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

[Pogo]

I couldn't resist posting a quick teaser showing the Freewing 80mm A-10 taxiing through 5"-6" tall grass. Keep in mind, for a sense of scale, my Hitec radio can fit UNDER the main wing of this aircraft. yet the grass is about that tall in places. Of course no responsible pilot would try to fly off of grass like this, but it shows that ground clearance and grass resistance are things pilots of this aircraft will not have to worry about on their grass runways suitable for any foam EDF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a70ECbrH0so&feature=youtu.be

That's great to see, Alpha. Our club fly's at a sod farm, which, while awesome in many ways, has grass that's watered and fertilized to create lush, thick "super grass" that grabs wheels like you wouldn't believe, plus the grass is cut long to avoid burning, Last year I put a hook in my FW Venom
and started bungee launching it- previously could only fly it by traveling some distance to fields with suitable runways, This A-10, with its large wheels, power, and trike gear should be fine!
Tom

[Twowingtj]

It's not an illusion, these are big wheels. The other twin 80mm jet from Freewing, the F-14, uses main wheels about the size as most of our 90mm jets. Alongside it is the A-10's main wheel, which is twice as tall as the F-14's lowest ground clearance (ventral fins). The A-10's main wheel is also an inch wide.

Note the scale design of the A-10's hubs themselves.

Just might pick up a set of those to replace the whimpy wheels on my Carbon Z Cub ;)

[Mike_Then]

It's not an illusion, these are big wheels. The other twin 80mm jet from Freewing, the F-14, uses main wheels about the size as most of our 90mm jets. Alongside it is the A-10's main wheel, which is twice as tall as the F-14's lowest ground clearance (ventral fins). The A-10's main wheel is also an inch wide.

Note the scale design of the A-10's hubs themselves.

Awwwww yeah! *does the happy dance*

[Twowingtj]

Alpha, any updates on the pre-order target date? Still around the end of the month for the A-10 AND the Avanti S?

[xviper]

I am ready for the Freewing A-10 and not the FMS version that is out now. Too many issues with FMS quality recently.

Precisely! However, don't say stuff like this in the FMS A-10 thread in the other forum. The FMS fanboys will just dog pile on you and call you a "hater". They consider ANY negative criticism of their brand as hating. Personally, I like FMS (a lot) and have many of their warbirds, but liking something or not liking something does not make me a "hater" or a "fanboy" for one or the other. However, when it comes to the new FMS A-10, there's simply too many "deficiencies" to overlook. I'm sure there will be some inadequacies with the Freewing/Flightline A-10 but I believe those will be few and far between by comparison and of course, that doesn't make me a Freewing fanboy or hater. It's making an informed buying decision based on data collection and observation of videos and what some people say, or more importantly, what people DON'T or won't say that speaks volumes. Watching them dodge questions with politically correct answers is priceless. I would have really enjoyed being in Mesa this weekend just to observe not only the new planes in flight, BUT, to see the body language and to listen in on some of the conversations of those who flew them and brought them. Those kinds of things, we will never see or hear of in public forums. I even sent a couple of spies (I mean, friends) to go have a look but the weather has been a bit crappy this weekend so they may not all go.

[0nemildot]

Thanks for the Bush Hawging video! I fly off of grass or water, and the A-10 would look weird on floats!!

Seriously, that helps my decision and great work.

[Aros]

Alpha, any updates on the pre-order target date? Still around the end of the month for the A-10 AND the Avanti S?

I can't speak for Alpha per se, but everything as I understand it is still on target. I plan to begin building the product pages for these models in the very near future. :Cool:

[Oxotnik]

I can't speak for Alpha per se, but everything as I understand it is still on target. I plan to begin building the product pages for these models in the very near future. :Cool:

And please don't forget that you owe the members of this forum a huge discount, for inadvertently taking this forum off-line for the better part of a day. The emotional stress caused by that... :Silly:

[Aros]

Yes the Freewing A-10 Support Group membership tripled on that day! LOL

[downwindleg]

Found it Brad, thanks, have it bookmarked. What's the problem with yours- the mechanism, motor or...?
Tom

