I now have built three of these A-10's and enjoy the build. 2 of them went to full size A-10 pilots of the 107th Red Devils Squadron in MI. I kept one for myself and it flies great. The only issue I had was the glue that holds in the landing gear. On a hot day, the glue softened up causing the landing gear to come out on a very smooth landing on grass which was a little bumpy. On a video I took from a wing mounted Mobias camera, you can the flex back and forth the gear made. Landing nice and smooth, it came out. Reassembled with new gear door using Foam Tac glue. Now the gear is rock solid. I pulled the mains out and reglued. No more issues. Full flap landings on a calm day, half on a breezy day. With 10yrs of the A-10 EDF experience, the FMS flies just as great if not better than the other offerings of the same size. First three flights were greasers with no issues. The 6th flight, do to taking off on bumpy grass, the foam up front flexed to a point where the canopy wouldn't fit tight and would pop off during take off. I remedied this by using a spacer at the front of the cockpit. I also shimmed the nose gear forward by placing the shim's under the back screws so that the gear door would close. 10 flights now and really enjoying this B1RD. I slowed down the flap movement so as not have to chase the flight dynamics. My bird stays where I want it through all throttle settings. Thanks for a great scale jet. TT

The this is a great looking bird with strong hardware and solid components. She went together so easily it was a snap. The only issue I had was the starboard wing electrical pins alignment was a little off. I was able to line them up by taking the spar out first then as the wing seated into position I was able to run the spars back in. 4 bolts 2 in each wing socket flat head machine screws really nice...strong and looks nice. 4 bolt in the horizontal stab located on the underside and 4 bolts 2 in each vertical stab and bam main assembly done. Then just plug in wires to receiver and fire that bad boy up. When the retracts came down I was so impressed with the way they look and preform...super nice. A couple adjustments on the control surfaces and ready to range and track test. Super easy assembly here. FMS has really done well here. I will fly her Saturday and do a flight review soon after.

Flew mine for the first time today! Needed a little up trim, but was rock solid in the air. A bit faster than I thought it would be, but still very controllable at lower throttle settings. I fly on a grass field which is a bit rough. I've not had an issue with the landing gear thus far. Landing with flaps is also very stable and effective. The electronic setup i.e. connections board and setup are different but seem to work fine.
I had the honor of working on the real aircraft for a year when I served in the USAF. So flying a model of the A-10 is enjoyable!
Remember this a War Bird and needs to flown like one!

Have fun!!!!

Let me lead with this is a beautiful plane. I have actually had two of them now lol. The first had some issues out of the box but horizon made everything great again. It has plenty of power and looks great in the air. Not an edf for beginners but would be fine as maybe a third. Goes together super easy and fit and finish are super. The twin fans sound awesome in the air.

I have been flying ducted fans for around 15 to 20 years now beginning with a BVM Maverick (OS .90 tuned pipe). I have two Habu 32’s (old red version) and three of your Habu foamies along with at least 20 other foamie fans ranging from 70mm to 90mm. I fly all of these fans regularly with few, if any, problems and have many, many flights on each.

I have flown the A-10 twice now and have ripped out the landing gear twice upon landing. This last landing pretty much destroyed the plane.

I just returned home and here is what happened on the second flight today:

On my first attempted landing it was obvious that the plane was floating much too high (20 ft+), and was going to overfly the runway. I throttled up, flew around and came in lower. At about two feet above the runway with ¼ throttle or less it was obvious that this second landing wasn’t going to work out either since the plane was floating and wouldn’t settle in so I throttled up. As soon as I throttled up the nose went down and slammed into the runway. I believe the nose down action when throttling up to be a consequence of the changing fan incidence as described below. From my experience the only thing that would cause this to react the way it did and as fast as it did was a bunch of down thrust from the rear mounted fans.

I assumed that the A-10 I received would be a piece of cake after watching your marketing video. WRONG... I have no idea how the guy flying in your video was able to make such a good landing assuming he was flying the plane with your 80-85 mm CG recommendation. This is also extremely puzzling to me given that it is obvious in the video that he is using full flaps.

Here is a list of problems that I find with your dual 70mm A-10:

1. At 9.5 lbs the landing gear will not remain attached to the foam unless you do either a very good to perfect landing on a paved strip. I fly from a 600 ft paved runway. Had I done a conversion from your stated ~4,100 g to lbs flying weight I would have never ordered the A-10.

2. The incidence of the fans changes with the throttle setting even though the fan pylon mount appears rigid and tightly mounted to the fuse. When flying full throttle you need at least 5 clicks of up trim (DX8 radio) in order to keep the plane level. Or you can hold a good bit of down or up elevator depending on the throttle setting of the A-10. This constant changing of attitude doesn’t make for a fun flying airplane.

3. I’m flying the A-10 with a 5000 mAh 6s. The CG is located at your recommended 80-85mm from the planes leading edge. Both of my less than successful flights were done w/o any ordinance.

I feel that there are several serious problems with this plane. After spending $440.00 I expect Horizon and FMS to have the bugs worked out before shipping the goods.

9.5 lbs is too heavy a load to properly distribute across the foam landing gear attach areas, unless you expect a near perfect landing each time on a paved strip. The lack of flats on the landing struts is also problematic since this will result in twisting during even a good landing.

The recommended CG placement makes for a very tail heavy airplane.

The change in thrust angle of the dual 70mm fans is bad.

Horizon Hobby needs to take a serious look at this plane before continuing their sale!


PS: I also purchased your Opterra flying wing last month and would like to notify you that the Opterra recommended CG is much too nose heavy. I had to remove a good chunk of weight from the nose and move the 2200 mAh battery to the rear so that the Opterra now balances about 1.5” behind your molded CG nipples. I was also disappointed when one of the elevon servos stripped during flight after only 12 flights. I do appreciated you sending me a new replacement servo.

A friend of mine told me about his Opterra experience which ended up heading nose first into the ground on his first launch. The launch mode will apparently not compensate for the incorrect nose heavy CG you recommend. I told him where to move the CG and he is now happy with the Opterra.