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

[The43rdHammer]

... move the CG back about 20mm, by shifting the blueboard back to the aft 2 screw holes...

That’s exactly what I did to get the CG further back, I didn’t want to stack them if I could avoid it to keep the weight as close to the centre line as possible... not sure if that makes a difference or not, but that’s the way I went.

[Gringotuerto]

Now I need to drive it around and make sure the steering is correct, perhaps confirm the CG and then away we go!

If this is your first flight, here's a tip. I recall that this one needs a visible "up" on the elevator. Of course this depends on CG, but three of us at the field have this plane and all of us noticed this - we started with what looked flat ele, and needed a lot of up trim once we got in the air. Here is a pic of where mine ended up. Also, there is infinite discussion of landing bounces on this thread, so I won't belabor that, but ...land slowly and on the mains.

[xviper]

Fits like a glove, just put one in at a time to get past the narrow lip at the top and install a longer battery strap.

Why does one of them say "5S"?

[drettger]

If this is your first flight, here's a tip. I recall that this one needs a visible "up" on the elevator. Of course this depends on CG, but three of us at the field have this plane and all of us noticed this - we started with what looked flat ele, and needed a lot of up trim once we got in the air. Here is a pic of where mine ended up. Also, there is infinite discussion of landing bounces on this thread, so I won't belabor that, but ...land slowly and on the mains.

Thanks for the tip. I am the first to say, "I don't need no stinking directions!", but I did actually see that in the booklet. I have already added the up elevator to my setup.

I totally agree about landing on the mains. I am aware that landing on the nose gear is certain to produce a good nose-high bounce, which when at a low speed is a guaranteed tip stall situation! The MotionRC Best Crash video has at least one of those. On one, the guy hits his nose wheel, which pops the plane up, one wing drops and he cartwheels a few times down the runway, happily spreading parts all alone the way!

[John Bergsmith]

Fits like a glove, just put one in at a time to get past the narrow lip at the top and install a longer battery strap.

Thanks for the pic, I'll have to give that a try.

[Gringotuerto]

Thanks for the tip. I am the first to say, "I don't need no stinking directions!", but I did actually see that in the booklet. I have already added the up elevator to my setup.

Oh really? I was unaware it was in the manual. Everybody I talked to at our local field learned this in the air. Wow, we are all so dumb. Of course this won't stop me from telling the next guy who does this "Didn't you even read the manual, you idiot!?"

[John Bergsmith]

I bet the 12-Blade 3658-1857kV Inrunner would be a nice upgrade for the A-10.

[The43rdHammer]

I bet the 12-Blade 3658-1857kV Inrunner would be a nice upgrade for the A-10.

It is 😇😍😂

[Phantom]

Why does one of them say "5S"?

I have 5 of these 8000mah 6s 100C batteries. That particular one I used in this photo was a victim of an unusually long sortie in my Phantom, which consisted of 4 go arounds due to some gusty cross winds. I sacrificed the lipo to save the plane. One cell never recovered, and I marked the lipo to make sure I don't use it for 6s anymore. It is now a 5s lipo, part of my 8s YAK-130's lipos line up along with a zippy 3s 8000mah lipo in series. Waste not want not!🙃

[Gringotuerto]

I have 5 of these 8000mah 6s 100C batteries. That particular one I used in this photo was a victim of an unusually long sortie in my Phantom, which consisted of 4 go arounds due to some gusty cross winds. I sacrificed the lipo to save the plane. One cell never recovered, and I marked the lipo to make sure I don't use it for 6s anymore. It is now a 5s lipo, part of my 8s YAK-130's lipos line up along with a zippy 3s 8000mah lipo in series. Waste not want not!🙃

Did you physically solder a bypass path around the dead cell? Or is it still sitting there in series with the others? I don't know much about how dead cells behave....can you pass current through in both directions (charge and discharge) without ill effect? Have you tested cell resistance? I would think it might contribute significant IR drop, but I don't really know. I never used a battery with a dead cell before.

