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

[crxmanpat]

I gotta tell you guys, just upgrading the nose to TL has helped a ton. I've done about a dozen flights on the A-10 with the upgraded nose, and the nose bounce tendency has completely disappeared! I have had a few not so stellar landings, and all I get is just a very small hop back in the air (maybe 6" or so), but the most important thing is that all 3 wheels get off the ground, not just the nose.

[brk6188]

I am an old but not so bold pilot but so far have never had even a small hop on my A-10 ( might regret that statement !). Anyway, I always use my take off flaps setting for landing, which probably give more lift than drag at my settings, and she flairs just great onto the mains. Maybe all this talk of bouncing scares the s--- out of me and I just concentrate on getting it down smoothly.

Was watching one of the turbine guys yesterday doing slow fly bys/landings and I swear he was going way, way slower than I ever get my A-10 or A-4 --- his landings were so sweet. I am convinced that most bounces are because we are coming in way to fast and to that end I do go a few mistakes high and practice my slow flight however when it comes down to that landing I do find myself chickening out to the high side !

[downwindleg]

That post #5719 I'm very familiar with................it's the one I just referenced when asking Tom for the latest update on availability.
I would seriously think that making a request on the forum or in a PM does not constitute an order though.
Can't even begin to imagine Tom or Mark asking the warehouse manager to be encumbered with the responsibility of searching through these forums for a request.
And then the task of having to load it into the MRP system when no stock number exists yet for the oleo main nor any form of payment completed like a preorder.
The in stock notification process is also part of the ordering system too.
So.........in reality, you and I are just gonna be in the same boat as everyone else watching for when a real part number shows up and order it.;)

Hey OV10, guess your right about that. Alpha said at the time that those who had requested the upgrades would have the first shot but the gear were supposed to be coming in a few weeks and that has turned into many months. Sooooooo we'll see my friend,
Brad

[Dirty Dee]

Dee, that's what I did to remove the stock pilot (who I couldn't stand) and fly the season last year before attacking the cockpit in earnest in the fall. I didn't want to remove the canopy twice...
I also wanted to thank you for your excellent work on the printed nozzles- I have a set in hand and will soon get them installed. Thanks Dee!
Tom

Nice, thanks for the reference pictures. Thats the JHH pilot, right? I am planning on using the same in mine. How did you fabricate the shoulder harness?

Glad to hear the nozzles are of use. This week I just painted mine and got them installed into the nacelles. I blacked out the space around the nozzle instead of keeping the airframe color, and I think it looks much better. I still need to paint the nozzles themselves, but deciding on what color to actually use. The Revell Monogram kit instructions indicates steel, but having done that on my scratchbuilt A-10, I feel like it sticks out a bit much. Maybe gun metal mixed with a few drops of steel?

[Topshot19]

Flight number 5 and 6 on my a-10 were great today. It was so windy and she hardly seamed to care. On the second landing I was coming down and the wind droped her on the deck and she just stuck with the new style nose gear! No nose bouce at all. For sure thought I was going to get the bronco. But nothing!

[RCAV8R]

Nice, thanks for the reference pictures. Thats the JHH pilot, right? I am planning on using the same in mine. How did you fabricate the shoulder harness?

Glad to hear the nozzles are of use. This week I just painted mine and got them installed into the nacelles. I blacked out the space around the nozzle instead of keeping the airframe color, and I think it looks much better. I still need to paint the nozzles themselves, but deciding on what color to actually use. The Revell Monogram kit instructions indicates steel, but having done that on my scratchbuilt A-10, I feel like it sticks out a bit much. Maybe gun metal mixed with a few drops of steel?

Hey DD...you got me curious so I dug into my Modern Hog Guide (Reid Publications). There are surprisingly few shots of the exhaust side of the nacelle, and none with your camo scheme. These appear to be contradictory...one looks more steel than the other. Maybe it varies by squadron? Rob

[Dirty Dee]

Yea, i have seen a mix. Some of them are more like a steel, others (both camo and 2-tone) match the fuselage colors.

[Pogo]

Nice, thanks for the reference pictures. Thats the JHH pilot, right? I am planning on using the same in mine. How did you fabricate the shoulder harness?

Glad to hear the nozzles are of use. This week I just painted mine and got them installed into the nacelles. I blacked out the space around the nozzle instead of keeping the airframe color, and I think it looks much better. I still need to paint the nozzles themselves, but deciding on what color to actually use. The Revell Monogram kit instructions indicates steel, but having done that on my scratchbuilt A-10, I feel like it sticks out a bit much. Maybe gun metal mixed with a few drops of steel?

Yes, JHH figure and the harnesses are some elastic straps borrowed from my wife's sewing supplies so something similar shouldn't be hard to find. Your discussion and photos of the nozzles is timely as I hadn't seen any good pics and though these are quite varied I think I'll do mine in darkish metal, as you've suggested. Interesting that some show paint as you'd think it would be too hot for a coating to survive.
Tom

[Jimrc73]

I gotta tell you guys, just upgrading the nose to TL has helped a ton. I've done about a dozen flights on the A-10 with the upgraded nose, and the nose bounce tendency has completely disappeared! I have had a few not so stellar landings, and all I get is just a very small hop back in the air (maybe 6" or so), but the most important thing is that all 3 wheels get off the ground, not just the nose.

