Upgraded GWS A-10 RC Plane review

Review of the GWS A-10 Warthog RC Plane
RC plane review by Fred Bronk



Wingspan: 38.1"
Wing Area: 13.95 dm2
Weight: 12-14 oz.
Length: 34.3"
Wing Loading: 8.5-9.6 oz/sq ft.
Transmitter: 4-ch recommended
Battery: 7x730AAA nimh (recommended), 3s1p Apogee LiPo 1500ma
Motors: 2 GWS EDF55 fan w/S300 brushed motors



Most of us
RC plane

fans who know anything about aircraft are familiar with the Fairchild A-10
Thunderbolt II, also known as the Warthog. This highly maneuverable ground
attack sub-sonic aircraft with a 30mm rotary canon has been in service since
1973. It was actually being phased out in the late 80s when a need arose for
it again.

It can withstand major
damage and still fly and even has a titanium tub around the pilot for
protection. The A-10 has brought more than one pilot home that would not have made it otherwise in any other aircraft. It was even designed to land with the
wheels in the retracted position without sustaining major damage!





The A-10s layout is
great for an RC plane model with its twin turbofans on pylons above the fuselage,
meaning no ducting to mess with. The bottom and sides of the fuselage are flat
with tricycle landing gear for good ground handling. The large wing is not
swept back and has a thick reflex airfoil incorporating anti-vortex turned down
wing tips.

I was lucky enough to get
a pre-production GWS A-10 RC plane at the International Modelers Show from Mr.
Lin. The A-10 was molded in white foam like all GWS Parkflyers rc airplanes. It was designed
to use 4 channels, using the 4th channel for nose wheel steering instead of the
normal rudder. It included two GWS EDF-50 (50 being the diameter of the
impeller in mm) units with IPS brushed motors. These EDF units seemed a little
small and some early flight reports were that this rc plane was a little under
powered with them. Some replaced the stock 3 blade impeller with 5 blade units
and some went up to 8 cells. But the IPS motor and fan could only do so much
and the A-10 rc plane was not really happy either way.

I have flown a couple of
them with the EDF-50s and performance was just adequate. Many have been moded
out with better fans and even brushless motors. With this in the back of my
mind I waited until the newer one was available with the EDF-55 units powered
with S300 motors. I snagged one of these when they came out and based this
review on that. You can also upgrade the EDF-50s to the 55s with new nacelle
kits as well.



The A-10 RC plane is
packaged well and the wing is taped to a piece of cardboard to protect the
tips, which is good because many of them came broken in the earlier kits. The
instruction book is in color and easy to follow, but needs some work on the
English translations. My kits instructions included 2 amendment sheets. One
stated not to exceed 8.4 volts on the motors and the other on how to convert it
into a pusher with S300s. In the back of the book it had pictures of 3
different color schemes including desert, jungle and gray. It also included the
decals for each version.


Radio Gear and....What?? Retracts?

My new rc plane A-10 came
in gray, which is what most real A-10s are painted now. It is designed for 4
channels (ailerons, elevator, throttle and nose steering) but can be built for
3 channels with ease. I chose to build my A-10 RC plane with the gear
permanently retracted for a cleaner look in the air. Now this would normally
mean only hand launching for most rc airplanes, but not with the A-10. With its
landing gear retracted the main wheels still protrude from their faring more
than enough to be functional.

And since they retract forward, the wheels end up
ahead of the leading edge, effectively making the A-10 a tail-dragger. This
actually works well and solves 2 issues. One is the tail skid can now protect
the lower vertical fins, which hang down below the fuselage. And by adding
rudders ROGs and steering are still possible so I can hopefully avoid items
that get in front of me when I land and takeoff!

Assembly


For the RC
plane radio gear, I used the RC Mart electronics from my Shogun helicopter that
I had upgraded. It looks like it is the same as Cirrus gear. The 6 channel
single conversion RX, 20 amp ESC and 2 of the micro servos would be just right
for the A10. I used a Hitec HS-55 servo for the rudder/tailwheel to keep the
weight down.

For the transmitter I used my new Multiplex Evo 12. This is one
nice rc plane transmitter for those interested, so look for the review coming
soon from Andy Willetts.


The EDF-55s come pre
wired to a BEC connector (sometimes called a JST). I broke in both EDF units
with a couple of D cells using the stock wiring harness. Breaking in can motors
like the S300s can really improve the performance and life of the motor. After
break-in I tested the EDF-55s with 7 cells and a C-clamp type watt-meter. The
RC plane motors drew 11 amps wired in parallel.

From experience and discussions
I knew this was about double what the recommended AAA batteries, BEC connectors
and stock wire could handle. The stock BEC connectors and wire are fine for
about 5-6 amps.

