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

[tjkav8tor]

I'm gonna order a decal set from Callie graphics but don't know the scale of the 80mm A-10, ...can anybody help with that??

The Freewing A-10 is a 1/10th scale.
Callie does a great job with graphics for this ship!
Cheers,
TJ

[Elbee]

I'm gonna order a decal set from Callie graphics but don't know the scale of the 80mm A-10, ...can anybody help with that??

CG, Like tjkav8tor said, she has many stock sets available and she made me a custom set for my A-10. She is the "go-to" on this and every Freewing or Flightline model current or past. If you ask her she will always point you in the right direction on scale for any livery. Best, Welcome to Hobby Squawk. LB

[Elbee]

The Freewing A-10 is a 1/10th scale.
Callie does a great job with graphics for this ship!
Cheers,
TJ

TJ, Sage advice and welcome to "The Squawk" Sir.Best, LB

[tjkav8tor]

Hi TJ, your left motor running well when cold but cutting out when on high throttle isn't a good sign. Keep in mind, I would encourage not running an EDF on the ground at maximum throttle for longer than 20 seconds, maximum. The fan can't unload fully and that may skew your numbers for heat exchange and efficiency, and obscure (or exacerbate) whatever root cause is affecting your motor. Certainly follow Gary's guidance on this one, he's the expert.

My recommendation remains to get a wattmeter --it will give you actual data from which you can then troubleshoot more effectively and be able to eventually verify your results' consistency.

Happy Saturday gang,
Here's the latest update on my 90mm left motor cutting out at full throttle issue I mentioned a few weeks back. It took me a bit to get my hands on a Castle Link and sundry programming items for my ESC's, and Alpha's recommendation for a wattmeter, etc. But I am know tool rich and loaded for bear so to speak.

My resolution for the issue was fairly simple. After talking to Gary at Efflux RC, the folks i sourced my 90mm fan units and HET motors, and Castle ESC's from, Gary recommended this go forward configuration; simply removing my external Castle Pro BEC from the left motor 6S battery as it's power source. Having done that I now power the external BEC, receiver and aircraft servo's with a 2s 1800 mah lipo battery. After bench testing this setup, without any changes to the fan motor ESC's, I am no longer experiencing the left motor cutoff at full throttle. A full flight tomorrow will confirm the results, but the bench testing has been a success.

Many thanks for Alpha's help in this electric newbies continuing education journey. By the way, the A10 with the upgraded fully articulating landing gear is a clear winner. No more porpoising landings, no more bouncing on less than perfect approaches, and having planted it on the main gear a few times it is very well behaved. If you haven't tried this upgrade I highly recommend it.

Have a great weekend all!
Cheers, TJ

[Phantom]

Happy Saturday gang,
Here's the latest update on my 90mm left motor cutting out at full throttle issue I mentioned a few weeks back. It took me a bit to get my hands on a Castle Link and sundry programming items for my ESC's, and Alpha's recommendation for a wattmeter, etc. But I am know tool rich and loaded for bear so to speak.

My resolution for the issue was fairly simple. After talking to Gary at Efflux RC, the folks i sourced my 90mm fan units and HET motors, and Castle ESC's from, Gary recommended this go forward configuration; simply removing my external Castle Pro BEC from the left motor 6S battery as it's power source. Having done that I now power the external BEC, receiver and aircraft servo's with a 2s 1800 mah lipo battery. After bench testing this setup, without any changes to the fan motor ESC's, I am no longer experiencing the left motor cutoff at full throttle. A full flight tomorrow will confirm the results, but the bench testing has been a success.

Many thanks for Alpha's help in this electric newbies continuing education journey. By the way, the A10 with the upgraded fully articulating landing gear is a clear winner. No more porpoising landings, no more bouncing on less than perfect approaches, and having planted it on the main gear a few times it is very well behaved. If you haven't tried this upgrade I highly recommend it.

Have a great weekend all!
Cheers, TJ

You swapped out all 3 gear? Not just the mains or just the nose gear?

[tjkav8tor]

You swapped out all 3 gear? Not just the mains or just the nose gear?

Yes sir, started with the nose gear and test flew. The mains were still causing a bouncing rebound on less then perfect approaches and landings.
After swapping out the mains my A10 has settled right down, no more porpoising rebounds and very planted now upon touching down.

[Phantom]

Yes sir, started with the nose gear and test flew. The mains were still causing a bouncing rebound on less then perfect approaches and landings.
After swapping out the mains my A10 has settled right down, no more porpoising rebounds and very planted now upon touching down.