Hey Tom, it's a sad story. On my maiden flight of the LX A-10, the nose gear tore/fell out on rotation. Seems it wasn't attached very well. Anyway, I was already commited to the air with no runway left so I continued to climb out, cursing all the way, with the nose gear dangling by the servo wire. I made several orbits while my brain raced to figure out what to do. I figured the servo wire could let go at any time and totally blow the C.G. so I came in a little hot holding the nose off as long as possible but when it finally touched down, the nose turned into a plow and broke completely off, along with damaging the cockpit/canopy. I was able to epoxy everything back to together and replace that nose gear after building a 1/8" ply floor in the nose gear well to attach it to. I got another few flights out of it but it just wasn't the same and neither was the canopy mechanism. There you have it, Brad

[Pogo]

Wow, now that's a story- good save Brad! You sure made the best of a bad situation. Please post how the new mechanism looks when you get it.
Tom

[Pogo]

My experience with the LX canopy on the A-10 was that over time slop in the system made it more trouble than it was worth and I just left the canopy closed.

Mike

Thanks for the reply Mike. I think Brad and I are hoping, then, that the mechanism could be tweaked/ improved for use on this bird. From video it looks to work OK (I guess when it works is the issue).
Tom

[MikeT]

Thanks for the reply Mike. I think Brad and I are hoping, then, that the mechanism could be tweaked/ improved for use on this bird. From video it looks to work OK (I guess when it works is the issue).
Tom

Maybe you guys will figure out how to improve it and make it work. Please keep us posted.

Mike

[downwindleg]

It's evident that even during Pete's :bluecool demonstration of the LXA-10 that the canopy operation and framing are rather flimsy. :Poo: And the colored lights for the nose and canon are almost comical, but 3 or 4 years ago when I first looked at this video with starry eyes, I thought this was pretty cool and it was, in fact,the state of the art for a "foamie":bluetongueat the time. Thanks to team Alpha and Flightline, that's just history now. But like MikeT said, maybe we can use that mechanism as a starting place. In all fairness, I have an LXP-40 that I have flown now for 5 seasons and although I've had some issues with it for sure, it still flies great and it's still the only 2 meter foam single seat WWII fighter out there.:p40 If I'm wrong on that, let me know and I'll buy it!!! Brad I just love the smilies!

[TheyCallMeJefe]

Sorry if this has been asked but I didn't see it. Is there a time frame of when the pre-order will be available? I got to check this out Friday at the AZ electric festival and I am sold and don't want to miss out when the pre-order goes live.

[RCjetdude]

Soon is all we know. So, what was it like in person?

[downwindleg]

Wow, now that's a story- good save Brad! You sure made the best of a bad situation. Please post how the new mechanism looks when you get it.
Tom

It's hard to deal with a situation like that when your heart is beating out of your chest and the other guys at the field [some] are yelling how screwed you are !!! Anyway, I will let you know how the new mechanism works ASAP. Thanks, Brad

[TheyCallMeJefe]

Soon is all we know. So, what was it like in person?

To say it is impressive is an understatement. The detail that went into this is phenomenal. Even the ordnance is impressive. It fly's great too. TBH for $500 I think it will be well worth it. One thing for sure is its big but I say the bigger the better.

[Alpha]

TheyCallMeJefe, she's big but can still fit in a compact car trunk.

Considering our single 90mm jets were $499, it's frankly insane of us to offer this much larger and much more expensive to develop/produce/ship twin 80mm A-10 for the $499 preorder, but hey, we're counting on the voluminous support from our customer family out there to make it worth the effort. We like to say around here that no one's getting rich in our business, but in our book, Passion trumps Profit, any day of the week.

[RCjetdude]

TheyCallMeJefe, she's big but can still fit in a compact car trunk.

Considering our single 90mm jets were $499, it's frankly insane of us to offer this much larger and much more expensive to develop/produce/ship twin 80mm A-10 for the $499 preorder, but hey, we're counting on the voluminous support from our customer family out there to make it worth the effort. We like to say around here that no one's getting rich in our business, but in our book, Passion trumps Profit, any day of the week.

Alpha, thank you! I just hope you got enough coming and I find out soon enough to grab one on the up coming pre-order. I think they are going to sell fast!