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

[Shirty]

Too cool, nice pics

[downwindleg]

Thanks to all for the info on the now famous " T.I. strut reversal".......Kind of like the "Thatch weave" LOLright? Great pics xplaneguy!!! Brad

[Trobinson99]

I am not going to go into details about what I did, because it is horribly embarrassing.

However, my advice. Be careful you do not suck a milkweed pod into your nacelle.

[downwindleg]

HMMM, kind of like trying to put the leftovers from an artichoke into the garbage disposal:Scared:Brad

[Clearblue]

Okay, so I finally was able to get in the air after I completed the TI fix. If you are still on the fence about doing this mod? Don't be. This works! Period. Thank's Tired Iron. You my good friend have saved a great flying bird, and have removed the Bronco Billy ground effect!

[RCjetdude]

Okay, so I finally was able to get in the air after I completed the TI fix. If you are still on the fence about doing this mod? Don't be. This works! Period. Thank's Tired Iron. You my good friend have saved a great flying bird, and have removed the Bronco Billy ground effect!

Excellent! Just keep an eye on the mains for any excessive play. I got in about 6 flights on mine at eWeek with no issues. Love it.

[RCAV8R]

A post-Reno Air Races update. I met Brad (Downwingleg) who is also an amazing photographer. A-10's were on full display along with their pilots. They say the Hog is really easy to fly, and their comfort level is at 1,000 ft.! When asked about sighting the GAU-80, they said that it calculates wind, terrain, air speed, ground speed, you name it, and when the cross hairs are on the target, you will not miss! What an amazing plane! Rob

[Pogo]

Had flights 14 & 15 on this gorgeous day in Southern Ontario and flew with full ordnance for the first time. As others have said , carrying the weapons seems to make little difference- perhaps a smidge more throttle but hardly noticeable. I'm sure loving this airplane!:Cool:
Tom

[RCAV8R]

So I have put on the gloss clear coat, applied decals and stickers, and now I'm waiting for weather to put on the final dull clear coat and be done with painting! Thanks to Alpha, RCjetdude, T-cat, and others for answering my questions, and Pat for the ordinance decals. This is my first foam project and it definitely had some challenges! Rob

[RCjetdude]

It looks really good Rob. Very nice work. Soooo close.

[T-CAT]

So I have put on the gloss clear coat, applied decals and stickers, and now I'm waiting for weather to put on the final dull clear coat and be done with painting! Thanks to Alpha, RCjetdude, T-cat, and others for answering my questions, and Pat for the ordinance decals. This is my first foam project and it definitely had some challenges! Rob

It looks amazing! Excellent job. It’s incredible how these foam planes can look so realistic, huh.

[RCAV8R]

yeah, that's what makes it so insidious! Where do you stop? There's almost no end to the things you can do on something of this scale! Rob

[Shirty]

Looks awesome. Well done

[bill34207]

Got my 90 mm ncelles rigged.
It's one of those jobs that fought me. First I thought I'd use a couple of short leads to attach the caps to the ESC's and lay them in the trough underneath the fan. Guess I should have checked for clearance before soldering it up. (At least it was just one side and not both)

After getting the cap situation sorted out discovered today that I had let myself run out of 12 gauge wire. I did find enough 10 gauge on hand to do the job and considering the length of the run it would actually be better (other than the little bit of extra weight)
As I was soldering connections, ran out of solder. Since it's Sunday decided to do an internet search to make sure it could be found at a local store. First thing I learned is that radio Shack pretty much no longer exits in this area. Closest branch was 40 miles away and not even a true Rat Shack. Just an authorized seller of their products. A little more searching and found that Home Depot carries silver bearing solder (which I prefer using) but the nearest one that had any in stock was 10 miles away. (Still beats 40 ) Just wish I'd known I needed it and had searched last night. I was actually out that way earlier flying and could have dropped by on my way home.

Anyways, other than some minor aggravations and delays due to poor planning on my part it's done other than some minor details. At least I checked my capacitor inventory early enough to get the Castle cap packs here on Friday.

[T-CAT]

Nice job Bill :Cool:. You have to love modding sometimes LOL, as you never know how it’ll go (like run out of wiring, solder, etc.). At least it’s all settled and almost ready to rock-n-roll.

[bill34207]

Nice job Bill :Cool:. You have to love modding sometimes LOL, as you never know how it’ll go (like run out of wiring, solder, etc.). At least it’s all settled and almost ready to rock-n-roll.

Thanks T-CAT It's a long ways from ready to rock n roll though. So far the only thing I've worked on is the nacelle. I need to sell that turbine before I build it, otherwise I have no place to put it.
Thanks again for the heads up on the Turnigy programming card. I didn't know they would work with the FW ESC. (I've had one of those cards for years. I used to run plush 80's in all my 6s EDF's.

[RCAV8R]

Thanks guys...that means a lot coming from you all! Rob

[T-CAT]

Thanks T-CAT It's a long ways from ready to rock n roll though. So far the only thing I've worked on is the nacelle. I need to sell that turbine before I build it, otherwise I have no place to put it.
Thanks again for the heads up on the Turnigy programming card. I didn't know they would work with the FW ESC. (I've had one of those cards for years. I used to run plush 80's in all my 6s EDF's.

Any time. I love those program cards, as it’s intuitive (I think) to use and inexpensive.

Hopefully you can that turbine soon, so you have room for this beast to be stored. I have very little storage space too and really have to be careful what I buy. At this point, I usually have to sell something in order to have room for a different plane I want.

[zorkahn]

Okay, so I finally was able to get in the air after I completed the TI fix. If you are still on the fence about doing this mod? Don't be. This works! Period. Thank's Tired Iron. You my good friend have saved a great flying bird, and have removed the Bronco Billy ground effect!

Jim and I both got a flight in on our A-10s with the reversed mains Saturday. Both of our landings, although not that bad, would have resulted in bouncing if the main gear had not been reversed. I have seven fights with the main gear reversed with all landings sticking on the asphalt runway. Now Jim and I are trying to decide if we will even want the "new" oleo mains (if they are ever produced). Price may be the deciding factor as the Tire Iron reversal works so well.

Mark

[davecee]

Jim and I both got a flight in on our A-10s with the reversed mains Saturday. Both of our landings, although not that bad, would have resulted in bouncing if the main gear had not been reversed. I have seven fights with the main gear reversed with all landings sticking on the asphalt runway. Now Jim and I are trying to decide if we will even want the "new" oleo mains (if they are ever produced). Price may be the deciding factor as the Tire Iron reversal works so well.

Mark

I've got to wonder if there was a manufacturing difference in some of these planes. Perhaps main LG springs of different strengths. We have three FW 80mm A-10s flying at our club. The pilots are experienced with EDFs and you rarely see a bobble when they land.Two of these planes have had the deadly bounce with significant damage to the nose gear and mount. The other plane has never had a bounce. I can see no substantial difference in the landing technique of these three pilots.