p47dman

My Feedback: (22)

Hi Paul, yours looks pretty darn good to me!!! Frame up looks great. Not long before you install the 30mm ammo, I have a few left if you'd like to borrow some
Dave.

pdmarsh

Thanks Dean. Yeah, they'll slow'r down, that's for sure! I guess I'll need to limit the travel a bit.
By the way, I've passed on a lot your Hog building insights to fellow A-10 builders. Thanks again.

Paul

pdmarsh

Thanks Dave. A few of those 30mm rounds of yours would solve my tail-heavy problem! All kidding aside, I was amazed when I ran the numbers that even at 1/9th scale, those rounds would be over 1" long. At your scale they must be 2".

Paul

Picture Source: Warthog Territory www.a-10.org

pdmarsh

Aileron servo installation. First, I built two removable servo trays to side-mount the servos. Then, I built permanent trays to be glued in the wing.

Paul

More details:
http://a10.home.mchsi.com/mya10project.html

FOShowNoClass

My Feedback: (7)

Guys,

My A-10 project is coming along, too. It's about 1/10 scale so it's a bit smaller than the Miller, but is supposed to be powered by the same fans and engines. According to the plans, which were given to me with no designer listed, it is supposed to weigh 14.5 lbs when ready to fly. Not sure I believe it. The wingspan is 69.5". I has 706-ish sq. inches of wing area so my take is the wing loading is going to be high. In the picture, I haven't cut out the plywood nacelle rings because I haven't decided how to power it yet. If I put regular IC engines in the pods, the biggest prop I could get on is a 9". That's not going to work. Guess I could go Combat Models style...[:'(]. The A-10 airframe is cool and I think it'll look good anyway it's powered. Thanks for the inspiration, guys!

Will

SJN

Not quite te A-10 minigun, but almost just as cool [8D]

Take a look at this:
http://www.big-boys.com/articles/iraqfootage.html

pdmarsh

Look's good, Will. Keep us posted on your progress.

Paul

HotelSierra

My Feedback: (9)

Paul, these pics are not intended to hijack your excellent building thread, but I thought you could use them to keep you motivated as you continue to build yours. This is my George Miller A-10 just finished(still in primer) a couple months ago. Mine is powered with two Artes SuperBee turbines. It also has functional flaps, retracts, wheel brakes, full depth cockpit, operational canopy and working weapons pylons. I am waiting for the weather to cool down before I maiden her. After the maiden I will paint her in European green camo 23rd TFW.

John

A10FLYR

My Feedback: (1)

Nice job there John. That size is easier to handle also. Mine have been hanging for two years now! Just too much trouble to take to the field without help. All my friends started running when they saw me comming their way!

pdmarsh

No problem at all, John. In fact, I'd like to see more, especially of the cockpit. I'll be working on that soon. What did you do for a pilot? So far, I haven't found something close to 1/9th scale. I was hoping for a full figure pilot. Anyway, your plane looks great. Very nice build.

Paul

FLYPUCK

My Feedback: (8)

John,
How did you make the Avenger cannon?

Thanks,
Doug

pdmarsh

A wee bit more progress -- sheeting the nacelles. After cutting the 1/64" ply close to the final dimensions, I clamped one edge only and thin-CA'd that in place. I then rolled the ply a little further into the curve and CA'd that section. Finally, the outter edge gets clamped and CA'd. The last step was to cut away the excess ply around the edges.

Paul

http://a10.home.mchsi.com/mya10project.html

pdmarsh

Well, this project is certainly taking me into areas I have never been before. I wanted to make a canopy frame, so after a quick trip to the "Sratch Build" forum, I learned of a method using fiberglass cloth. I actually wanted to make in internal frame, but liked this idea for making an external frame as well, so that's what I did. I still want to make an internal frame, but haven't figured out how as yet.

The first step in this process is to wax the outside of the canopy. I still got some fogging afterward, but nothing that can't be buffed out. Next, you apply three layers of fiberglass cloth and resin (one at a time, of course). In hindsight, I either should have used heavier cloth or added another layer or two. My frame is quite thin, but maybe that's good for a jet. Still, you can see the thickness of the outside frame on a real A-10. After the third layer cures, you end up with a very nice fiberglass shell of your canopy. I sanded between layers to keep it as smooth as possible.

It turns out that the most difficult part of this whole process was transferring the frame outline from the plans to the fiberlass shell. The thread in the Scratch Build forum made is sound so easy -- just draw the outline on the clear canopy, put the fiberglass shell over that and redraw it on that shell. Well, it's not so easy for one who can't draw worth a darn! What I ended up doing was making two mirror images of the plan view. I squeezed these between the clear canopy and the fiberglass shell, did some realigning, then drew the outline on the fiberglass shell. I got some distortion doing it this way, but not enough to worry about.

While I'm happy with the result, I'm not sure it was worth the effort. The frame is awfully thin. Maybe after a few layers of paint and then gluing it on the canopy, I'll get the desired effect--a real frame, not a layer of paint over plastic.

