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

[RCjetdude]

Looked too clean to be stripped and I missed the previous post. Excellent job!

[Dirty Dee]

And I am finally done for now with the office upgrade. Just need some final touch-ups on the outside as well as weathering, but no more major mods on the fuselage until the winter at least.

Onward to flying season :a10

[RCjetdude]

That looks really good. Very well done.

[Dirty Dee]

Thanks!

[Pogo]

That looks really good. Very well done.

I'll second that- beautiful work Dee!:Cool::Cool:
Tom

[Elbee]

...Onward to flying season: a10

DD, your cockpit mod is Sierra Hotel. Have a great flying day. Best, Elbee

What is chiefly needed is skill rather than machinery. — Wilbur Wright, 13 May 1900

[janmb]

I operated my gear today with the new struts installed. I didn't experience any issues, and cycled a few times without binding. Though I believe the wheel wells will need to be deepened a bit, as the retracts sounded like they were working harder at the last moment before stopping.

I'm guessing since the oleos are straight now vs the TLs having a slight rearward offset, the wheels are diggin into the wells a small amount.

Precisely the same thing I have. It is not binding, but yes, the wheel needs to go deeper than the stock wheel well wants to - which leads to the retract working hard as hell. I don't want to risk to burn the retract and potentially lose the plane - especially not with turbines.

The stock wheels don't have this issue for several reasons. Firstly, the geometry means the wheel hangs lower in the first place. Secondly, the trailing link with simply flex, masking any conflict between the retracted wheel and the wheel well.

[janmb]

So I have the upgraded mains and my wheels do not turn. What do you think Steve...is that putting too much pressure on the retract? Rob

In my opinion - yes it does. Listening to the retract work at the end of the retract cycle does not sound good at all. Quite a lot of amps going on there.

And as a digression - the wheels don't turn while retracted on the stock mains neither - but whatever pressure/conflict there might be is completely absorbed by the trailing link allowing the wheel to flex as much as needed.

[RCAV8R]

Okay, so I managed to squeeze in flights 13-15 today between showers. A very big THANKS to Pilot Ryan for his video's of touch & go's! It was like night & day for me today!!! It has been said here before, and I'll say it again...one of the things I love about this hobby is the collaborative spirit everyone has toward each other. It is so gratifying to learn and grow as a pilot, and to benefit from the wisdom of others. Today I was impressed by how sensitive the plane is to a potential bounce, even at slower speed, but my landings were far more consistent at higher AOA, gentler, and I wasn't feeling panicked about the overall speed. I love it!! Too much funLOL Rob

[Pogo]

Precisely the same thing I have. It is not binding, but yes, the wheel needs to go deeper than the stock wheel well wants to - which leads to the retract working hard as hell. I don't want to risk to burn the retract and potentially lose the plane - especially not with turbines.

The stock wheels don't have this issue for several reasons. Firstly, the geometry means the wheel hangs lower in the first place. Secondly, the trailing link with simply flex, masking any conflict between the retracted wheel and the wheel well.

A few minutes with a rotary tool will see that fixed. A largish ball shaped grinding stone works well for foam removal.
Tom

[Dirty Dee]

Back from the field. Winds were stead at 13mph with ~17mph gusts today, and was directly across the runway. I had to re-CG the plane due to the cockpit mod and since my maiden had a Mobius camera taped to the tail for some in-flight footage. Balanced at 86mm, but the plane felt very tail-heavy in the air and was dragging the tail really badly. Landed the plane and took it back up with 78mm CG. Kept the flight short since I am still familiarizing myself with the plane, and kept the gear down since i haven't yet modified the wheelpods and didnt want to risk a gear deployment failure.

This plane can take the wind surprisingly well, though I will probably enable my lemon Rx gyro to deal with any wind buffeting and not mess with my landing approaches. With my scale thrust nozzles installed I count tell any pitch-coupling, however I didnt really fly over 3/4 throttle and didn't try jamming the throttle either. A big thanks to Dlxpkg2000 for CG assistance and acting as co-pilot. His Arctic Thunder Hawg is also nicely done if you haven't yet seen it.

Here is a video of today's second flight after going from 86 to 78mm CG. Landed with take-off/ half flaps due to the heavy crosswinds. I also cut down the nose oleo spring by 3/8" as recommended by TI. I ran short on time to print a mobius mount to attach to a hardpoint, so a wide FOV hatcam video is all I got :-P

[RCAV8R]

Good Job! I don't know that I would have been brave enough to fly in that wind! Rob

[Dirty Dee]

When you live in the "Windy City" you take what you can get :).

[Elbee]

DD, Congrats on the day. Look forward to more flight reports. Can you estimate the weight of the cockpit mod? Just curious. Best, Elbee

[Dirty Dee]

I just weighed my canopy and it shows 189g. Not sure what the stock canopy weighs, but it felt comparable to dlxpkg's who also has a JHH pilot installed.

[Sky Wolf]

Finally got to fly my A-10 again. Headed out to the field with Tom and Ben to drop in a few flights so we could dust off the rust from the winter season.

Had a pretty stout cross wind that gave us a bit of a challenge. Well, check it out and see for yourselves!

https://youtu.be/wUS2FTm9avI

[purduephigam]

Finally got to fly my A-10 again. Headed out to the field with Tom and Ben to drop in a few flights so we could dust off the rust from the winter season.

Had a pretty stout cross wind that gave us a bit of a challenge. Well, check it out and see for yourselves!

https://youtu.be/wUS2FTm9avI

Great seeing your videos again. Your channel was one of the reasons I committed to the hobby last year!

[RCAV8R]

Nice video, as always Sky Wolf! It's not just a video, it's a production! Rob

[janmb]

Back from the field. Winds were stead at 13mph with ~17mph gusts today, and was directly across the runway. I had to re-CG the plane due to the cockpit mod and since my maiden had a Mobius camera taped to the tail for some in-flight footage. Balanced at 86mm, but the plane felt very tail-heavy in the air and was dragging the tail really badly. Landed the plane and took it back up with 78mm CG. Kept the flight short since I am still familiarizing myself with the plane, and kept the gear down since i haven't yet modified the wheelpods and didnt want to risk a gear deployment failure.

This plane can take the wind surprisingly well, though I will probably enable my lemon Rx gyro to deal with any wind buffeting and not mess with my landing approaches. With my scale thrust nozzles installed I count tell any pitch-coupling, however I didnt really fly over 3/4 throttle and didn't try jamming the throttle either. A big thanks to Dlxpkg2000 for CG assistance and acting as co-pilot. His Arctic Thunder Hawg is also nicely done if you haven't yet seen it.

Here is a video of today's second flight after going from 86 to 78mm CG. Landed with take-off/ half flaps due to the heavy crosswinds. I also cut down the nose oleo spring by 3/8" as recommended by TI. I ran short on time to print a mobius mount to attach to a hardpoint, so a wide FOV hatcam video is all I got :-P

Nice job!

Surprising results on the CG aspect, but whatever works works!

She should drag the tail a little during high bank turns (in which case manual rudder input should be considered mandatory - just like it is for fullsize aircraft), but she should certainly not sag the tail in level flight - even when low speed. She shouldn't drop the nose neither for that matter.

[xviper]

Got my new trailing link front strut on. Ready to give it the acid test on the gopher field as soon as it stops raining.