Tecstar1

My Feedback: (1)

I've looked for any threads on the Modeltech Magic Extra, but most of the info is on Magic. Any feedback on this plane and it's performance. I am thinking about a purchase and putting in an OS 60. The price is reasonable but are there better values to be had?

Thanks for your input.

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

Tecstar1:

Strongly advise against a .60 engine on this plane. A good .46 will give unlimited vertical.

Bill.

Tecstar1

My Feedback: (1)

I do have a 46, but the info does state up to 60 and I have a 60 FP idle. Do you have a magic extra with the 46 in it? Would the Sig extra be a better plane?

Gizmo-RCU

My Feedback: (27)

A friend has one with a Mag. 46XLS which really does a nice job similar to most of the good 46 size engines. I was thinking like you, but after looking at the fit and weight situation I didn't feel like a 61 was a good choice on this plane. It seems like the plane would not respond as well with the extra size and weight of the big engine. Just my thoughts....

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

Tecstar1:

I am normally one for the biggest engine I can mount without a lot of tail weight for balance.

But.

The Magic and the Magic Extra are built with absolute lightness as a goal, I'm afraid the 60 would overstress it. I've seen these planes come apart with just a little harder than normal landing.

And you will probably need to replace the landing gear every two or three landings anyway. Very fragile.

If your reference to the Sig Extra is the "Somethin' Extra," that one would easily handle a hot 60. And it's a lot sturdier than the "Magic" planes.

None of this is to say the "Magic" series aren't really nice planes, mine with a 46FX is a rocket if I want it to be, but it is best at low speeds and high alpha - doing "Harriers" and hovering. Almost purely a "3D" bird.

If you are more a sport flier, you'll probably be a lot happier with the Somethin' Extra.

Just my opinion.

Bill.

awat

My Feedback: (3)

I had one and flew the heck out of it. I had over 200 flights on it.
Only one problem with it, the cheap covering coming off. People say that it is very fragile and you need to land soft because they come apart easily and you will need to replace the gear after 2 to 4 landings no matter how soft you land. To me that is bunk. I had over 200 flights on mine. Apparently what a soft landing is to some is a hard landing to others. I saw a guy crash his several times. He said the plane is weak behind the canopy area.
He told me he lands very soft with the plane. I watched him land on several occasions and to me they where carrier style landings and he thought they were soft landings. His last crash with the plane he said the plane has a weak spot because everytime I crash, the plane breaks in the same spot. I crashed mine while hovering. I was bringing it down to the ground and at about 10 feet the engine quit. Oh well. I now have another that I am building. I will post some pictures of it. I took all the covering off of it and recovered it and did some airbrushing on it

George E.

My Feedback: (16)

Does anyone have an accurate "all up" weight for their Magic Extra? Please include what motor and type of radio you have (ie standard, mini etc).

Thanks

awat

My Feedback: (3)

I do not know what it weighed but it hovered at 3/4 throttle with a TT46 pro and would pull out of a hover just fine. I used standard servos all around 3003, 3004.

George E.

My Feedback: (16)

I'm asking because I want to put a .46LA in with mini servos all around. I have the same setup in a Magic and it hovers great but I'm afraid the Magic Extra is heavier than the Magic.

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

Geoharry:

AUW on the two planes is close, Ratings are 3.5 lbs for the Magic and 4.5 for the Extra version. but the Extra's wing loading is also afected by 700 sq" area, the Magic is 725 sq" so mini servos would be a good idea.

And again, I'm opinionated here. The Hitec 225 servos have the torque of "Standard" servos and 1/2 the size. In spite of the horror stories we are all hearing lately about JR and Hitec servos, none of the complaints have been about the HS-225's.

Use the 225 servos and the Hitec 555 rx, a good, lightweight set-up.

My opinion, borne out by my experience.

Bill.

PS: You might want to trash the LA thought, use an FX, or a Magnum 46XLS. The LA, at best, will be marginal for 3D with the M-Extra. Sporty flying, it's fine. wr.

Mad Man Marko-RCU

Techstar1:
Just got my Magic Extra flown for the first times yesterday. Exellent vertical with TT Pro 46. On a good day should hover at about 2/3 and climbs up vertical at full power. My very unscientific scale says 4lb 3oz with empty tank but cannot guarantee that. I don't think a 60 2 stroke would be good in this one. It would be way nose heavy.
Good Luck
Mark O

