Well guys I am sorry for the delay in the update since I am the one who started this topic. I have good and bad news to share about my magnum. First the good news, The plane is great, very fast and flies nice. NOW the bad news, MY SECOND magnum is great and flies nice. The first one did not was destroyed on the second flight. Here are some before shots.
The plane came out good I did everything I had read to do to make it a better plane, well almost. I put the CG @ 130 MM and replaced the stock elevator links. I had good JR servos in it and had no slop. The plane came out on weight just @ 4 pounds. I had to wait over a week beyond my first slight date I had waited b/c of high winds blowing all the time. 30 MPH +
Finally a good day came and I rushed out to fly. I brought a friend along to help with the launch. First flight went very well only need a little trim on the elevator. I got it down without any problems and since I flew on half throttle the entire time I decided to open it up on the second flight. Well that is where I had my problem. On my first diving pass at full speed just as I was pulling up and away I lost the right aileron. I saw it come out a little and start to flutter and tear it self up. Well I pulled the power but the plane was out of control. It kept rolling and went down almost straight in over a quarter mile away. I got to the crash site to see my awesome plane in a pile of sticks. The west engine was buried in the ground and the plane was destroyed.
The fuse was gone to the rear of the wing and the fiber top piece was massed good. The wing was not hurt too bad but had large chunks out of the leading and trailing edges.
I only lost one servo, the throttle. I must give credit to WEST for their engine. After I got all the parts home and cleaned the engine it was fine. Nothing was hurt, best of otherwise messed up. The header was fine and the pipe only had a little damage to the first 1/4 inch where it hit the header on impact. That was OK b/c I had not trimmed it at all yet anyway.
I also discovered why the plane failed. It was my fault. I should have known better. I did not pin the hinges and even though nothing is said in the instructions about this I should have done it. Seems I have one hinge on the outboard of the right aileron that the glue did not wick down into and this cost me the plane. the hinge had no glue on it past the first 1/6 of an inch.
But being a sucker for speed and knowing how well the plane did on the first flight and the reason it crashed, I ordered another. Just the kit no engine. I got it all together and this time I pined the hinges. As of this I only have 5 flight on it but it is doing awesome and I love it. I am impressed with the speed and also with how well it does on the landing with a little extra elevator. I am running coolpower 10% in it and the engine seems to like it just fine. (Can’t get prosynth here) I wanted to share this so all of you who are thinking of getting a magnum will not have the same misfortune I did and also to let you know it is a great plane. Here is my # 2 ship after the first few flights