[Phantom]

Did you physically solder a bypass path around the dead cell? Or is it still sitting there in series with the others? I don't know much about how dead cells behave....can you pass current through in both directions (charge and discharge) without ill effect? Have you tested cell resistance? I would think it might contribute significant IR drop, but I don't really know. I never used a battery with a dead cell before.

I did not do that, I'm sure you are correct about the increased resistance, it's not exactly a dead cell. Cell number 4 charges with the rest of the pack only never exceeds 4.02v. Then under load it drops significantly and immediately to 3.8, then 3.6, then 3.3v at full throttle, while there rest of the cells maintain there normal voltage sag under load. At the end of a run the voltage on cell #4 is 2.53v. As soon as you put the lipo on the charger it immediately jumps up to around 3.8v which is comparable to the other 5 cells. I've got 7 flights on it with this behavior. After that fateful F-4 flight it was the lowest cell, testing at 3.13v.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Phantom still looking for those HobbyStar 8000's to give them a try in my F-16 after you posted about them in that thread, but will have to wait a while till they come back in stock, if ever. I'm sure they'd increase the fun time in the A-10 as well and can't wait to try them in my SU-30 to boot!.

Regarding your "dead cell", I just had 2 E-Flight do the exact same thing (almost never use them anymore for that exact reason). Starts out OK, but at about 80% capacity, either 1 or 2 cells start dropping dramatically, resulting in a serious drop in power. After landing, if you wait about 15 seconds, the cells come back up and it seems OK for a short time, then drops again. All cells re-charge OK and come up, but those "hidden" bad cells are just waiting for another opportunity to strike. Put them on my IR meter and found that the internal resistance of the bad cells was almost double that of the good ones. Those batteries are now "swimming with the sharks". E-Flight batteries have been hands down the worst I have (in the last year 5 of them have done this-and most of the rest are at least puffed). One day soon, I'm going to dump all my E-Flights. Not a single problem with the Admirals, Roaring Tops or HRB's. But if you still have 11 good cells left, I suppose missing 1 ain't "life or death".

BTW, the RT 6250 is perfect for the F-4 outrunner as well as the outrunners in the A-10. Not as good in the inrunners though cause those fans definitely like higher C batteries. Just ordered some HRB 6000 50C and can't wait to test them on the inrunners. So far I've found the Admiral 6000 50C (weight 827g) has a lower actual C than the RT 6250 35C (weight 798g) but the HRB 6000 50C (weight 809g) has an actual C higher (according to IR meter and Power meter) than both, so looks like a good candidate for the A-10 outrunners (assuming I have to wait till hell freezes over for the HobbyStar 8000's)

[crxmanpat]

[USER="8281"]BTW, the RT 6250 is perfect for the F-4 outrunner as well as the outrunners in the A-10. Not as good in the inrunners though cause those fans definitely like higher C batteries. Just ordered some HRB 6000 50C and can't wait to test them on the inrunners. So far I've found the Admiral 6000 50C (weight 827g) has a lower actual C than the RT 6250 35C (weight 798g) but the HRB 6000 50C (weight 809g) has an actual C higher (according to IR meter and Power meter) than both, so looks like a good candidate for the A-10 outrunners (assuming I have to wait till hell freezes over for the HobbyStar 8000's)

I beg to differ. I use RT 6250 in my T-33 and get an easy 4 minutes with 25% left in the packs. This pack has a true 20C and is good for 125A constant.

[Nike_Belli]

Did you physically solder a bypass path around the dead cell? Or is it still sitting there in series with the others? I don't know much about how dead cells behave....can you pass current through in both directions (charge and discharge) without ill effect? Have you tested cell resistance? I would think it might contribute significant IR drop, but I don't really know. I never used a battery with a dead cell before.