LANIKAI_BOY

tec
i have the magic its roughly around 4 lbs empty, i have standard servos hitec 300 the big 8 channel receiver and a jr 1000 mah battery. a 46 magnum with a macs one piece muffler and the 12.25x3.75 apc sport prop..it rolls no more than 20 feet and its off the ground.it goes vertical till my neck is tweaked.my plane hovers at 1/2 thorttle(i didnt look at my tx that closely but it felt like 1/2.lol) this setup allows me to 3d and pattern fly and it makes me look like a good pilot..its the plane ...not my skills..lol
now this is where it gets ugly...a 60 would be too much power...and too much weight..whoever the rocket scientist over at modeltech who designed this plane did a great job on the outside, it flies awesome if you can keep it in one piece.now for the inside..who ever desigen this aircraft was drunk or something..the stringer that comes from the rear of the fuse ends righ where the tank starts..the only thing holding up the tank and the motor is a thin sheet of balsa wood..not much strength for a full tank and a motor..yes i toqued the whole front end of my plane right off on a deadstick ladning(keep in mind that it was a bad call on my part i had a better option landing the thing) after careful inspection a buddy and i figured the stringer problem..we had some carbon fiber rods laying around...we drilled a hole beneath the stringer passed it through tank compartment and drilled the firewall and thats where the carbon fiber ends.. we secured the rods with fiber glass cloth and 30 minute epoxy..that took care of the inside...for the outside of the fuse we cut the monocote back approximately 1/2 way through the canopy along the sides of the fuse and epoxied thin ply from the motor all the way back to 1/2 way of the canopy..we sanded it and recovered it and the thing is very strong. although this sounds complicated we had the plane ready to fly the next day (took about 3 hours including time for the epoxy to set)
i love this plane and i would recomend it to anybody(i know i sound contradicting but anyone who owns one can tell you it flies great) it flies 3d and pattern very well. i wanted to share my heart aches in this message. anyone planning on buying this plane should do this fix b4 assembling the plane believe me its worth the effort..hope this helps

roadhor

My Feedback: (21)

I had one of these , I used a Saito 72 for power . It weighs about the same as the 46 2-strokes with muffler. Vertical was unbelievable. I was in love with the plane until i tipped my radio over & it went screaming int a pole & snapped the wing into. AWAT , did you're wing survive you flamed out hover? If so would you be willing to part with it? Let me know. All in all it is a good plane for the money, I'll buy another one eventually. Too many birds as it is. Later

hilleyja

My Feedback: (3)

I have an OS SX .50 on mine:

Full-power == 10 feet on grass == unlimited virtical takeoff.

awat

My Feedback: (3)

Sorry roadhor but I gave the plane away after the crash. The plane was repairable but I did not want to do the repair. I now have another one. If I can figure how to post a picture of it, I will. I took off all the covering and recovered it and airbrushed it to look like Roland Matts Extra (3W).

bigbigjoe

My Feedback: (2)

If you think a 46 is not enough engine and if you have a THUNDER TIGER PRO 46 or an O.S. 46 or an Irvine in this size range, put a
Tower Hobbies 46 ABC muffler on it. I have a T.T. 46 pro on a Morris Hobbies Knife and it turns a APC 11-4 prop 15,000 rpm.

hilleyja

My Feedback: (3)

If you think a 46, whether OS or TT Pro, is not enough, you have the wrong airplane. I tried both the Tower muffler and the Mac's 1-piece pipe on my OS SX .50 and ended up going back to the standard muffler -- they were way too much for the airplane.

3-DorBUST

O.S. .46fx mac's pipe, Hitec std.s x 4, hs81(mini.)on thr. 4.6lb.s

xv-townboy

My Feedback: (5)

all standard gear in mine with mvvs 40 and tuned pipe.this thing
absolutely screams.pipe runs along bottom of fuse,no fuel spray
on plane whatsoever.what a rush!!.i love this baby.Yeah!!everyone should own one.

TOMAPOWA

My Feedback: (1)

I first have to say that this plane is a BLAST!
I also have a GP U-Can-Do 3D and still, I love flying this Extra over her. She's a bit more nimble and with an OS46, she'll do anything you want it to! I have standard 3004 BB servos all around. I also opted to connect the elevator halves with 4mm wire (epoxied) but still connected both elevator pushrods for strength. Unfortunately, you can not easily move the tank over the CG of this plane. Then again, even though the tank is forward of CG, it still hovers great! I get over 15min flights on the stock tank. I also replaced all stock clevises with Dubro 2-56 stuff. I also added flying wires connecting the hor/ver stabs, as these seem very flimsy (but light!). I simply used some leftover pull-pull (vinyl-coated) cable. I drilled four small holes (One in each elevator half and one in top/bottom of the rudder (close to hinge line). I fed the wire through the holes (joining the ends them at the bottom of the vert stab) and simply CA'd it in place, after tugging on them to get them tighten evenly.

You really can not beat this plane for the price ($109)! Complete Setup is cheap too! ($109=Engine, $114 Flightpack, $10 for Xtra Dubro parts). I often practice with this plane before I take the UCD up.

