do we get to see an example of the "Final Production" aircraft ? If next month brings "pre-order", I'd like to see the "Real-Deal".....LOL

[xplaneguy]

Great day of flying! Winds were crazy but that only added to the challenge and fun factor. Fully loaded, this A-10 was hauling the mail and as Alpha stated, there wasn't much of a drag penalty....she still smokes loaded. :)

[xplaneguy]

Not that I am not buying this HAWG anyway, But when do we get to see an example of the "Final Production" aircraft ? If next month brings "pre-order", I'd like to see the "Real-Deal".....LOL

Very soon! ;)

[RCjetdude]

Great day of flying! Winds were crazy but that only added to the challenge and fun factor. Fully loaded, this A-10 was hauling the mail and as Alpha stated, there wasn't much of a drag penalty....she still smokes loaded. :)

Love it. Thank you Tony.

[Legman01]

I flew Hawgs in the Air Force 25 years ago......I'd give both my arms to fly it again just once. This new bird is as close as I'll ever get again, and I can't wait to get my hands on one!

[Alpha]

In the past, models like the 90mm F-16 that were leaked 12 months before they were ready for production really put a damper on excitement. Sometimes, like with the F7F Tigercat or Ta-152, we can keep things completely secret and say "surprise, the container will be here in less than a month!". The advance timing for warbirds and for jets is different. For jets, we like to give at least 2-3 months advance notice, from first preview to delivery, mostly because it helps to give people at least 6 weeks to save up and plan their purchases ahead of time before we start the pre-order. Half of that 2-3 month time is usually shipping time, because by the time we do show something, the molds are already complete and the only step left is final production and shipment. The Avanti, Spitfire, MiG-21, Tigercat, Bearcat, F-14, etc.... they have all followed this pattern of being models that are final production foam. By the time we show a sneak preview, the model you're watching in the preview video is very close if not exactly the "Final Production" foam, just in a non-factory paint job. Especially during the winter months when many of our customers aren't able to fly, it's nice to see what's coming and plan ahead for your Spring fleet :)

The A-10's final videos will probably be published right around when the pre-order begins, which is currently targeted for the end of February, either after the container leaves, or close to it. The list of differences between my preview model being shown thus far, and the final production model, is a relatively short checklist. The nose wheel and main wheel hubs are both scale hubs unlike the spoked ones shown on my model, the wing added an additional plywood rib inside (but this doesn't change the external look), the production version will have all the final decals/markings/warnings that I have opted to leave off, the panel line layout especially on the port side will be more accurate for the A-10 block being depicted, the internal nose area was rearranged to allow easier installation of a cannon powder emitter, and, most importantly, the final production aircraft will feature an all new, accurately scaled 1/10 pilot. No more bobbleheads!!!

[RCjetdude]

Welcome to HobbySquawk Legman and thank you for your service. The A-10 is an awesome aircraft. I bet you have some stories you could tell. :)

[Alpha]

Legman01! Good to see you here on Hobby Squawk! It was a pleasure to catch up with you the other day. We'll talk more offline about this Hawg.... ;)

Thank you for your service to our nation. We sincerely appreciate your work! It is for the servicemen and servicewomen who've served with these aircraft that our development team works the hardest to please. If this group is happy, then I am happy.

Xplaneguy is a former Hawg maintainer and you're a former Hawg driver. Small world.

[xplaneguy]

Legman01, welcome to HS and thank you for your service! :)

I was with the 81st TFW at RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge, England from 91-93.

[RCjetdude]

In the past, models like the 90mm F-16 that were leaked 12 months before they were ready for production really put a damper on excitement. Sometimes, like with the F7F Tigercat or Ta-152, we can keep things completely secret and say "surprise, the container will be here in less than a month!". The advance timing for warbirds and for jets is different. For jets, we like to give at least 2-3 months advance notice, from first preview to delivery, mostly because it helps to give people at least 6 weeks to save up and plan their purchases ahead of time before we start the pre-order. Half of that 2-3 month time is usually shipping time, because by the time we do show something, the molds are already complete and the only step left is final production and shipment. The Avanti, Spitfire, MiG-21, Tigercat, Bearcat, F-14, etc.... they have all followed this pattern of being models that are final production foam. By the time we show a sneak preview, the model you're watching in the preview video is very close if not exactly the "Final Production" foam, just in a non-factory paint job. Especially during the winter months when many of our customers aren't able to fly, it's nice to see what's coming and plan ahead for your Spring fleet :)

The A-10's final videos will probably be published right around when the pre-order begins, which is currently targeted for the end of February, either after the container leaves, or close to it. The list of differences between my preview model being shown thus far, and the final production model, is a relatively short checklist. The nose wheel and main wheel hubs are both scale hubs unlike the spoked ones shown on my model, the wing added an additional plywood rib inside (but this doesn't change the external look), the production version will have all the final decals/markings/warnings that I have opted to leave off, the panel line layout especially on the port side will be more accurate for the A-10 block being depicted, the internal nose area was rearranged to allow easier installation of a cannon powder emitter, and, most importantly, the final production aircraft will feature an all new, accurately scaled 1/10 pilot. No more bobbleheads!!!

Alpha, will there be any color scheme other than gray offered? Gray is fine with me so just wondering.

[Alpha]

Gray is what we're starting with. Second schemes are expensive (paint molds are made of copper and form fitted to aircraft surfaces). If the model sells well, we'll consider a second scheme. Probably the green, as Xplaneguy referenced above.

By the way, I need to send the measurements of the internal chamber dimensions to start finalizing the powder cannon's final form factor.