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

[Gringotuerto]

I removed my trailing link from the nose wheel. I had cut the spring down a little, and once when taking off, I had to climb on the throttle quickly due to a short runway. The nose gear compressed and the tire rubbed hard on the gear door, slowing the plane down! I cut throttle and aborted take off. That doesn't happen with the other gear.

Yes, the trailing link can hit the gear door. People posted various mods - one is to cut a notch in the door; another is to install a collar to take away the last 1/8" or so of the strut compression range.

[Gringotuerto]

I have a problem, and was wondering if any one else has had it. I bought the Shockwave 3 sound system and installed it. Wouldn't work right. As soon as I plug in the batteries, the engine sound comes on and the only way to turn it off is to unplug the battery. Contacted David at Model Sound inc. and he said that if my RX has telemetry, it won't work! Almost ALL Spektrum RX have telemetry! David is working with me to solve the problem by making a special set of servo leads that have a resister and a capacitor. He isn't sure if it will work. He said next year he will have this built into the newer sound modules. Any body running the Shockwave 3 with a telemetry RX? Thanks.

Never heard of this, I use Shockwave on many planes. I fail to understand how telemetry could affect anything, it seems totally unrelated to the inputs/outputs of the sound card. I thought one of my Shockwave planes has telemetry also, but I don't really remember. Well, I'm sure David knows what he is talking about, he is an excellent engineer. I would be interested in the root cause, though. Maybe certain Spektrum receivers output something weird on their servo outputs out power up, and it messes up the sound card (which monitors certain Rx outputs for instruction).

[Warthog]

He thinks the telemetry signal traveling the servo wire, especially the throttle, messes with the sound module. He said that the module uses a very fast and sensitive processor and that could be the problem. I'll try the new servo leads and post how it worked. When I hook the unit up to an older Futaba RX without telemetry, it works fine. Go here, read chapter 2 http://www.modelsoundsinc.com/docs/S...enceManual.pdf

[Splat]

Charging my batteries for sortie number's 3 and 4 tomorrow...yes she's only flown twice lol.

On that note, this new battery charger rocks...did 4 batteries in the time is took me to do 1 last time. 😁

[Gringotuerto]

He thinks the telemetry signal traveling the servo wire, especially the throttle, messes with the sound module. He said that the module uses a very fast and sensitive processor and that could be the problem. I'll try the new servo leads and post how it worked. When I hook the unit up to an older Futaba RX without telemetry, it works fine. Go here, read chapter 2 http://www.modelsoundsinc.com/docs/S...enceManual.pdf

OK, read it. Yes, makes sense that a time-multiplexed line is totally unusable. However, if you have a spare channel on the Rx, you could get around this by mixing throttle 100% to an unused output, and running that other output to the soundcard instead of using the throttle wire directly.

Regarding RFI, well, 2.4GHz is quite far from these low frequency baseband signals, I think it should not be hard to filter them. It sounds like he is looking at RC low-pass filter. That should work....I also wonder if it would help to have a a ferrite bead on the line going to the sound card. Do you have on laying around?

Anyway, which Rx are you using? That would determine which of these two are potentially a problem/solution.

[Warthog]

Was using the Spektrum AR9350.

[Splat]

Well I think my first flights and landings were beginner's luck. Took her out for an early morning flight, took her a bit to get trimmed out for some reason because of the ordnance but after my timer went off I dirtied her up and brought her around for a landing. Everything looked good, speed was slow with full flaps and she settled in with my brain concentrating on the flare. Well she bounced and everything went slow motion, I said "bronco" out loud I believe and then she hit and the nose gear collapsed. Damage seems minimal, but the mounting inside the nose as well as the nose gear itself is bent. I already pulled everything out and I'm looking at replacement parts. Ugh.

[crxmanpat]

Sorry to see that Splat. We've all been there at one time or another. Just so you know, you will never get the plastic landing gear mount out of the plane to replace it. It has a lip that gets sandwiched between the foam on one side during assembly. So what you do it get some hardwood and cut it down so that it fits inside the cavities of the mount and glue it into place (insert them from the top of the mount as shown in the pic). Then you can take some longer wood screws and secure the nose retract back in. That's for the left side when looking at the mount from the bottom. If you've broken plastic on the right side, you may need to carve some of it out and glue in some more hardwood like 1/4" ply.

Also, take a good look at the retract housing (the black plastic of the retract unit) and make sure there are no cracks. If there are you need to replace it.

[Gringotuerto]

Was using the Spektrum AR9350.

According to this description, the "Smart" feature of Spektrum is what uses the white wire bidirectionally, which would confuse anything listening for a conventional throttle signal:

https://www.horizonhobby.com/on/dema...-Manual-EN.pdf

However, according to this compatibility table, the AR9350 does not support "Smart":

https://www.towerhobbies.com/on/dema...iver_Chart.pdf

From this I would concluded that if there is any problem, it is (fixable) RF interference.

[Splat]

Sorry to see that Splat. We've all been there at one time or another. Just so you know, you will never get the plastic landing gear mount out of the plane to replace it. It has a lip that gets sandwiched between the foam on one side during assembly. So what you do it get some hardwood and cut it down so that it fits inside the cavities of the mount and glue it into place (insert them from the top of the mount as shown in the pic). Then you can take some longer wood screws and secure the nose retract back in. That's for the left side when looking at the mount from the bottom. If you've broken plastic on the right side, you may need to carve some of it out and glue in some more hardwood like 1/4" ply.

