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Scratch built from Brodak's Magician plans. The only significant change I made so far was to laminate some 1/4" strips of 1/32" ply to the top/bottom spars that extend a couple of rib bays beyond the sheeting -- i.e. where they tend to break when the thing is flown real hard. Still need to fit the fixed flaps and decide what to cover it with.

The fuselage is covered/trimmed with tissue/dope. A bit on the garish side ;->

CLpilot

My Feedback: (1)

You do nice work. Hope it flies just as well.

Jay

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Weight's not too bad and the wing is straight as an arrow right now. I haven't stood it side by side with my old Midwest Magician yet, but it seems a bit smaller in the wing than the Midwest kits were. My 30+ year old Midwest kit built one is pretty nice in the air and it came out a tad on the heavy side since the kit's fuselage was made out of ironwood.

Black Arrow

I've got a Magician that I built over 30 years ago. It's been recovered and repainted and I bet it's the worlds heaviest magician! Mine weighs 42 oz with a Fox 35 of the same vintage. I've thought a lot about stripping it yet again, recovering with lighter stuff and putting a brand new, test run only Merco 40 that I have on it. How much does your new Magicain weigh? BTW: I don't think it's so garish. I think it's kind of in the spirit of CL flying when we were young!

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This one is at 24oz as it stands now minus engine and tank. The nose on this one looks to be around an inch shorter than the Midwest kit. I got it drilled for a Fox Stunt .35, and I may have to go with a muffler to get the balance in range. I didn't have any 3/16" on hand for the stab/elevator and wound up laminating 3 pieces of 1/16, so that kinda weighted up the tail a bit with a bunch of glue...

Black Arrow

That shorter nose might not be all that bad of a thing. The way those Fox's vibrate can make that long nose swing back and forth like a windshield wiper blade! LOL! I've seen guys put in a plywood triangle between the leading edge and the nose to try and reduce the problem. Good luck with your plane! It sounds like it should be a lot better flyer than mine because it's lighter. Sometimes I get the urge to try CL one more time before I die. Maybe I could get over the hump and learn to do something besides wing overs and inside loops.

Oh, BTW! I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I forgot to subtract the weight of the balancing stand I had the plane on when I put it on the scale from the reading. My plane actually weighs 37 oz. with engine, prop, tank, etc. Still heavy but I feel better now! LOL! I built mine with working flaps and moved the horizontal stab back about 1/2 inch from the location on the plans. I used a 3 inch bell crank. Looks like yours doesn't have any rudder offset. I've got offset in mine.

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It turns out the Brodak recommended C/G range on their plans is very conservative. This one wound up about 1/2" behind their rearward most position without a muffler and it still flies fine and is quite stable. I'll probably build another and stretch it out to the dimensions of my 30 year old Midwest one.