Now for the major downside of this plane (not many to mention):

Arrgg... The covering (what ever it is) is horrible. I found out the hard way that the covering is VERY LOW HEAT shrinkable. Using a heatgun will destroy it (trust me). I'm probably going to purchase another and recover (my choice of colors) the entire plane (i.e. 21st Century covering).

Nevertheless, this is my most enjoyable plane yet!

PilotFrog

Just got mine in from Quantum models. Fairly impressive for the sale price of $110. After reading the posts I believe I will go with HS 425 servos since I already have some of these spunky little creatures, Hs 81 on throttle, a JR mini receiver, and 6V AAA NiMHi bat for plenty of torque and speed.
A TT .46 pro w/ Tower muffler for power with an APC 11.5 x 4 or 12 x 4. Will do the wire bracing between the tail surfaces as they indeed appear flimsy.
I notice that there are ply doubler/stringers on the fuse sides in the tank compartment not just the balsa sides as described in one of the posts. I will put some additional tri-stock on the bottom between the gear mount and firewall for added strength and go over any weak looking joints in the fuse with CA. But looks fairly sound in the nose with some tri-stock bracing already in place. Maybe put some 1/16" ply stringers in the fuse behind the wing as this seems to be a weak area.
As for the covering......well I'll see how it holds up....or dosn't!
PilotFrog

E75

My Feedback: (1)

I saw one of these fly today with a Thunder Tiger GP-42 and it was most impressive.

PilotFrog

For some of you that asked about the weight of this plane.
I took all of the components and weighted them on a digital lab scale.
This is the equipment I plan to use:
4 Hi Tech 225 mini BB servos...faster & stronger than std. size
I Futaba micro servo....(throttle)
I JR 700 micro receiver & switch harness
1 600 ma 2/3 AA 4.8 V pack
1 O.S .46 FX engine
1 Tower Hobbies tuned muffler for Tower .46
1 Magic Extra ARF

The model came in at a tad over 3 lbs. The engine, muffler and radio gear added an extra 1.7 lbs for a total weight of a little over 4.7 lbs. or around 75 oz. This is about 3 oz. more that the advertised weight of 4.5 lbs. Remember I am using mini radio gear which saves almost 5 oz over a standard size set up....8 oz vs. 13 oz. If I went with a AAA NiMHi pack and glass gear then I could probably get it around the stated 4.5 lb. with the present .46 FX or a TT .46 pro. If you decided to use something like the TT .42 or OS .40 or OS LA plain bearing engines then you would shave almost 4 oz or could get it around 4 1/4 lb with the mini radio gear.
But if you go with standard radio gear and a BB .46 engine you should expect your model to be right around 5 lbs. or 80 oz. dry. This is getting a bit on the heavy side and you need the power of a .46 like the FX or TT pro.
Yes, you could use something like the Irvine .53 or a .50 SX or a YS or Saito 4 stroke for even more if you feel the need but I believe this is overkill.
With the mini radio gear mine should do great at 4.5 to 4.7 lbs with the .46 FX on the tuned muffler. But one with a good TT .42 on a mousse can with mini radio and glass gear at 4 1/4 lbs should fly well also.......less weight is better than excessive power.
PilotFrog

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

with its strange mix. Two HiTec HS-300 servos for the ailerons, two HS-303 for the throttle and elevator, and a Futaba S-148 with the EMS BB conversion for the rudder. The radio is a standard size Futaba R127DF, and the battery is four AA 800mah Sanyo.

Rudder and elevator have been converted to proper pull-pull, got rid of the thin wire supplied.

With the OS 46FX engine pulling the APC 12.25x3.75 prop I have no lack of power, and the airplane exhibits no need for weight reduction.

While I agree the HiTec HS-205/HS-225 sertvos are excellent, and I'm using a fair number of them, this plane doesn't need expensive/special servos to work fine.

Bill.

electron

My Feedback: (1)

I have a Magic 300 extra with a Magnum 80 four cycle in it... Yea I know!

Take note I did a few mod's on it... I put a triple epoxy laminated 1/16 ply firewall support in and a nice resin 60 size motor mount on it...

I did this because I had an FX 46 on it... Decent power but required almost 3 ounces of weight in the front to balance and that was even with the flight battery on top of the tank and I just cannot stand putting on useless weight on a plane.

THEREFORE, I go to weighing and there was 3 1/2 ounces of difference in the FX 46 and the magnum XLS 80 four cycle...

Anyway after moving the battery back to under the wing and I ended with a perfectly balanced airplane that is well pretty dang ole fast and with UNLIMITED vertical!

Still flies nice and easy and lands like a puppy these planes have a lot of wing surface and there is more then enough surface to handle the weight of an 80...

I will put few pictures of my plane on here if anyone is interested...