Stayed up late last night to assemble the Magister RTF kit. Everythig went very smoothly although it did take closer to two and a half hours than the one hour the Greg Covey needed. But This is the first time I have assembled a plane wit this many parts. The instructions were good with only a couple of ambiguous points - the worst being the last step. It says to mount the prop and spinner as shown in the illustration - the is no illustration, at least that I could find. Since I have done this on other planes, it was easy to figure out but a novice might be stumped about the order of assembly and which side of the prop goes to the front. If anyone at Multiplex is reading this forum then this would be a good addition to the manual.

The only other issue was the nose and landing gear. all of the cuts on the wire had ragged edges which required filing to clean up so that the collets and wheels would go on smoothly. I could have used a Dremel tool as well but didn't want to wake the wife. The wheels were very tight on the axles so that the plane wouldn't roll until throttle was up to 60 or 70%. This morning I reamed the holes in the wheels with successively larger drill bits until the wheels spin smoothly on the axle but still are reasonably tight. For my plane I found that a #20 drill bit was the right size for the final reaming. Now the Magister rolls smoothly on asphalt with the motor just above idle speed.

The steerable nose wheel is a fantastic feature after flying planes, like the Shun DaJ3, with gear but no steering. The neighbor kids want me to take off right from the cul-de-sac.

Now if the cricket players will clear off the field before the rain arrives, I can maiden today. What's up up that anyway? Cricket players in San Diego? First all the kids quit playing baseball and take up soccer - they even let girls play! Now cricket! The globalization of sports is an outrage! Someone should do something, someone.

Wish me luck.

Randy