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

[Shirty]

Maiden is in the books. What a sweet flying machine. Video to be down loaded in a little bit.

Grats mate, beautiful job on the hog.

[OV10]

I just may be the last one in the "First Run" shipment to have maidened the A-10. I was hoping to be the first, but obviously that didn't work out. Here's the video:
https://youtu.be/7MPWluUI1HE

Now get that bird decaled or I'll have to start calling ya the Naked Flyin Ant LOL

[ColtPilot]

:)Well I think I'm the last to maiden. This evening at 5:45pm You need to check out the landing. I was all smiles on this one. My knees were still shaking from the adrenalin rush. Here is the video I promised.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9p1vdi_JPg&feature=youtu.be

[RCjetdude]

:)Well I think I'm the last to maiden. This evening at 5:45pm You need to check out the landing. I was all smiles on this one. My knees were still shaking from the adrenalin rush. Here is the video I promised.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9p1...ature=youtu.be

Outstanding job. You really greased the landing.

[dahawk]

Very nice maiden! A testament to grass ops. Looked like grass was pretty high. The Hog handled it with ease.

Hawk

[downwindleg]

As others have pondered, I think the soft and undampened main gear is part of the bouncing issue.( I've also removed 3 coils from the nose gear to soften it some). My A-10 is unflown as yet so take this with a grain of salt, but this is what I've done:
About 5 wraps of good electrical tape tightly wrapped around the spring (cleaned first with alcohol)- the spring is then a tight fit back into the channel of the strut and provides some dampening to the strut action. To stiffen things, I put a piece of inner tube patch rubber across the "horn" the spring hooks onto then wrapped it tightly with, again, about 5 wraps of tape. The rubber keeps the sharp shape of the horn from making it's way through the tape. The struts are now considerably stiffer and actually feel dampened- whether this lasts 1 flight or 20 remains to be seen but it'll be easy to renew the tape when required. If you want to take preemptive action to avoid the dreaded "bounce" this might be worth a shot.:Cool:
Tom

I really think that an alternate oleo strut is the way to go. Flew my FMS P-51 four times today, same wingspan, and landed it incredibly well, had two somewhat hard first touchdowns and still got it done with NO BOUNCES. Restored my confidence and ego..........not flying the A-10 bounce monster "til this is resolved. Again, I'm sure it's fine on thicker grass but short grass or pavement......not so much. Brad

[Porkster]

Hey Guys...just returned from visiting my son who is in the Air Force and stationed at Mildenhall RAFB in England. The day we arrived he showed me they had some special visitors all the way from Georgia! I didn't get very good pictures but there was a notice on the base's website. Here's the link; http://www.mildenhall.af.mil/News/Ar...af-mildenhall/. They included some awesome his res close-ups...here are a couple examples; Rob

Cool, I'm not far from mildenhall, I'll look out for them when they leave.
Were you there on Thursday 20th? As the red arrows were in the area at another airbase doing a display. I'm sure they would have popped by mildenhall

[Thomas W]

As others have pondered, I think the soft and undampened main gear is part of the bouncing issue.( I've also removed 3 coils from the nose gear to soften it some). My A-10 is unflown as yet so take this with a grain of salt, but this is what I've done:
About 5 wraps of good electrical tape tightly wrapped around the spring (cleaned first with alcohol)- the spring is then a tight fit back into the channel of the strut and provides some dampening to the strut action. To stiffen things, I put a piece of inner tube patch rubber across the "horn" the spring hooks onto then wrapped it tightly with, again, about 5 wraps of tape. The rubber keeps the sharp shape of the horn from making it's way through the tape. The struts are now considerably stiffer and actually feel dampened- whether this lasts 1 flight or 20 remains to be seen but it'll be easy to renew the tape when required. If you want to take preemptive action to avoid the dreaded "bounce" this might be worth a shot.:Cool:
Tom

I'm certainly no expert by any means on this but I'm not sure cutting the coils is the way to go. Yes, Ive read that is has "reportably" helped with the bounce, but making the spring stiffer just doesnt make sense. You need some give in that spring or its just going to start snapping the pins or cracking the mounting area of the retract mechanism with every "non 100%" perfect landing. It needs that spring travel to absorb the initial landing shock. What needs to be done is to have a slightly lighter gauge spring so when it does touchdown it will stay in a 30% +/- strut compressed state, and not rebound so fast from the natural tendency of the spring to recover. Look at the springs in the struts of any larger warbird (FMS 1700mm P-51 for example), its struts springs are longer, but half the gauge diameter of the A-10's. I think another issue is everyones trying to fly the A-10 as CG neutral as they can by shoving the packs back to 86-88mm CG. That alone will help induce a nose light situation that causes less static compressive state on the nose gear and allow it come back up instantly when the spring returns to static state after being compressed from touchdown. I think theres a fundamental flaw in the planes stance or decolage (with everyone trying to cg as neutral as possible after having to trim the elevators so high up to fly level at factory CG specs), in just the way it wont even sit on its gear without a tail jack stand or packs installed. Just my opinion though.

