GWILLIE

I've been flying my new Magic Extra 300 for the last couple of weeks. What a great flying plane. With low throws on the elevator and ailerons it is quite smooth; on high rates it will turn like a control line stunt model. 5# 5oz with Futaba 127 rcvr, 4 x 3004 servos, 600 mA battery, and Fox 45 engine.

You really have to stuff in the radio gear; there is NO extra space. They recommend mounting the switch on the fuselage side between the battery and receiver, but it is so narrow there, a hole would cut down the load bearing members by 1/2. I mounted mine behind the wing where there is much more material.

My Fox 45 wouldn't fit into the nose; too wide. I cut off the stock fuselage sides flush with the firewall, added new plywood sides, generously overlapping the side of the fuselage, and gusseted the firewall in front and in back, top and bottom. I reinforced the bulkhead in front of the wing the same way. This gave me room to fit my Fox on a Dave Brown mount. An old vintage Fox quiet muffler worked out just right, dumping just over the wing. And it really is quiet! I sed all the hardware except the engine mounts, nylon clevises, and puchrods. The pushrods were really nice, precut and prebent, but too loose in 2-56 clevises. I also wrapped and soldered the elevator wye pushrod assembly; I would not trust wheel collars and CA here!

This is a pretty old design. I saw a guy flying one down in Florida last May and really liked how smoothly it flew; I think the long tail does it. I was going to get a Twist, but like the Magic Extra better.