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

[Oxotnik]

He blinked! I saw it!

[Bajora]

FANTASTIC visuals there Alpha! Really awesome looking photos!

[downwindleg]

+1 on the pictures Alpha. This plane is so realistic looking! It has definitely raised the bar to a new level once again. You had me with the P-38!!!! But I haven't been able to get the idea of an operable canopy out of my mind. I've been thinking about how to adapt the operable canopy feature from my LX A-10, which by the way doesn't even hold a candle to this FW A-10. I know your probably flooded with suggestions and people offering advice but an operable canopy as an option would be the bees knees. And it would keep the cockpit cool as a side benefit. Raising the canopy as your taxiing back to the pits from a sortie would blow the doors clean off the other guys at the field!!! I,m invisioning the raised canopy with the the magnetic steps attached. Talk about the icing on the cake.........with candles........lit!!!! Just day dreaming here in Hawg Heaven, Brad

[dkalwishky]

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BRRRRRRRRT Bye bye Mig!

[Dewey H Lee]

That will teach him.

[RickyBoy]

Can't wait to order this one

[T-CAT]

I think FW/MRC have put this into a new category of rc flight. Honestly, has there ever been anything else like this? This many choices and combinations? Amazing.

Does that mean you're getting one?!! :):Cool::a10

[Model Sounds Inc.]

Thanks for letting us know! Would you be able to post a video or sound clip of the GAU-8A here directly?

Sorry, absolutely not! We closely guard our sounds as it is a highly competitive business and there are other sound system manufacturers that would love to get our sounds.

[Model Sounds Inc.]

Alpha/MotionRC and Model Sounds Inc, perhaps you guys could team up and offer a powder cannon system - assuming it comes to fruition of course - bundled with the ShockWave2 sound system? THAT would be the ultimate upgrade for this A-10!

Once Alpha/MotionRC has a proven powder cannon system in production, that's certainly something we could look at. Of course our A10 sound set has the full A10 turbine spool up and spool down sounds, and a rocket firing sound as well as the Avenger cannon sound.

[ablesrc]

Will Mr. sound be adding A10 sounds to their system?

[Beeg]

This is going to be very cool..

[Chomp]

Alpha - I may have missed it, but are there going to be gear doors on the mains as there is on the nose gear?

[Twowingtj]

Really chomping at the bit to get the pre-order in on this bird AND the Avanti S. Two really exciting offerings. Just want to throw my money down on the table and know I've got one of each coming for sure. My wife got me this shirt for Christmas. I think she's got me figured out.......

[RCjetdude]

Really chomping at the bit to get the pre-order in on this bird AND the Avanti S. Two really exciting offerings. Just want to throw my money down on the table and know I've got one of each coming for sure. My wife got me this shirt for Christmas. I think she's got me figured out.......

I need one of those shirts as well... :Silly:

[Alpha]

Hi Chomp, it's a good question, I believe it was already answered but I'm happy to address it again for you and in more depth than before. :)

The production A-10 has a two piece nose door for full coverage of the nose during flight, but the main gear door cover was omitted. Firstly, it acts like a brake when the gear is down, and we didn't like how it affected the model's handling after takeoff but more importantly in the landing pattern. Because the A-10's main doors open rearwards(draggy) instead of outwards(streamlined) like all our other EDFs, deploying the landing gear required even more throttle compensation than full flaps requires, and added an extra new element to be mindful of in order to execute a safe landing. On the other hand, simply removing the main gear door did the following:

1) simplified the landing sequence back to what most pilots are used to in terms of added drag and throttle compensation
2) reduced metal and plastic mold cost for the door/hinge/tie-ins/springs, which adds up in a model like this
3) allows the aircraft to be operated in tall grass without worry of catching the lower main door on grass during taxiing or landing, or hitting the wheel against the main door when full suspended
4) does not significantly marr the visuals of the aircraft. On the ground, the main doors are obscured under the wing, and in flight... well, let's just say I'm usually too busy admiring a 67" wingspan A-10 to notice that it doesn't have a small main door.

One of our prototypes did test rearward hinging main gear doors, but if they were long enough for 'scale' to fully cover the hole with the gear retracted, the lower part of the door was prone to being struck by the wheel as the wheel compressed during landing due to the long travel of the trailing link strut. By contrast, if we clipped the main door to be short enough to where it couldn't be struck by the wheel during full compression, the door ended up being half its length, which not only looked strange, but now it invited air in the ensuing gap between the wheel and the door when retracted, which could pull down the door by overpowering the springs. Substituting the springs for ball link clevises would solve that problem, but now those clevises were susceptible to breakage during rough landings because they didn't have any 'give'. ... you can see how a developer can get caught in a time killing cycle of trading one solution for another only to add a new challenge and/or cost. All of this for a door which is barely visible.


To summarize, in the same way that inner doors are often omitted for cost/complexity/actual visual impact considerations like on the MiG-21, Mirage, and F-14, we thought the A-10 was a more user friendly package without them. Users who want to add rearward hinging main gear doors can probably do so with some plastic sheet and 20-30 minutes of modding. I would highly recommend making them shorter, however, so that the trailing link action of the main strut does not strike the door.

