You can fly you can fly you can FLYYYYYYY!!!

After waiting and WAITING for the wind to come up, I FINALLY got to maiden my A-10 yesterday!

If you don't know what I'm talking about, more info can be found here

Thanks for following along!

Here's a few shots my friend took:
- - - - -

Vlog and shorter videos of the day:

Longer-cut videos of each flight:

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That area has some nice Canary Island date palms. I'm going to have some of those one day, and it will be glorious.

Also, quick question. If it's the first flight and you put so much work into the plane, why did you throw it off a cliff into the ocean?

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Also, quick question. If it's the first flight and you put so much work into the plane, why did you throw it off a cliff into the ocean?

Believe me, I ask myself that very question EVERY time I go out there. :P

Actually, the question I do seriously ask myself before every throw is "is the radio on?" and after a quick stick-move to confirm that "up is up" and "right is right", you just gotta go for it.

If you listen closely as the music starts (before it gets too loud), you can hear the big sigh I let out before charging the cliff! :D

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Is there a way to stick a little camera like your hat camera on one of those bad boys without ruining their flying ability?

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Is there a way to stick a little camera like your hat camera on one of those bad boys without ruining their flying ability?

Funny you should ask.... ;)

Same exact camera actually, just taped on top of the nose in front of the canopy:

That is not the A-10 BTW, it's this plane: (which I also flew yesterday)

There's more in my RC playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-iCijBhaPzAiEZwgBo4Sax4eCQf68ZGq

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If you listen closely as the music starts (before it gets too loud), you can hear the big sigh I let out before charging the cliff! :D

Fun stuff. You're right, loud :)

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If you listen closely as the music starts (before it gets too loud), you can hear the big sigh I let out before charging the cliff! :D

Fun stuff. You're right, loud :)

Sorry about that, I should've checked the volume balance better. Next time. :)

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How much assembly work goes into one of those? Are they kits? My son would go nuts over seeing one, then destroy it.

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How much assembly work goes into one of those? Are they kits? My son would go nuts over seeing one, then destroy it.

It can vary, like anything. This one was a pre-shaped kit; I had to put everything together, but all the major parts were cut and shaped for me already.
Here's my build log on RC-Groups: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2484958

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Father/son project someday, perhaps. 20-30 hours of work/fun from start to finish?

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Father/son project someday, perhaps. 20-30 hours of work/fun from start to finish?

I didn't track it that well, and I only worked a couple hours at a time so it's hard to remember, but that sounds like a reasonable guess. Maybe less, since it's not a fiberglass plane (they take a lot of finish-work/time), and I went kinda slow. ;)

Definitely looking forward to doing this with my son as he gets older. :D

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[image]

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Oh believe me I want that too.

It's actually got a speaker, but the sound module amplifier isn't loud enough to be heard on the hill. I need a "bigger" but not BIGGER amp. :P

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I've always wondered how the hell they do it on the real one, but maybe a RC one could shed some light. Yours isn't powered, though, is it?

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I've always wondered how the hell they do it on the real one, but maybe a RC one could shed some light. Yours isn't powered, though, is it?

Mine is not powered, correct, it is a pure glider. Even though the acronym "PSS" - Power Scale Sloper - is misleading; the "power" comes from the fact that they weigh 4 to 6 pounds. ;)

Are you referring to the fact that the engines are fairly far back? It's not any harder than other designs, not that I know of anyway. You always have quite a bit of hardware to fit in the airframe, there's usually enough weight to throw around. It's actually more of a challenge to balance gliders, usually, because they don't have a big flight-battery or a motor which are usually quite heavy, and gliders tend to have much slimmer airframes which means less space for ballast weight. I had to pour 14 ounces of lead shot with epoxy into the nose to get the CG in the right spot. But that was because my tails came out a bit heavy, not because of the nacelles.

On the real thing though, it has a gi-frickin-normous gun in the nose to balance out the two turbofans. :D

Fun Fact: The recoil force of the gun once it's spun up is more "thrust" than one of the A-10's engines, i.e. if you fired the gun on the ground you could use it as a 'reverse gear' (not advisable)

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How hard is the math for calculating CG?

I was in the Air Force for a time, working on the C-5, C-17, and KC-10. We had to figure CG when jacking the aircraft, but we just had a handy chart and plum line that did most of the work for us. Never had to do it from scratch before.

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How hard is the math for calculating CG?

I was in the Air Force for a time, working on the C-5, C-17, and KC-10. We had to figure CG when jacking the aircraft, but we just had a handy chart and plum line that did most of the work for us. Never had to do it from scratch before.

AH, I see what you're asking now. The real thing would have a similar loading chart and CG range limits, but there really aren't any big moving masses on an RC plane, especially a glider, and every build is going to weigh a little different.

For kits, the CG location is usually already calculated for you and given as a simple distance measurement from the wing root leading edge. You just build and then ballast to balance on the CG.

If it's not specified, the rule of thumb starting point is to put the CG at the 25% point of the Mean Aerodynamic Chord (MAC). This sounds more complicated than it is, and there are several online calculators that will do the math for you based on your wing dimensions.

Once you mark the desired CG location, it's just a matter of moving mass around to balance the plane on that point.

But after you've built a few (hundred) planes, you get an eye for where the CG ought to go. Most of the time that's good enough, because even if the CG is where it mathematically "should" be, you usually want to move it somewhat to tailor the flying qualities. But you've got to throw it to know it!

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How hard is the math for calculating CG?

I was in the Air Force for a time, working on the C-5, C-17, and KC-10. We had to figure CG when jacking the aircraft, but we just had a handy chart and plum line that did most of the work for us. Never had to do it from scratch before.

I just realized my answer above was a bit generic, and you asked specifically about A-10's...

On an A-10 the desired CG location is actually fairly easy to calculate, because the Mean-Aero-Chord (MAC) is basically the same as the wing root chord. This is because the wing is simple, straight and (almost) entirely a rectangle. So the 25%-MAC point is basically just 25% of the root chord (measured from the leading edge).

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You can fly you can fly you can FLYYYYYYY!!! (Off-Topic)