Also, take a good look at the retract housing (the black plastic of the retract unit) and make sure there are no cracks. If there are you need to replace it.

So I bought a whole new nose gear strut and retract set because this one is cracked and broke all around the mounting area so I was like um yeah a new one is needed. I also bought a whole new nose gear door set and the landing gear mounts. I was curious as how hard it was going to be to swap out the nose mount...its broken on both sides. So no one has successfully performed surgery on the nose to swap that out? If I had to adapt with a little plywood thats no problem but I was hoping I could just swap it. I got a week before the new parts get here so I'll keep researching lol.

[Splat]

Spending more time looking at the damage to the nose wheel well and nose gear mounting point it doesn't look like the damage is all that severe and easily fixable if I do a little surgery. One question...anyone know what this is for? The circled part forward of the mounting screw holes.

[DCORSAIR]

So I bought a whole new nose gear strut and retract set because this one is cracked and broke all around the mounting area so I was like um yeah a new one is needed. I also bought a whole new nose gear door set and the landing gear mounts. I was curious as how hard it was going to be to swap out the nose mount...its broken on both sides. So no one has successfully performed surgery on the nose to swap that out? If I had to adapt with a little plywood thats no problem but I was hoping I could just swap it. I got a week before the new parts get here so I'll keep researching lol.

So sorry to see that Splat, maybe I'm not a good teacher, I was the one who said to make sure you hold the flare, but what I failed to also mention, when the A-10 settles as you say yours did, right there is when most pilots get the bounce, you have to add in a little power at the same time your flaring to smooth it out, slow flight with full flaps is great, but be prepared for the drop on the mains, hold the flare but get ready on the power, hope this helps.

[Splat]

So sorry to see that Splat, maybe I'm not a good teacher, I was the one who said to make sure you hold the flare, but what I failed to also mention, when the A-10 settles as you say yours did, right there is when most pilots get the bounce, you have to add in a little power at the same time your flaring to smooth it out, slow flight with full flaps is great, but be prepared for the drop on the mains, hold the flare but get ready on the power, hope this helps.

Oh no your advice went thru my head over and over on my approach and I think I just got cocky lol. I think I actually got off easy compared to some and I've already started surgery to fix it.

I'm doing exactly what Pat recommended with the wood.

[crxmanpat]

Spending more time looking at the damage to the nose wheel well and nose gear mounting point it doesn't look like the damage is all that severe and easily fixable if I do a little surgery. One question...anyone know what this is for? The circled part forward of the mounting screw holes.

You may be able to fix that one side. Shove some epoxy in there and push it back into place. Tap a new hole for the mount screw.

As for the circled hook, that was probably a spring attachment point in one phase of the design, but is not used in the production version. You can ignore it.

As for the landing gear plate, trust me, you won't get it out.

[DCORSAIR]

Oh no your advice went thru my head over and over on my approach and I think I just got cocky lol. I think I actually got off easy compared to some and I've already started surgery to fix it.

I'm doing exactly what Pat recommended with the wood.

Well don't give up on it, once it clicks, you will enjoy it more and landings will be no big deal, I will be joining the A-10 group again, I sold my 1st generation one after many many flights on it with not one issue with it, got into 800 size scale helis, but I miss my A-10 so much that I was about to order a new kit, today a guy that I met not to long ago is going to sell his A-10 and he is local, so I am going to pick it up this week hopefully and maybe his 90mm F-15 as well, he was going to give me a combo deal...

[Gringotuerto]

Well I think my first flights and landings were beginner's luck.

I smashed up the front on about my 3rd landing. I haven't done it since, and that was back whenever this plane first came out, a couple years at least. So it is learnable, and I'm not a great pilot by any means. And it fixed up better than I expected. Our field is a bit rough in spots, so mainly I just make effort to land slowly. If it has a lot of energy to work with, then a tiny bump can set it off on a temper tantrum, even if you touched down on the mains.

[Warthog]

Hey Gringo, I tried a AR9020 RX without Telemetry and it worked fine. Received the special leads from Dave at MS inc. and they work great too.

[Splat]

She's on the O.R. table and I've started a little surgery. I'm going with Pats advice and going to epoxy two wood struts where the plastic mounts were. Will cut to size and then epoxy them in.

[RC30Flyer]

Just received my first A-10... wow she's big!!! Couple questions for the pros in here. First off, has anyone "not" glued the tail section and just used the motor pods to hold it together? The tail section goes in so tight, I was just wondering... also, I'm a little bummed, I inspected the whole aircraft before removing some items from the box to start assembly, and I noticed that the motor pods have some packing/shipping damage. Please look at photos and give me your opinion about opening a ticket with Motion to try and get this resolved. Thanks guys!!!

[evensen007]

Just received my first A-10... wow she's big!!! Couple questions for the pros in here. First off, has anyone "not" glued the tail section and just used the motor pods to hold it together? The tail section goes in so tight, I was just wondering... also, I'm a little bummed, I inspected the whole aircraft before removing some items from the box to start assembly, and I noticed that the motor pods have some packing/shipping damage. Please look at photos and give me your opinion about opening a ticket with Motion to try and get this resolved. Thanks guys!!!

Oof that's bad. I'd be getting those replaced.