A-10 Thunderbolt

I'm considering buying one of the new GWS A-10 Thunderbolt dual electric ducted fan models.Any have any info or experience with these? Thanks

A friend, against my advice, bought one of these as his first plane. He built it, couldn't get it working, so I took it to figure out what was wrong with it.

However, I could not get it to ROG. It was too dark to hand launch so I couldn't try that. I don't think he has ever gotten it flying.

But with an experienced builder and some lighter NIMH batteries (although it does have a tendency to be tail heavy so you'd probably have to weight the nose anyway) you shouldn't have a problem getting it airborne. I have seen videos and it seems to fly alright however I have heard that the motors have a short lifespan.

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Its not a great flyer without some pepping up, and that can get expensive.

Up to you if you care enough to spend the extra.

very few electric DF models really fly the way a jet should. Those that do generally feature the most expensive motor and battery pack that exists, and only fly a few minutes, and need careful fettling of the ducts. A10 is probably better than most, but you might expect to spend upwards of $400 on a power train of twin brushless and Lithium cells.

In stock form it does just fly according to my LHS. But its staggering around on teh edge of a stall the whole time, and takes an age to climb to a respectable altitude.

I sent this earlier, but for some reason it went out as a MIME and got nixed, but anyways...

They seem to fly pretty larthargically. They take a long time to get up to speed at which point you can start making your first turn. GWS is realeasing a new A-10 that comes with the EDF-55 ducted fans rather than the standard EDF-50 fans to solve this problem. They are also selling an upgrade kit for the old model. The best bet would be to wait until the new model comes out, probably at the end of October, it would save you a lot of hassle.

I too am interested in the A-10 but cannot afford to upgrade it to brushless and exotic cells. My take on it would be to go to 1 or 2 extra cells and use a bungee to launch it to a higher altitude, if that is possible. No landing gear for less weight as well. I need to replace a Zagi I lost in the woods this spring.... Bill Kolofa stoc005"at"aol.com

If you are still looking for an electric ducted fan, the Kyosho T-33 was a great plane. Definitely not a park flyer though. There are probably a few ARF's out there in LHS and on ebay.