The recommendations here always stated either replace just the mains or only the nose. As I modified my nose a couple of times trying to tame the bronco, I ended up just replacing the mains and she started planting like she should. As I understand it, the stock mains are beneficial for grass operations, but I haven't tried.

[davjamhan]

Hey Guys just got a DX9 Black Radio I'm having problems binding both esc's the only one that's binding in the one with the BEC so any HELP would help Thanks Dave

[crxmanpat]

Check to make sure the non-functioning ESC is fully plugged into the motor.

[bbolz]

Here's my upgraded A10 cockpit thanks to Chris Garcas 3d printed parts (RCGroups). I love it and it was easy to follow his instructions. I found regular acrylic art paints worked great for the pilot. The cockpit parts were painted with Rustoleum 2X rattle cans.

[Dirty Dee]

Here's my upgraded A10 cockpit thanks to Chris Garcas 3d printed parts (RCGroups). I love it and it was easy to follow his instructions. I found regular acrylic art paints worked great for the pilot. The cockpit parts were painted with Rustoleum 2X rattle cans.

looks great! thanks again for sharing the pictures. This is Chris, I'm on this forum too.

[flyAA]

The recommendations here always stated either replace just the mains or only the nose. As I modified my nose a couple of times trying to tame the bronco, I ended up just replacing the mains and she started planting like she should. As I understand it, the stock mains are beneficial for grass operations, but I haven't tried.

i changed all 3 and have never had any issues.

[davjamhan]

okay guys what up with the balancing the a-10. it's a low wing airplane so it should be balance upside down correct or not

[Phantom]

okay guys what up with the balancing the a-10. it's a low wing airplane so it should be balance upside down correct or not

That's how I did it.

[davjamhan]

Phantom how many flights have you had with the a-10

[crxmanpat]

Upside down, landing gear extended, CG set at 86mm (book says 78mm, I thought that was nose heavy, flies great at 86mm).

[Phantom]

Phantom how many flights have you had with the a-10

About 60 flights total, first 15 consisted of 3 hard landings requiring minor surgery to the nose gear section including one complete replacement due to the ears breaking off the retract. And one controlled flight into a tree on final that snapped the fuselage in two, terrible location to fly at that place. So since I figured out that the CG per the book was way too far forward, causing most of nose gear issues, and swapping out the mains for the upgrades, I've had around 45 successful and enjoyable flights. I've attached a pic of my Frankenstein scar after putting the fuse back together. Now that I'm comfortable with her, I'll be performing plastic surgery on her to remove the scar, and finally apply the decals.

[themudduck]

Absolutely agree with what Pat and Phantom wrote, and its been argued about MANY times in this thread. IMO just about all those LG problems are caused by the model being nose heavy. Move the batteries back, and its a piece of cake to hold the nose up during landing and slow it down (with flaps of course). The difference (in the way it handles during landing) is remarkable. I did replace the nose gear with the trailing link type, I guess it helps when landings aren't perfect. I fly from Geotex and sometimes from grass.

Well sure, it flies great in the nose heavy position. That's what you want the first time you fly it, so its a good starting point. But with it balanced at 78mm, its very hard to get the nose up during landing, and when the nose gear hits first, the "pogo stick landing" technique is demonstrated!

[themudduck]

Boy, not much being posted here lately. I guess its building season.... or "fixin' season"....

Hey, I know that I'm not the only one who has had this problem - the little plastic antenna on the bottom (under the cockpit area) breaks right off if you look at it too hard.
So I was looking at that thing and I said to myself, I can bend a metal wire into that shape and make my own.

So I bent a piece of wire (it was a 2-56 rod) and epoxied it to a piece of popsicle stick. Cut off the ends with a Dremel...
Then I painted it... and installed it. Here are the pics with it posing next to the replacement part that I paid for. This took me about 20 minutes. (listen to this guy brag!) No I won't make you one.

[James]

Boy, not much being posted here lately. I guess its building season.... or "fixin' season"....

Hey, I know that I'm not the only one who has had this problem - the little plastic antenna on the bottom (under the cockpit area) breaks right off if you look at it too hard.
So I was looking at that thing and I said to myself, I can bend a metal wire into that shape and make my own.

So I bent a piece of wire (it was a 2-56 rod) and epoxied it to a piece of popsicle stick. Cut off the ends with a Dremel...
Then I painted it... and installed it. Here are the pics with it posing next to the replacement part that I paid for. This took me about 20 minutes. (listen to this guy brag!) No I won't make you one.

Nice fix there Mudduck! Happened to mine the first transport. Definitely going to go this route.

I don't see your post twice by the way