[RCjetdude]

Hi Chomp, it's a good question, I believe it was already answered but I'm happy to address it again for you and in more depth than before. :)

The production A-10 has a two piece nose door for full coverage of the nose during flight, but the main gear door cover was omitted. Firstly, it acts like a brake when the gear is down, and we didn't like how it affected the model's handling after takeoff but more importantly in the landing pattern. Because the A-10's main doors open rearwards(draggy) instead of outwards(streamlined) like all our other EDFs, deploying the landing gear required even more throttle compensation than full flaps requires, and added an extra new element to be mindful of in order to execute a safe landing. On the other hand, simply removing the main gear door did the following:

1) simplified the landing sequence back to what most pilots are used to in terms of added drag and throttle compensation
2) reduced metal and plastic mold cost for the door/hinge/tie-ins/springs, which adds up in a model like this
3) allows the aircraft to be operated in tall grass without worry of catching the lower main door on grass during taxiing or landing, or hitting the wheel against the main door when full suspended
4) does not significantly marr the visuals of the aircraft. On the ground, the main doors are obscured under the wing, and in flight... well, let's just say I'm usually too busy admiring a 67" wingspan A-10 to notice that it doesn't have a small main door.

One of our prototypes did test rearward hinging main gear doors, but if they were long enough for 'scale' to fully cover the hole with the gear retracted, the lower part of the door was prone to being struck by the wheel as the wheel compressed during landing due to the long travel of the trailing link strut. By contrast, if we clipped the main door to be short enough to where it couldn't be struck by the wheel during full compression, the door ended up being half its length, which not only looked strange, but now it invited air in the ensuing gap between the wheel and the door when retracted, which could pull down the door by overpowering the springs. Substituting the springs for ball link clevises would solve that problem, but now those clevises were susceptible to breakage during rough landings because they didn't have any 'give'. ... you can see how a developer can get caught in a time killing cycle of trading one solution for another only to add a new challenge and/or cost. All of this for a door which is barely visible.


To summarize, in the same way that inner doors are often omitted for cost/complexity/actual visual impact considerations like on the MiG-21, Mirage, and F-14, we thought the A-10 was a more user friendly package without them. Users who want to add rearward hinging main gear doors can probably do so with some plastic sheet and 20-30 minutes of modding. I would highly recommend making them shorter, however, so that the trailing link action of the main strut does not strike the door.

Gear doors? We don't need no stinking gears doors.... ;)

[OV10]

Really chomping at the bit to get the pre-order in on this bird AND the Avanti S. Two really exciting offerings. Just want to throw my money down on the table and know I've got one of each coming for sure. My wife got me this shirt for Christmas. I think she's got me figured out.......

That's a great one TJ, you've got it made though because your wife is a pilot too!!!
Mine just asked me what these 4 new planes were doing in her 4 season room and my default reply is they are visiting the winter hangar. :Silly:
Its is actually the final staging area where I do my CG's in prep for the coming maidens. ;)

[Twowingtj]

I need one of those shirts as well... :Silly:

Here is where she got it. They have a few others too. Alpha mentioned T-Shirts the other day on another post. Maybe a there's room in the MRC Apparel tab for some conveying the same idea for us addicts. Of course with MRC logos incorporated.

[Chomp]

Hi Chomp, it's a good question, I believe it was already answered but I'm happy to address it again for you and in more depth than before. :)

The production A-10 has a two piece nose door for full coverage of the nose during flight, but the main gear door cover was omitted. Firstly, it acts like a brake when the gear is down, and we didn't like how it affected the model's handling after takeoff but more importantly in the landing pattern. Because the A-10's main doors open rearwards(draggy) instead of outwards(streamlined) like all our other EDFs, deploying the landing gear required even more throttle compensation than full flaps requires, and added an extra new element to be mindful of in order to execute a safe landing. On the other hand, simply removing the main gear door did the following:

1) simplified the landing sequence back to what most pilots are used to in terms of added drag and throttle compensation
2) reduced metal and plastic mold cost for the door/hinge/tie-ins/springs, which adds up in a model like this
3) allows the aircraft to be operated in tall grass without worry of catching the lower main door on grass during taxiing or landing, or hitting the wheel against the main door when full suspended
4) does not significantly marr the visuals of the aircraft. On the ground, the main doors are obscured under the wing, and in flight... well, let's just say I'm usually too busy admiring a 67" wingspan A-10 to notice that it doesn't have a small main door.

One of our prototypes did test rearward hinging main gear doors, but if they were long enough for 'scale' to fully cover the hole with the gear retracted, the lower part of the door was prone to being struck by the wheel as the wheel compressed during landing due to the long travel of the trailing link strut. By contrast, if we clipped the main door to be short enough to where it couldn't be struck by the wheel during full compression, the door ended up being half its length, which not only looked strange, but now it invited air in the ensuing gap between the wheel and the door when retracted, which could pull down the door by overpowering the springs. Substituting the springs for ball link clevises would solve that problem, but now those clevises were susceptible to breakage during rough landings because they didn't have any 'give'. ... you can see how a developer can get caught in a time killing cycle of trading one solution for another only to add a new challenge and/or cost. All of this for a door which is barely visible.


To summarize, in the same way that inner doors are often omitted for cost/complexity/actual visual impact considerations like on the MiG-21, Mirage, and F-14, we thought the A-10 was a more user friendly package without them. Users who want to add rearward hinging main gear doors can probably do so with some plastic sheet and 20-30 minutes of modding. I would highly recommend making them shorter, however, so that the trailing link action of the main strut does not strike the door.

Thanks for the explanation Alpha!

[Aros]

Here is where she got it.

Where? The invisible store? :P:Silly:LOL