Rebuild of a Skymaster A-10

[DHC8]

Hello Every one! It’s been a while since I posted any builds or much of anything really, but fret not I have by no means left or taken any kind of pause from the Hobby. I will be honest, my start into jets was rather rough with some hard learnt lessons and was a little embarrassed after the F-15... So I got a CARF Hawk, that was better but still to much plane, thankfully it survived 6 flights and then hung it up. I finally did the right thing and got a Sprint.

Once I got the sprint it was no looking back! I was finally enjoying jets and was hooked! I flew that for 2 seasons and then this past season decided to up the game. I got a Pilot RC predator and resurrected the Hawk, and it’s been an awesome season! The Predator is one helluva plane!

So onto the title of the thread. The A-10 is one of my dream planes, and I got the chance at getting one for a price I couldn’t resist. However it had passed through a few hands and needed some TLC. So I decided to strip it down and start over and rebuild it the way I want it. My goal with the rebuild is to simplify some of the systems, specifically the pneumatics, and fuel system as they both seemed more complicated for nothing. I will clean up the wiring, equipment panels, and give it general clean up.

Here it is striped out and ready to start the rebuild.






I started with servicing and redoing the fuel lines in the main tanks.









Next I started with the rear of the fuselage and revamped the pneumatic tanks. Originally there were 5 tanks with ALOT of T fittings. I thought that this set up would prove to be more reliable, simple and save a little weight.

These tanks will replace the 5 that were in there. I decided to use 2 large tanks and one smaller one. 1 large and 1 small for the retracts and one large for the brakes.

[DHC8]

So a little update, as parts trickle in I do a bit of building. The rear section is nearly completed. I’ve got all the pneumatics all sorted in the rear section and will hopefully complete the fuel section today which would pretty much complete the rear fuselage.

What I am Attempting to do is keep the plane “modular” so that future servincing will be a little easier. Getting the front section off was a pretty big PIA as everything was all over the place and disconnecting everting to get it appart was a bit of So I will keep the fuel system and pneumatics in the rear so that it will just be the screws and a few pneumatic/electrical connections to remove and then it will be easier to remove the nose.

Here is the rear pneumatics all cleaned up before I put the tanks back in.



This will be my pnumatics, fueling and turbine access once it complete.



Air Traps and ECUs are installed. The fuel pumps will be mounted on the side wall.



Thats it for now. Back to work!

[cicopo]

I'm watching with great interest. Get to work. Not your day job though, this kind.

[DHC8]

Last update for the evening. So the aft fulselage section is pretty much done. Last 2 items will be lock wire on all the connections, and inspect/reinstall the tail surfaces.

So here you see my access/service panel is all done.



And here’s the business end of it all.

[DHC8]

Just a small update, I put the nose back on, installed the wings and got the gear out. Before I start on the nose section I decided to check the CG so I can optimize the placement of all the rest of the components.

Even with as many components stuffed in the nose, it will still need 5lbs up front to balance it. Total dry weight including the blast is 62lbs.

[DHC8]

Hey guys I’ve started working forward section.

I started with mounting the 4 powerbox batteries in a simple tray system stacked on top of each other. This is the lower tray with the supports.



Here is the top tray in place with the batter mounts.



Here’s what it looks like with the batteries mounted.



After the battery trays I started on the forward equipment tray and forward display/charge port/switch.

Here are the trays.





Here they are in place.

[DHC8]

Even with everything in this configuration I will still need 5lbs of weight in the nose. I did a preliminary CG before I started working on the nose section, with the 5lbs of ballast up front the dry weight was 62lbs. With fuel will be about 76lbs. With the 2 atj 140 it should have 62lbs of thrust. Not bad...

[Smchale]

Nice progress! Are the powerbox batteries lipo chemistry? If so, won’t it be a pain to remove the lower pair from the model for charging?

[DHC8]

Nice progress! Are the powerbox batteries lipo chemistry? If so, won’t it be a pain to remove the lower pair from the model for charging?

They are lipo, but these powerbox batteries have the charger integrated into the pack. They are fully self managed batteries and are meant to be burried in the belly of the beast! Normally I agree with you and prefer to have easy access to the batteries, however in this model it won’t be easy. So I’ll trust powerbox and leave them in the model. The charge ports are next to the main display, just simple power supply inputs And that’s it!

[Smchale]

That’s interesting. So are they designed to remain in the airframe for charging? I do that with A123 packs but have always avoided it with lipos. Great news if these are designed to allow that. Thanks for sharing.