Pat:
After reading all of the posts on the TL nose gear, I spoke with Motion RC earlier this week regarding when they expect availability. To quote Motion, they said they "have a ton of them coming in the next 3-4 weeks...but that time frame depends on customs." I will definitely get one of the TL nose gears and may even have it before it warms up enough to maiden my A-10. Pat, do you happen to have a closeup picture of your new TL nose gear that you could share? The reason I ask is so that I don't screw up when I get mine and install it incorrectly. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with the new gear.

Regards,
Jim

[crxmanpat]

Sorry Jim, no close up pics. But the "knuckle" of the strut faces forward.

[Jimrc73]

Sorry Jim, no close up pics. But the "knuckle" of the strut faces forward.

No worries Pat - thank you for the info!!! I hope it comes in soon.

Regards,
Jim

[Shirty]

G'day fellas got a question... for those of you that swapped out the nose gear for the new trailing link type, did you have to cut away the gear door and part of the white plastic triangle? Reason I ask is my mate kurt has done his, but I haven't seen it, and he said it needs doing or the gear will hit the door on compression. Thinking about swapping mine this week, just want to see what's involved in cutting etc if anyone has a pic? Thanks. :)

[crxmanpat]

Didn't cut anything on mine, works just fine.

[Topshot19]

G'day fellas got a question... for those of you that swapped out the nose gear for the new trailing link type, did you have to cut away the gear door and part of the white plastic triangle? Reason I ask is my mate kurt has done his, but I haven't seen it, and he said it needs doing or the gear will hit the door on compression. Thinking about swapping mine this week, just want to see what's involved in cutting etc if anyone has a pic? Thanks. :)

I had to cut a sliver of foam off for it not to rub but thats it.

[Shirty]

Ok thanks fellas. That's weird tho, my mate said he had to cut almost half the triangle off and a good third of the door. Guess I'll have a go and see. Cheers again.

[Jimrc73]

G'day fellas got a question... for those of you that swapped out the nose gear for the new trailing link type, did you have to cut away the gear door and part of the white plastic triangle? Reason I ask is my mate kurt has done his, but I haven't seen it, and he said it needs doing or the gear will hit the door on compression. Thinking about swapping mine this week, just want to see what's involved in cutting etc if anyone has a pic? Thanks. :)

Hi Shirty:

I will be ordering my trailing link as soon as it's available at Motion RC (I posted a couple of days ago that Motion told me about 3-4 weeks before they come...going through customs). When you get yours installed, would you mind posting (or PM) a picture of the installation since I will be doing the same when mine arrives. Everyone is awesome and so helpful in this thread!!! Thank you!

Regards,
Jim

[janmb]

I am convinced that most bounces are because we are coming in way to fast

100% correct.

With the obvious danger of generalizing, almost every single video I have seen of people bouncing this model has been fast, unpowered elevator based landings, rather than throttle controlled, sink landings where the throttle is used actively. In my not at all humble opinion, a fair share of pilots would benefit greatly from using their throttle more and their elevator less.

[Flying Dutchman]

Hello fellow A10-lovers,

Since the weather conditions in The Netherlands are far from ideal at the moment, I will have to wait for the maiden of my new bird.
Can't wait!

I have a question to you regarding the new TL-nose gear:
Initially, I (thought that I) was lucky enough to order it from the first batch that became available with MotionRC, together with some other spare items for the FW planes I have.

However, a few days after ordering I received the following mail from them:
"On the above order, the 80mm A-10 Nose Landing Gear B that you purchased is defective. We only received a limited number of these and more than a few were defective resulting in this shortage."

Is there anyone else that received such a message and had their TL-order cancelled?
Until now, I have not read about anyone that received a defective gear.

[themudduck]

100% correct.

With the obvious danger of generalizing, almost every single video I have seen of people bouncing this model has been fast, unpowered elevator based landings, rather than throttle controlled, sink landings where the throttle is used actively. In my not at all humble opinion, a fair share of pilots would benefit greatly from using their throttle more and their elevator less.

I agree with this, and have said it before. Part of the problem *may* be that a lot of us have the balance point set too far forward (per the manual) and in that position, the aircraft comes in a little faster and it is harder to get the nose up. It's hard to get the nose up on final, when its nose-heavy. It does a lot better with the batteries in the rear position. So sure, when you drive it in fast and hit the nose gear, <BAM> it will bounce back up every time. If you come in nice and gentle with the nose up, there is no bounce. I still have the original nose gear (I purchased a replacement which is still in the package) and its fine.

Sorry...

[bill34207]

I may have missed seeing it here it since I've been concentrating more on the Phantom lately, but,. the main gear oleo's are now up for "notify me when in stock" on the upgrades page.