My new Magnum XL 70 arrived last week and I installed it over the weekend. It replaces a Super Tigre G.61 2-stroke that didn't seem to be very happy in the UCD.46. Maybe it was the inverted position that caused it to quit half-way through most flights. Very annoying, to say the least. Anyway, I put 3 flights on my new Magnum this morning and all I can say is, FANTASTIC!!! It runs perfectly, even to the point that not only is the engine still idling after landing, I can taxi the airplane back to me and it will come to a complete stop while idling! I don't think it gets much better than this.

While installing the new Magnum (it fit perfectly into the G.61 bolt-holes) I gave quite a bit of thought to the less-than-ideal fuel tank location. As most of you are aware and have commented on, the tank it too high in relation to the inverted engine carburetor. Well, I decided to leave the fuel tank in the stock position and give it a try, and planned to move the tank lower if I couldn't get a consistant needle settings, etc. Well, it appears moving the tank won't be necessary. The Magnum runs so good, it's just incredible.

Interestingly, the Magnum with muffler weighs about 7 ounces less than the G.61 with muffler. I did a CG check and it was about 1/8" ahead of the rear limit (6" aft of the leading edge of the wing). I didn't feel real comfortable with that, so I moved my battery pack forward to the empty bay just behind the fuel tank. This didn't make a huge change in CG, but surely gave me peace of mind. Today's flights revealed that vertical hovering (something new to me) are quite easy to do, even without switching the dual-rates to high. Also, the Mag 70 held the hover easily at not much more than half throttle. After what I've read on this forum, that surprised me. I thought it would take about 3/4 throttle or more. I'm running the new engine real rich, also.

Anyway, all I can say is YEEEEEEEEEEEEEHA!!!

-Kaos