Paul

A10FLYR

My Feedback: (1)

Paul,
I got tired of waiting for you to build Yer Hog so I built my own!!!

pdmarsh

I don't blame you! It's moving at a snail's pace right now! But, man, I love your lawnmower! I gotta git me one a those!!!

Thanks.

pdmarsh

I can't think of a better way to spend a cold and snowy day in Minnesota than installing landing gear, can you? I didn't think so. Well, OK, there might be one other thing... No, installing landing gear gets the nod. Besides, even as cold as it's been, the lakes aren't quite ready for ice fishing.

Anyone following this thread, and who actually remembers it, probably thinks I have given up on this project. Not at all! It's just moving at a glacial pace. (Could that have something to do with living in Minnesota? Hmm. I wonder?). Anyway, now that I have the gear, things can get moving along again. One complication I came across is that the plans show homemade landing gear made from heavy piano wire. The wire strut rides up against a plywood rib. The mounting plate of the pneumatic gear pushes the strut outboard about 1/2" beyond where it's supposed to be. This will cause a minor problem with the location of the wheel well pod, but nothing that can't be worked around. In hindsight, I should have moved each ply rib inboard that same 1/2".

In anticipation of installing the gear, I started making the wing sheeting. Coincidentally, I came across an article on sheeting that recommended gluing the sheets together first rather than gluing them one at a time to the wing, as I would have done. This makes for smoother seams.

'Til next update...
Paul

grbaker

My Feedback: (29)

Lookin' good Paul!

warbird_1

My Feedback: (61)

hey p-47 are those graves from your kills so far lol nice bird. a-10's are great

pdmarsh

Thanks Gary. I hope to post more progress soon.

Paul

p47dman

My Feedback: (22)

Yup, you shoot em you bury em!

Gry101

My Feedback: (8)

pdmarsh,

Your plane is looking good. I ran into the same problems as you did with the wing and stab, and worked around them just like you did. I have the wing and stabs framed and glued, but not sheeted. I have some Spring-Air retracts that I will use. The control surfaces will be next. I do have some questions:

What should the dry weight be? I am guessing between 14 and 16 pounds. 34-40 oz/ft.

How strong are the servos you are using? I will have one for each elevator half. I have had servos fail on the elevator before and do not feel comfortable with one on the whole elevator on this project. I was looking at 70 oz/in for each ele half, 100 on the rudder, 70 oz/in on each ail and 50 oz.in on each flap.

What will you be using for power and fan units? I was looking at the OS46 and Turbax 1.

Will you be using a braking system on the plane? We have a short field and I think that I will need one.

Thanks for the thread, it has been helpful as has FLYPUCK's.

Andrew

pdmarsh

Hi Andrew,

I'm glad you're finding the thread helpful. It makes it all worthwhile. To your questions...

Thanks again. Please feel free to post some of your own progress in this thread, or start a dedicated one. Your's makes four active George Miller A-10 projects that I'm aware of, one of which is turbine powered.

Paul

pdmarsh

In the interests of full disclosure, and for anyone else considering buying the cockpit kit that you can get with the A-10 plans, I'll post progress on that. Compared with the cockpits generally seen on this forum, this one is exceedingly basic. On the other hand, considering that this is my first actual cockpit in an RC plane, I can't really complain. Also, considering that it starts out as vacuum formed parts, the end result isn't bad.

The poser is Hunter Dan (compliments of Cabela's). I'm afraid he's the only pilot candidate that met the height requirement. With a helmet, flight suit and some serious training, we'll teach this hunter how to shoot a REAL gun!

Thanks,
Paul

Gry101

My Feedback: (8)

Paul,

Thanks for the fast feedback. I did send an e-mail to Larry Wolf at Jet Hagar Hobbies. He said that the Turbax 1 is the right fan unit and will work on an OS46. He said that at 16 pound it will have a greater than 1 to 1. I would bet that even at 18 or so it will be close to 1 to 1 then. Larry also stated that the Turbax fans will save around 4 pounds of nose wight to balance [8D].

I hope that it will not weigh that much (22-25 pounds). That makes the WL about 50 oz/ft, ow! My father-in-law did have a Canadair CL-215 that had a WL of 52 oz/in and it flew great, once []. It has the same wing design as the Hog.

I was going to go with JR digitals, but may go to Hitecs. I do still plan on having one servo per flap(4)/ail(2)/ele(2) and one for the rudder. I do not like bell crank setups but will have to live with the one for the rudders.

I do not have a digital camera, but will post here if it is ok with other questions and hopefully answers.

Thanks again Paul!

Andrew from warm, sunny CA

p.s. My Mom's family is from out that way, Twin Cities suburbs. Stay warm and don't sniff too much CA fumes.

pdmarsh

Andrew,

Good news on the fans. That should save you a few dollars. If I can figure out a way to do it, I'll try to get a weight on everything so far. It might give some idea of where it's headed. I debated the bellcrank set up as well, but decided to go ahead with it. Someone else built it that way and didn't have any trouble, although one servo per control surface is best.

Keep the questions coming. I'll answer what I can, and others will chime in, I'm sure.

Thanks,
Paul