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

[Gringotuerto]

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT !!!

Reminds me of this story - new software "feature" gives unexpected result when trigger is pulled:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafing_of_the_Little_Egg_Harbor_Intermediate_School

Good to know that we RC pilots are not the only ones who do stupid things.

[Raptor3596]

New to HS. I have about 10 flights on my A-10 80mm, and after using a lot of great tips from this forum, during the build and setup, it flies great. I let my 13 yro son take it up and bring it in and he greased the landing better than I ever have. I will admit he has much better skills flying than me.

Now he wants one of his own to fly the same time as dad.

I ordered the parts for the 90mm upgrade from Motion RC, what a great company compared to a few others I have experienced lately. Excited to see the difference in size, and in-runner vs out-runner set ups. Might also go for a new paint scheme with the 90 upgrade.

[Elbee]

New to HS. I have about 10 flights on my A-10 80mm, and after using a lot of great tips from this forum, during the build and setup, it flies great. I let my 13 yro son take it up and bring it in and he greased the landing better than I ever have. I will admit he has much better skills flying than me.

Now he wants one of his own to fly the same time as dad.

I ordered the parts for the 90mm upgrade from Motion RC, what a great company compared to a few others I have experienced lately. Excited to see the difference in size, and in-runner vs out-runner set ups. Might also go for a new paint scheme with the 90 upgrade.

R3, Welcome to "The Squawk". The Freewing A-10 is a really great flyer. It's gratifying to see your son following you along in the hobby. Best, LB

[Hugh Wiedman]

New to HS. I have about 10 flights on my A-10 80mm, and after using a lot of great tips from this forum, during the build and setup, it flies great. I let my 13 yro son take it up and bring it in and he greased the landing better than I ever have. I will admit he has much better skills flying than me.

Now he wants one of his own to fly the same time as dad.

I ordered the parts for the 90mm upgrade from Motion RC, what a great company compared to a few others I have experienced lately. Excited to see the difference in size, and in-runner vs out-runner set ups. Might also go for a new paint scheme with the 90 upgrade.

Great work, I'm very interested to hear how she flies with 90 mm fans. It has plenty of power with the 80's, gets off the grass quickly, climbs forever and rarely do I use full throttle so this must be a "wild beast" with the 90's. With over 10,000 posts, can't say I've ever heard anyone weigh in on the upgraded 90 mm fans, although I'm sure several have, so very curious to learn what the difference is. Are you going with the 9 blade inrunner (the one that now comes with the F-4's and F-18), or are you going to try the more expensive 12 blade inrunner, my personal 90 mm EDF favorite?

[Raptor3596]

I went with the 9 blade in-runners from the F-18 and I think the F-16 Performance 90mm. Should arrive this week sometime.

On the Freewing F-16 70mm I have, I noticed a huge difference in power from the out-runner to the stepped up in-runner.

[Hugh Wiedman]

I went with the 9 blade in-runners from the F-18 and I think the F-16 Performance 90mm. Should arrive this week sometime.

On the Freewing F-16 70mm I have, I noticed a huge difference in power from the out-runner to the stepped up in-runner.

Sounds good. MRC upgraded the F-18 and the camo F-4 with the 9 blade 1900 Kv inrunner, but for some reason left the "Ghost Grey" F-4 with the original outrunner, at least for now. I put the 90 mm 12 blade 1835 Kv inrunner in my F-16 and love the performance of that one, but at $158 (vs $89 for the 9 blade), it's a little pricey, although IMO worth it, at least on the F-16.

[Elbee]

Hugh Wiedman and Raptor3596 , "there is no substitute for horsepower." Best, LB

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hugh Wiedman and Raptor3596 , "there is no substitute for horsepower." Best, LB

You got that right! Just finishing the initial restoration of my mom's '68 Firebird 400 convertible, only 36,000 miles on it (I could never drive it cause I kept getting speeding tickets). Kinda looks like my Stinger 90 repaint now, but with a 400 hp V8, just a little more guts.

[Raptor3596]

Some A-10 shark mouth graphics would be cool, but maybe a little much for my style. Old story of you always want more HP, have the Scatpack, but now I want a Hellcat!

[flyAA]

I went with the 9 blade in-runners from the F-18 and I think the F-16 Performance 90mm. Should arrive this week sometime.

On the Freewing F-16 70mm I have, I noticed a huge difference in power from the out-runner to the stepped up in-runner.

Super interested to hear about your upgrade experience as I’m planning on doing the same to mine here soon.

which esc are you going to use?

[Raptor3596]

Here is my parts list from Motion RC. I have a 1900KV and 130A ESC already from an F-16 that had a less than successful flight. Thats why I went with the same set up so I can put the motor and esc I have already to good use. I needed to get another EDF though since the original in the F-16 was cracked.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Here is my parts list from Motion RC. I have a 1900KV and 130A ESC already from an F-16 that had a less than successful flight. Thats why I went with the same set up so I can put the motor and esc I have already to good use. I needed to get another EDF though since the original in the F-16 was cracked.

If you're going to do a re-paint, I suggest the "Arctic Thunder" version, it looks outstanding in the air and the visibility is superb. With those twin 90 mm inrunners you'd have one outstanding little beasty.

[Necroscope]

Good morning guys,

Wow 538 pages and a 34 page mods page...

I picked up a very tidy pre-loved A-10 yesterday. I am currently looking into the nose gear mod.

Is there anything else i should check for or be aware of?

Many thanks.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Good morning guys,

Wow 538 pages and a 34 page mods page...

I picked up a very tidy pre-loved A-10 yesterday. I am currently looking into the nose gear mod.