So the EDF units and Y harness would be fine down to where they
are paralleled, but needed some help to the ESC. So I simply snipped off the
wire at the Y and made a new harness with some 18-gauge silicon wire and Deans
4 pin connectors. This fixed both the limitations of the BEC connectors and the
wire size concerns.

Plus the RC Mart ESC I used was already fitted with the
Deans 4 pin micro plug. The 4 pin deans can handle the power of this RC plane
much better than the stock BEC connectors. Both the recommended 7 cell pack, 8
cell and the 3 cell Apogee 1500 Lithium fit into the stock GWS battery door. I
did have to take some foam out of the base though to deepen it up.




Building the RC plane
fuselage was simple since there were just 2 pieces. Since I was building mine
with the gear retracted, I omitted the steerable nose wheel. If you use the
nose gear it must be assembled before you glue the fuselage halves together! Be
sure to check the fit first as there were molding bumps in mine that had to be
removed for a good fit.


I added a .125 inch CF tube between the nacelles for strength. I then mounted the
assembled EDF units to their pylons. There are slots on the nacelles to keep it
all lined up. The EDF units looked like a lot of weight for the foam pylons, so
I added some .125 Carbon Fiber tube between the nacelles. I used a piece of 1/8
inch brass tubing as a drill and epoxied the CF tube in.

If you have not used a
piece of tubing for a drill before, just use a counter sink on an end to
sharpen the edge and it will cut through the foam with no problem. I used more
painters tape to hold the nacelles on as the epoxy set.



Having seen the wing in
some other rc plane A-10s flex quite a bit, I wanted to add a little more
strength, so I substituted a piece of .125 carbon fiber tube for the bamboo
main spar. I inserted this spar in from the outside of the wheel fairing which
gave the maximum support. You can see how I inserted the CF tube into the wing
here.


I wanted to keep the main
wheels looking close to RC plane scale, but still have some give for those
not so perfect landings. So I devised a way to mount the wheels in the correct
location forward of the wing leading edge, but not have that location take the
full landing loads. With this in mind I used Du-Bro 1.5 inch foam micro wheels
mounted on a piece of .032 wire. The wire is bent in a U to run parallel to the
wheel and is attached at the stock GWS location. The assembly lays flat against
the faring and keeps the scale rc plane look intact. A small piece of bamboo
embedded in the fairing is used to keep the wire from digging into the foam
just behind the cutout for the wheel. This bamboo was left over from my kit
since I used the carbon fiber tube for the wing spar.


For rudder movement I
used a trick I saw in a hand-launch rc plane glider using a torsion rod. A piece
of wire is used and one end is fixed to the solid surface with a slight bend in
it that pushes the movable surface in one direction. You then use a pull
thread on the opposite side attached to the servo to center the surface. I
setup each rudder to pull out with the pull string centering them. With this
setup the opposing rudders balance out each other and the servo works no harder
than normal. It seems to work very well so far. I then mounted a Hitec HS-55
servo in a cutout under the horizontal stabilizer in the fuselage. To this I
mounted a inch tail-wheel on a wire and looped the Kevlar rudder pull tread
into it.


Finally I cut out the
canopy and used a silver permanent marker to mark the frame. This is how it
sits with the wheels as I setup the A-10. The slight nose up attitude should
allow ROGs as planned.

With the building done, I
found it needed about ounce up front to get the RC plane CG close. Placement
of the equipment would have made little difference I think. Of course not using
the steerable nose gear and fabricating the rudder setup may have impacted This
was with both the stock and 3 cell Apogee pack.

Now I just had to wait a
few weeks for nice weather for flying weather. And I waited and waited. Yes, I
even live in California.


Flying

With a few adjustments at
the field it was finally ready for the first flights. With a fresh 7 cells GWS
pack it was fired up and my flying buddy Bob gave the A-10 rc plane a little
push. It settled into the ground after 3 tries. The 7 cell AAA pack was just
not going to cut it. So I broke out the 3 cell Apogee 1500 Lithium. With the
voltage of 10 cells now the fans really sounded much better.

The next launch
went great but I had way too much elevator and not enough aileron. So a quick
adjustment on both surfaces the next flight went great. It was fast but the
roll rate was still slow with as much aileron as I could dial in. The elevator
was touchy even with expo and I attribute this to the short movement. Power was
now more than ample and it was solid in the sky. Landing was a joy but the
flying site did not allow anything but hand launches and belly flops into the
tall grass.

Recommendation

I found the A-10 to be
for the advanced pilot; this is what GWS recommends also. This RC plane flies
very nice and launches easy. The few I have seen ROG do so quite well with the
stock wheel setup, but please use other wheels! Retracts would be a plus and
add some nice bling. A radio with exponential should be used at least but most
advanced pilots will have this in their stable already. It looks and sounds
like the real thing in the air but is still small enough to handle if you have
a lot of other rc planes.