The Magnum flies!!

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Posted

Last Friday I flew the Magnum for the first time. I took a friend with me who is well versed in these type of airplanes which proved to be a great Idea. I naturalized all the trim tabs before the first flight and it took a little bit to figure out the trim controls and that two of them were marked wrong on the panel. Having another person to fly the plane made this a much easier task. Once we got the plane trimmed out the rest was pretty easy. We did slow flight, stalls in all configurations and tested speed and flap ranges. We made 8 approaches and 6 landings before calling it a day. Over the next two days I flew 4 hours. I really hope this ends up being my airplane because I really like the power and room it has over the Mark IV. 

maandmagnum.jpg

MagnumBC.jpg

MagnumoverSP.jpg

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Posted

Nice!

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Posted

congrats on getting her back in the air.  Your making me want to get to work on the Coyote.

:BC:

 

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Posted

AWESOME!

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Posted

One of the most significant adjustments to my magnum was setting up the horiz stab angle of attack. It makes a HUGE difference in how the plane flys and feels. The way I set mine up was to do a weight and balance and then try and figure out how it would be loaded most of the time when I would be at maximum cruise.

For me that was a cross country carrying all my camping gear. So I did W&B and then loaded the plane up with realistic baggage and made sure that it was still within W&B. I then set the trim tab to neutral and flew the plane at the power I wanted to cruise. In that configuration the plane really wanted to climb! It was crazy how much forward stick pressure it took just to keep it flying level!

I then landed and started placing shims under the front horiz stab bolt. I think I ended up with around 1/8-3/16 inch of shim with the plane flying level at cruise power with the trim tab neutral.

This little adjustment made such a difference in the overall feel of the plane. This ensures that there is the least overall drag at the highest speed in the configuration you plan to fly at the highest speed. At lower speeds the trim tab is used to make the plane fly level hands off. At lower speeds the drag from the trim tab and deflected elevator is less significant.

Hope that made sense.

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Posted

A belated "Way to go, Vance!".  The bird looks great!

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Posted

Chris,

first of all: congrats to your success! I made a major update on my avionics (took me 10 months) and the first flight was almost a maiden flight for me. Not that the flight characteristics changed, but except for the airspeed indicator there was no known sight on the panel. Through how much excitement must you have gone...

Your W&B post made me attentive. Due to the many changes I made, I went through W&B, too (it gained weight - what a surprise). Now with your latest findings: Is your elevator now perfect in line with then horizontal stabilizer when at cruise speed? Same question for the trim tab. This may be a quick indicator just to look outside at the empennage (or use a camera) when flying. If I'm way out would I see that? What do you think?

 

Thanks,

Thomas

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