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

[OV10]

Won't you have to offset the wheel bay or the retract mechanism Charlie?

YEP, That's what us modders do;)

[Sky Wolf]

Got the call from Customer Service today that my gear set order had to be canceled because the system didn’t catch that it was sold out. Apparently two of us had our hand tugging on the last remaining gear-set at the same time.

I guess I was chosen to wait because I agreed to give mine up to Brad LOL They figured I didn’t need them.

I was was wondering why I never got a “Shipped” notification.

They were super nice and apologetic about it!

[RCjetdude]

YEP, That's what us modders do;)

Too much work for this modder.

[Sky Wolf]

Too much work for this modder.

...says the man who developed a working canopy, the smoking cannon, and birthed a 14lb A-10 baby :)

[RCjetdude]

16lbs my friend. 16lbs... whew.

[Sky Wolf]

That’s a really big baby! Only a real man could deliver that one!

[RCjetdude]

I have shed some weight on it since and took it down from it's perch just today in fact to work on it and get it ready to fly again. I need to do a little repainting work, re-install the powder Canon and swap out the main gear.

Project Lipstick

[RCjetdude]

I just learned something that rattled me. I last flew my Euro Green A-10 at eWeek in September. Since that time I have not even powered it up. Today I took it down from the ceiling to get it fixed up a bit. Powered it up and noticed the right aileron was not working at all. Started trying to trace it by first disconnecting the ailerons from the receiver and connecting them to a servo tester. Everything went crazy chattering. Elevator, rudder, flaps. I checked my servo tester and it was working fine. I then disconnected the wing and plugged the aileron servo directly to the tester and nothing. Servo is dead. When I last flew the plane I completely forgot that while taxiing back one of the ailerons was stuck full up and eventually seemed to work so I apparently didn't think much of it. George had to remind me that it had acted up. Long story short it came very close to spiralling in because the servo was in the process of failing. I am very fortunate it didn't completely fail in flight.

[downwindleg]

Yeah Steve, you never really know when a servo is going to let go. Not really practical to test them every time you fly. Maybe with all this new telemetry someone will come up with some sort of servo feedback so you can include that with range testing or something. Are you listening tech guys? Alert alert, opportunity for one uping the competition!!

[tclaridge]

I think it is always a good idea to put a little wiggle pressure on your control surfaces to see if they "buck" back. THis is a sure sign of a coming failure. Worth the pre-flight check.

[Sky Wolf]

Scary stuff Steve! You were very fortunate it happened close to the end of the flight.Can't wait to see her in person!

[TiredIronGRB]

I just learned something that rattled me. I last flew my Euro Green A-10 at eWeek in September. Since that time I have not even powered it up. Today I took it down from the ceiling to get it fixed up a bit. Powered it up and noticed the right aileron was not working at all. Started trying to trace it by first disconnecting the ailerons from the receiver and connecting them to a servo tester. Everything went crazy chattering. Elevator, rudder, flaps. I checked my servo tester and it was working fine. I then disconnected the wing and plugged the aileron servo directly to the tester and nothing. Servo is dead. When I last flew the plane I completely forgot that while taxiing back one of the ailerons was stuck full up and eventually seemed to work so I apparently didn't think much of it. George had to remind me that it had acted up. Long story short it came very close to spiralling in because the servo was in the process of failing. I am very fortunate it didn't completely fail in flight.

Here's video of that flight...

[john2kx]

Maiden complete without issue. Yep, another guy here who has completed first, second and third flight of the Motion A10. I read all the posts about this project from several sources prior to my build and put those lessons learned by others to use.

I did setup c/g at 86mm, which required moving control board back using forward mounting screws while using a pair of 6S 5000 gensace packs (labeled at 65C). Elevator was set as best as I could determine by pics some of you guys have posted. Control throws were set per manual at low rate. It's been a while since I've seen this, but no trim was required after take off. Since I fly Jeti and have gyros (or a flight controller) built into my rx, I elected not to setup a mix for flap to elevators. A three second delay was dialed into flap deployment/retract, and I think was a contributor into not having to use a elevator mix. I elected not to activate gyros during initial flights.

I do fly from a grass strip and the l/g is all stock. Was flying in a 10 mph crosswind and happened to grease that first landing. It felt rock solid in air and the rates, throws and expo dialed in just happened to work perfectly. My radio (jeti) captures mah's consumed and I was surprised at how fast mah's are depleted. It did not take long for me to figure out that throttle management was going to play in to how much fun I was going to have. Second flight built confidence and landing was fair. Third flight and I was a bit rushed on my landing due to full size traffic in the area. I really bounced on landing, and in a 10 mph crosswind, watched as this 13 pound bird sat motionless in air 3 feet off the deck.....I elected to apply full power vs letting it fall on the gear at this height. She plowed forward and up without issue. Surprisingly, no damage was found after going around and performing another landing approach.