[Twowingtj]

:)Well I think I'm the last to maiden. This evening at 5:45pm You need to check out the landing. I was all smiles on this one. My knees were still shaking from the adrenalin rush. Here is the video I promised.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9p1...ature=youtu.be

Great job Tim. She looks good.

[RCAV8R]

Cool, I'm not far from mildenhall, I'll look out for them when they leave.
Were you there on Thursday 20th? As the red arrows were in the area at another airbase doing a display. I'm sure they would have popped by mildenhall

We departed from London on Thursday the 29th and they had already left Mildenhall a day or so prior! I didn't hear any A-10's while we were there...my son lives right next to Lakenheath, so plenty of F-15's and 22's! Rob

[RCAV8R]

:)Well I think I'm the last to maiden. This evening at 5:45pm You need to check out the landing. I was all smiles on this one. My knees were still shaking from the adrenalin rush. Here is the video I promised.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9p1...ature=youtu.be

Well done Tim! Awesome flight! Any update on Noah? Rob

[RCAV8R]

Cool, I'm not far from mildenhall, I'll look out for them when they leave.
Were you there on Thursday 20th? As the red arrows were in the area at another airbase doing a display. I'm sure they would have popped by mildenhall

Porkster, I meant to tell you what a beautiful part of the country Suffolk is! We loved Cambridge! I kept looking at all those fields and thinking what great flying fields they would make (which of course they did in WWII)! Rob

[Pete Lane]

Another thing to consider on the spring into action talk is the fact that the entire power system is a foot aft of the GG and can contribute to the teeder todder
effect.
Happy landings !!

Plane

[Pete Lane]

Its not alone though.
However on this jet its ESCs are
In the fuse and Nacelles aren't as rearward.

All good. Wouldent be a Hawg without its
Form factor !

[ColtPilot]

Well done Tim! Awesome flight! Any update on Noah? Rob

Noah gets his transplant the 28th. However he has vision problems that hopefully go away, if not he will be blind. He is getting stronger though and that is good. 5 months old now.

[RCAV8R]

Good to hear Tim...we are praying as always for him and all your family! Rob

[downwindleg]

As others have pondered, I think the soft and undampened main gear is part of the bouncing issue.( I've also removed 3 coils from the nose gear to soften it some). My A-10 is unflown as yet so take this with a grain of salt, but this is what I've done:
About 5 wraps of good electrical tape tightly wrapped around the spring (cleaned first with alcohol)- the spring is then a tight fit back into the channel of the strut and provides some dampening to the strut action. To stiffen things, I put a piece of inner tube patch rubber across the "horn" the spring hooks onto then wrapped it tightly with, again, about 5 wraps of tape. The rubber keeps the sharp shape of the horn from making it's way through the tape. The struts are now considerably stiffer and actually feel dampened- whether this lasts 1 flight or 20 remains to be seen but it'll be easy to renew the tape when required. If you want to take preemptive action to avoid the dreaded "bounce" this might be worth a shot.:Cool:
Tom

Hey Tom, did you remove the spring to do that wrap and if so, how did you get it off? And then of course getting it back on. I've posed this question before but didn't get a very definitive answer. Thought get through to my dense mind. Brad

[ColtPilot]

Good to hear Tim...we are praying as always for him and all your family! Rob

Thanks to all for the support and prayers.

Tim T

[Pogo]

Hey Tom, did you remove the spring to do that wrap and if so, how did you get it off? And then of course getting it back on. I've posed this question before but didn't get a very definitive answer. Thought get through to my dense mind. Brad

Hi Brad- yes the spring needs to come off the hook, but can be left on the pin. Here's what I did (it's actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it.)
1) Put the strut pin in a vice (use hardwood or something on the jaws so the pin doesn't get marred) to secure the strut. It stays in the vise for all the following.
2) Use a pair of substantial needle nose pliers (with serrations on the jaw tips) and grab the spring coil above the hook and the hook itself with the very tips of the pliers. Squeeze, and with the help of a slot screwdriver pry the coil up and off the hook.
3) Getting the spring back on back on is easier. Place the tip of a slot screwdriver through the coil and just onto the tip of the hook and pry back. Voila!
(Wear eye protection and don't stab yourself!) Hope this helps.
Tom

[Pogo]

I'm happy to finally report A SUCCESSFUL MAIDEN and 2nd flight this morning. Wind was down the grass runway at ~10 mph and takeoff was uneventful, as was the flight, really. I flew some trimming circuits (little needed) and marveled at how at home I immediately felt flying her- just so locked in and stable. Around 3 min. I dropped the gear and selected full flaps and slowly tooled around getting the feel for that configuration. ( No flap to elevator mix and none needed.) Throttle was reduced to establish a good sink rate and with a little flair at the end settled onto the grass in a greaser. Yeah!! Second flight was similar (but took off with half flaps as the wind had died) with a few aerobatics thrown in and ended in another good landing, though a little quicker than the first (my gear mods didn't get tested at all but that's O.K.).
Aileron throws were about 70% of the manual's low rate, elevator throw at the recommended low rate, CG at~ 84mm. Frankly, I don't feel the need to change anything at this point.:Cool:
Great airplane- I'm very happy. :) (wish I had video...).
Tom