Is there anything else i should check for or be aware of?

Many thanks.

The nose gear upgrade to trailing link, but only if you fly on grass. If you fly on a hard surface, leave the nose gear as is and upgrade the main to the "shock absorbing" struts. Additionally, you probably should put carbon fiber tubes in the empty channels on each side of the fuselage in the front section from where the foam wall starts aft in the battery bay to as far forward as the channel goes. I would also suggest some RF chokes on all wires/cables coming from each ESC as they tend to carry a lot of signal interference which might disrupt your RX signal. Lastly, balance it around 90-92 mm instead of the book recommended 78 mm, which is way too nose heavy and makes for difficult landings and the ability to keep the nose up, which can lead to nose first landings and the dreaded "bucking bronco". And always fly with all the ordinance, it's sacrilegious to fly this bird "naked", and besides the fully loaded package seems to have little to no affect on the way it performs.

[Necroscope]

Thank Hugh, that's great information and very much appreciated.

I believe she already has the upgraded gear, i will need to look into the carbon fibre reinforcement and other items.

I've never flow my FW Fulcrum with the ordinance on, but there is no way i was going to remove the A-10's its amazing.

I'll be using an AR637T with a Sat right up front. Thanks again.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Thank Hugh, that's great information and very much appreciated.

I'll be using an AR637T with a Sat right up front. Thanks again.

That's the same RX and remote sat I am using as well, works outstanding. For what it's worth, I programmed the gains as follows with no oscillation: Flaps Up, FM1 50/55/60 (R/P/Y), Take Off Flaps FM2 60/70/80 and Landing Flaps FM3 70/80/90. Sounds like a lot of gain but it works well and keeps it "steady as a Rock". BTW, I don't ever use heading gain and I set the priority at 160 for all three modes, but that's just me. Enjoy it!

[Raptor3596]

Thank Hugh, that's great information and very much appreciated.

I believe she already has the upgraded gear, i will need to look into the carbon fibre reinforcement and other items.

I've never flow my FW Fulcrum with the ordinance on, but there is no way i was going to remove the A-10's its amazing.

I'll be using an AR637T with a Sat right up front. Thanks again.

Careful with the AR637T & Sat. I was using the same one and I'm sure the carbon fiber rods installed affected my Range/Holds/Fades. I was lucky a friend checked it at the field prior to flight. I moved it up front and as far from the carbon fiber as I could and it improved. It still worries me, so I might change to an 8 channel with multiple Sats.

I also second the 90-92mm CG. Take offs and landings are so much more controlled.

I'm currently running HRB 5000s, but I moved the control board to the nose above the gear, so I can put two HRB 6000s in and as far back as I can in the bay. Hoping to get more flight time with the 90mm EDFs.

[Raptor3596]

Got the 90mm EDFs put together. The 1900KV inrunner motors and 130amp esc fit perfectly. I wasn't sure about the aluminum spinner caps, but they add good contrast.

I found out I didn't need to purchase the esc mounts or the tail nozzles separately. They were included with the Nacelles.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Got the 90mm EDFs put together. The 1900KV inrunner motors and 130amp esc fit perfectly. I wasn't sure about the aluminum spinner caps, but they add good contrast.

I found out I didn't need to purchase the esc mounts or the tail nozzles separately. They were included with the Nacelles.

Nice looking set-up. Can't wait to hear your report on the 90 mm fans. I did move the sat way up front with the active end as far away from the front end of the carbon tubes as possible and the RX main antennae going aft as far as possible away from the back end of the carbon tubes. I'm using 2 RT 6250's, each about 30 g lighter than the HRB 6000's your using (love those batteries though for my inrunner in the F-16) and removed the control board and put it on the port side fuselage wall so I could get the batteries all the way back to achieve the 92 mm balance point. But then my 3D cockpit and JHH pilot added about 130 g of extra weight up front so I needed all the aft battery position I could get. No doubt your 90 mm fans will add a little tail weight from the stock 80's so you should be able to balance nicely anywhere you want with the control board out of the way. Right now I'm getting almost 6 minutes with those batteries (or 5 minutes if I'm pushing it extremely aggressively) and still coming in with 30%. On second thought, maybe I don't want to hear about how great the 90's perform and how much time you'll get cause sometimes, ignorance is bliss!

[Raptor3596]

Finished up the 90mm A-10 this weekend. I was frustrated because my airbrush gun failed as I was almost finished. Resorted to brushing the last few patterns on the bottom under the nacelles.

I liked the Arctic Camo, but decided at the last minute to go with the "Flipper" scheme. The contrast was nice with the dark and light greys.

In order to achieve the same CG as I had before, I needed to stack the HRB 6000s ontop of one another for now, but offset a little. With the 80s I had 5000s lined up.

I flew it today, with 6000s and also with 5000s. The efficiency and power of these inrunners over the 80mm outrunners is very noticeable. At a 4 min flight time on the 80mm with 5000s, I was coming in at 30-40%, depending on throttle management.

With the 90s I was at half throttle most of the time, and cruising at near the same speed as the 80s at full throttle. The throttle was much faster and I had a vertical climb that wouldn't stop. I came in the first flight with "light throttle" around 3:30 to check the 6000s and they were at an impressive 64% still. Next flight I bumped up to 4:30 with more aggressive throttle and I was 51%. After running out of 6000s I swapped over to my 5000s and at 3:30, I was coming in around 50-55%.

Landing was much easier with the 90s. The added weight, needed constant throttle, which if you're like me and tend to throttle down to early, it teaches you fly all the way in.

Im so glad I did this swap. Now to find some wider batteries to disperse the weight a little more in the fuse.