For me, on grass, I think the T/L front strut will be beneficial, and I have one on order. It wil be here tomorrow and I don't plan to fly again without installing it.

Have got to work on sound now. Having owned 5 turbine powered aircraft, I'd like to have "more" as compared to the stock fans. Perhaps the wiffle balls will work but may have to step up to a sound card to satisfy my nitch
.

Thanks again to all who have contributed,

John

[Porkster]

Well done John, Glad it worked out well. I can get around 7 minutes of flight time if i'm careful with the throttle using 5300 mah packs. I set my alarms to warn at 3500 mah consumed so that I have enough for a few go-arounds if needed and leave the packs just under storage voltage.
I think the plane could easily handle the weight of a sound system.

[MikeT]

I think the plane could easily handle the weight of a sound system.

A friend installed one in his A-10. Seems like more trouble than it's worth (IMO) and he said the weight was noticeable.

Mike

[purduephigam]

You could easily argue any sort of modification to be more trouble than it's worth. This is a giant plane, and a sound system could be noticeable I suppose, but how, by losing a few mph? I'd think any added weight and heavier appearance would have it behave/land even more scale.

I'll be putting a shockwave 2 system in mine in a few weeks. Surely there are others that can chime in on this?

[MikeT]

You could easily argue any sort of modification to be more trouble than it's worth. This is a giant plane, and a sound system could be noticeable I suppose, but how, by losing a few mph? I'd think any added weight and heavier appearance would have it behave/land even more scale.

I'll be putting a shockwave 2 system in mine in a few weeks. Surely there are others that can chime in on this?

I wasn't the "losing a few MPH" so much as he noticed the weight more on landing. This guy is a really proficient pilot ( both full scale KC-135 pilot and R/C ). I'm not saying don't do it just relaying info from someone who has first hand experience. As always what's good for some isn't good for others.

Mike

[Sky Wolf]

My flying buddy has the Mr. RC sound system in his with 2 speakers. He never mentioned that it affects his flying or feels heavy. I don’t have one in mine and I’ve never flown his to see if there’s any difference. But it’s such a large plane that I can’t see it being a problem.

[Jimrc73]

Maiden complete without issue. Yep, another guy here who has completed first, second and third flight of the Motion A10. I read all the posts about this project from several sources prior to my build and put those lessons learned by others to use.

I did setup c/g at 86mm, which required moving control board back using forward mounting screws while using a pair of 6S 5000 gensace packs (labeled at 65C). Elevator was set as best as I could determine by pics some of you guys have posted. Control throws were set per manual at low rate. It's been a while since I've seen this, but no trim was required after take off. Since I fly Jeti and have gyros (or a flight controller) built into my rx, I elected not to setup a mix for flap to elevators. A three second delay was dialed into flap deployment/retract, and I think was a contributor into not having to use a elevator mix. I elected not to activate gyros during initial flights.

I do fly from a grass strip and the l/g is all stock. Was flying in a 10 mph crosswind and happened to grease that first landing. It felt rock solid in air and the rates, throws and expo dialed in just happened to work perfectly. My radio (jeti) captures mah's consumed and I was surprised at how fast mah's are depleted. It did not take long for me to figure out that throttle management was going to play in to how much fun I was going to have. Second flight built confidence and landing was fair. Third flight and I was a bit rushed on my landing due to full size traffic in the area. I really bounced on landing, and in a 10 mph crosswind, watched as this 13 pound bird sat motionless in air a 3 feet.....I elected to apply full power vs letting it fall on the gear at this height. She plowed forward and up without issue. Surprisingly, no damage was found after going around and performing another landing approach.

For me, on grass, I think the T/L front strut will be beneficial, and I have one on order. It wil be here tomorrow and I don't plan to fly again without installing it.

Have got to work on sound now. Having owned 5 turbine powered aircraft, I'd like to have "more" as compared to the stock fans. Perhaps the wiffle balls will work but may have to step up to a sound card to satisfy my nitch
.

Thanks again to all who have contributed,

John

John:

Thank you for all of the information and congratulations on your maiden! I am all set to go, and will hopefully maiden in a couple of weeks when it gets a bit warmer (light snow falling as I write this). I agree that all of the folks who provide info and tips in this forum are extremely beneficial. My CG is set at 82 mm, so I will give that a shot first and may possibly move it back as you and others have done so. I also fly from very nice and short grass, and am awaiting delivery of my TL nose gear as well. Again, congrats John!!

Regards,
Jim

[janmb]

Any idea when more of the straight leg mains will be available?

Thanks.