Well Sayed! Man🤗

[Hugh Wiedman]

I beg to differ. I use RT 6250 in my T-33 and get an easy 4 minutes with 25% left in the packs. This pack has a true 20C and is good for 125A constant.

crxmanpat I don't think we disagree at all, maybe I wasn't very clear. I've tested over 100 batteries with the new Progressive RC Internal Resistance meter and GT Power meter and the RT 6250 35C tests out at 20C, which according to the meter maker, gives very conservative readings. The real "likely" C (according to them based on average finding and the way the Wayne Giles curve is set up in their meters) of that battery is more like 27C. This battery gives my 2 F-4's outrunners well over 4:30 of flight time and the F-18 outrunner closer to 6 minutes, so I love that battery for those outrunners. The Admiral 6000 50C (with slightly less flight time in each) actually test out at 17C with a "likely" C of 24 C, less than the RT 35C, yet 25g heavier. My only point was that a higher C battery doesn't really give much more power in the outrunners, an example is the RT 5500 70 C, which tests out to 23C and a "likely" C of 35C (but same weight as the Admiral 6000). The watts and amps drawn on these outrunners are virtually the same between the RT 35C, the Admiral 50C and the RT 70C.

The inrunners on the other hand definitely do better with the higher C (if you have a heavy bird and are taking off of grass). The inrunners on my F-16 and SU-30 draw up to 7 amps more and 400 watts more with the RT 70C than either the RT 35C or Admiral 50C. And you can really tell the difference in the higher RPM "whine" of the EDF and feel of the extra thrust with the higher C battery. Taking off of grass with the inrunners on a higher C battery get's it up 20-30 feet sooner on grass.

I still use the 6250 35C in my F-16 inrunner though to get more flight time over the RT 70C, but it does not give the same thrust on take-off as the 70C. Once in the air, however, you don't really notice much of a difference. Same high speed, same climbing ability, etc. as the biggest demand for power is at take-off, going from dead stop to full throttle. Once in the air, even at full throttle, the EDF does not demand as much power as at take-off so that discharge rate is only critical on take-off, especially on grass, and not so much on asphalt.

So I think we're simpatico (as Jeff Goldbloom told Will Smith when they were flying out of the alien mother ship in "Independence Day")!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hey Alpha since the A-10 is out of stock, I think it's time to upgrade the "whining" 80mm 9 blade outrunners with a 12 blade inrunner. You've been great in upgrading other jets, like the F-18 BA/Avanti/etc., so since the A-10 been around for a while, it deserves an upgrade. Aros has finally convinced me to join the "Arctic" club and I thought the A-10 would be ideal for that, especially since my CO gave me the . I'm a little worried about her giving another RC requisition the go ahead, either she's not feeling well or she must have something nefarious up her sleeve (I'll probably find out one day after she returns from another shopping trip), but gotta strike while the irons hot. And I know that she's not getting a new broom (she says that when she needs a new one, don't you dare ask her if it's because of her last crash landing-her joke, not mine, but I like it).

I'm really thinking of buying it and upgrading the fans myself to the inrunners, but that's going to add an extra $215 to the purchase , so instead of us having to pay for it, why doesn't Freewing/Motion bear the cost for all of us loyal Freewing/Flight Line/Motion customers . Makes Sense, doesn't it?

[crxmanpat]

But, but, but...the A-10 is supposed to "whine".

[MikeT]

Finished mine up today. What's the consensus on elevator set up for initial flights? I've seen some set quit a bit of down elevator. Manual seems to indicate a neutral setting.

Thanks
Mike

[Twowingtj]

crxmanpat is right. They use turbofan engines (TF-34), not turbojet engines. An A-10 without the whine is just a heavily armed Lear Jet

[Twowingtj]

Finished mine up today. What's the consensus on elevator set up for initial flights? I've seen some set quit a bit of down elevator. Manual seems to indicate a neutral setting.

Thanks
Mike

It's actually a little up. See pic in post #10104