How many love the AF A-10 ThunderBolt and want one?

You know I would Fred. My fantasy flight. They look so easy to fly. Love them, an aircraft built around a gun.

I have spent a lot of time on youtube watching both full-scale and models fly around as I'm sure that you have also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNQtc-z9BOI

Lot's of right side action on these too.

Bob

I love them too.  And I'd love to have one of them, but the ammunition costs would absolutely break me.  I figure my retirement savings would pay for one good sized rip of the GAU-8.  A GAU-8 30mm round compared to a .30-06:



I remember one time back in my Navy days, we were flying out from Bradley Field in CT for Scotland, and there were three planes ahead of our jet.  First was a Cessna 150, then two A-10s.  I was mightily impressed when the A-10s only used up a little more than half of the runway length the 150 used for take off.

The Broken Mark

A couple favorites:

fredvon4 wrote:ON RCG there is a thread on an interesting foamy A10 that looks fantastic

Hey Fred, there are actually two new A-10s coming out next year. One by FMS and the other by Freewing. My daughter and I are currently testing the Freewing Twin 80mm A-10 "Prototype" and absolutely love it. As a former A-10 maintenance guy and one who appreciates a scale A-10, the Freewing is the one. Evelyn and I will be posting more videos of this amazing model over the next four weeks. The Freewing A-10 will be available Spring 2017 from Motion RC.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2788009-Freewing-Twin-80mm-90mm-A-10-Thunderbolt-II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZzuPCJWuN8

Yes Sir I have been reading both the threads

Unfortunately I do not Fly RC well enough to risk the beautiful model ---so my desire is a A10 that size with the exceptional work they did on the detail and scale

If I did buy one I would like just the airframe and landing gear.... no servos, no motors.... yada yada

I think spiffied up a bit with my favorite color scheme and hanging from the ceiling banking in for the kill---- would let me tell my grand kids all sorts of embellished stories ....as we watched Youtube videos of them in action...grin

Fred,
The A-10 came into inventory after my USAF time, but while visiting my retired USAF aunt and uncle in Myrtle Beach, SC in the 90's we got to see a gunnery show offshore. Myrtle Beach AFB was home to a BUNCH of A-10's and after word from  my uncle we got see a cool show. They had a target barge about 5 miles offshore and even at that distance you could easily hear the paper ripping roar of the GAU cannon and see the water geysers in the air !!!! Very, very impressive !!!

If you ever get to the USAF Museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH , look near the A-10 on display for a bad ass Russian ZSU-23-4 anti aircraft gun. That's the 4 barreled 23 MM gun that you would see on TV during the Battle of Bagdad that looked like a laser beam...The gun on display has a 30mm hole in the front armor plate and a 30MM hole in the gunners steel seat !!! The USAF moderator said that "this Iraqi gunner got to meet an A-10 face to face and it was the worst day of his life !!! " .
Go USAF ..................
Steve......

Malibu

As an armament guy for Army Attack helicopters I was ALSO responsible for the various aircraft defensive systems...

There are many, and some I still can't talk about

That said--- the need to test those system was ever present, and the only real testing, and proof of working properly, was was against Real threat systems like the Russian ZSU-23-4 (acquisition RADAR, not live bullets)

And these days our current state of the art OPFOR (opposing forces) for training, has a very vast array of all the threat systems that we can simulate and fly against to train our pilots or refine our defensive systems

I laugh or scream many times at a lot of movies showing these sub systems

I was in awe a lot of hours as I flew around the battlefield during Desert Storm...(my brief  job was recovery of downed Apache and AH-1F Cobras who out ran their fuel...)

I was in a UH 60 with external stores (longer flight time) and a blivet (500 gallons) of fuel under

In Awe because I got to see several tank battles against our Bradleys / Abrams/ and Our AF A-10s.... ...I even saw a drop of ordnance from BUFF (B52s) on a Republican Guard Tank Battalion on the move...no idea what the bombs were...but the Republican Guard tank force was completely decimated right in front of my eyes...

Humanitarian note... we already had a good experience with Saddam Hussein's troops surrendering--- so I did not see any bad or immoral "shoots"  ----IMO
Most of our guys (if they saw obvious retreat) did NOT take THE SHOT

BUT, as always, there were plenty of DUMB enemy who thought FIGHT was better than FLIGHT...

I witnessed some awesome destruction and loss of life...And personally I am OK with what I saw (even unfair* battle) as I know their intent was to harm/kill US soldiers

Psyops and propaganda can only change the hearts and minds of some..not all...

* Unfair battle

T55 maybe max range 2400~3000 meters
M1 Abrams with HEAT...4000+ meters

I watched a group of 5 Iraqis engage Our 1st Cav M-1s and the M-1s were actually moving to close on ANOTHER bigger threat...so one of the Iraq Tanks makes a mad dash forward about a click and lobs a bullet at the US Abrams and gets a glancing hit...

I am in the head set and we are tuned into the battle and waiting for an ask for help

The 1st Cav tank commander sez...  "these ankle biters are a pain" " 3 and 4 deal with it" "out"
I watch two advancing M-1s  stop, steer 180, load and pop... far forward T55....smoke....other four much further back ..boom- boom -boom -boom ..smoke....done deal
Miss AWACS pipes up..."you fellows need help, I got 3 A-10s close?
1st Cav Tank commander.."Nope! We got it under control"

Later my pilot flew down close so we could refuel and recover a couple of AH-1 Apaches whose crew asked " where the hell is the war?"...they flew out a load of fuel and never got to see or engage one enemy tank

I happen to be one of 5200 who got dosed with Sarin during this Gulf war...

Any of you who think George W was full of hooey about weapons of mass destruction ....well maybe Saddam did not have nukes but I can tell you Mustard and Sarin are certainly WMD and in my opinion he was absolutely justified in the later war posture.... and BTW so was Hillery

OK..... Xmas eve , no need for this 20 year old political intrigue

I still love all the A-10s and want to add one to my shop just to stare and and remember.....

Xplaneguy

Don't follow close enough---- but I suspect the cutie is your daughter

Right now I have all three grand kids here---- and one is a lot like the young lady holding that fantastic airplane
Sure hope I can entice her to have a similar love -----of model aviation....that seems to be in the eyes of the YL holding that A-10

Hi Fred,

Yes, Evelyn is my daughter and she has a passion for aviation. She flies RC and control line models, even logged time flying full size aircraft. She's currently in the Air Force JROTC and wants to be an AF Flight Surgeon.

Happy Holidays,
Tony