Roy Thompson

Last Thursday I made a start at putting the raider together, this is not going to be a long build! I just need to crack on with it. First item in the instructions are the wings. Pack up the leading and trailing edges, stick the ribs in place then add top spar followed by the top sheeting, easy. There are two things I don’t get with the plans, first the plan shows Rib 2 flat on the board with the packing for the L.E. & T.E. That’s ok but Rib 1 is bigger? Surely it should show have show Rib 1 flat on the board, with larger packing. The second snag is the size of Rib 1, it’s 1/4” longer than the gap between L.E & T.E. and the front of the Rib 1 is taller than the L.E. I did think should I be building a left and right panel and these rib’s are the end capping, and then stick the two panels together . But no you build it as a one piece wing, so Rib 1 was duly trimmed to fit and added last once the spar’s were fitted before adding the top sheeting. Next job is to flip it over, make up a servo bay add capping strips and sheet the bottom, before adding the ailerons.

You’re quiet right there Chris. We’ve been spoiled by CAD drawings, lasers and CNC cutting where we expect every part clicks together. 😁 Having started getting into this model a bit more, one example of how our expectations have changed are the tail fins which are keyed into the top deck. The side view only shows it but you’re left to work out where the cutouts go exactly in the top deck. Instructions say “slot 3/16” fuselage to take fins. 🤔 Like wise the elevator servo it shown its position in the top view but your left to work out the installation. One other thing I don’t get is the “26” in the title, you would think that it relates to the span or the motor size. The span is 24” so thats out, and the power quoted as a PAW 80, which I assume is today a PAW 049 (0.8cc - 0.049cu in 0.13BHP - 97Watts) so it’s not that? As we are talking about power, mine will have a 2212 size motor with a 3S 1000mAh ish pack. Or at least that the starting point.

Another Bowman kit has appeared on eBay back in June, so that's been added to my collection. It's a Raider 26 sports model, not one I've come across before, and one I’ve been thinking about putting together with an electric conversion at some point. Well that point has come! The pictures of this kit I originally posted in July on my other Bowman thread, but I’ll repost them here. Not wanting to trash the kit I’ve decided to get the plan scanned and copied. Word of warning when you ask your local printer for a copy, don’t forget to state you want it printed at 100%, and not scaled down to fit what ever paper size they happen to have set. Well we got it right the second time around. Having got the plan copied I’ve set about making up a new kit of parts using the original parts as templates. Having raided my stock of wood I now have complete second kit. As none of the ribs are detailed on the plan other than rib 2, I’ve also scanned the ribs on my home printer so I have a record. Interestingly the ribs in the kit are cut to just the basic shape with no cutouts for the spars so they all need finishing before they can be used. That will do for now more pictures when I start putting it together.

Cracking looking model Jeff, 👍🏻

Had an hour at the field this morning before the rain started, but long enough to check out a few things and take some pictures now see completed. One thing I noticed from the last flight was how much down trim was on the elevator, suggesting the CG needs to go more forward. Will do that before the next flight.

Any takers? Hopefully it will find a good home. Some one else having a clear out of kits due to nagging issues! 🤣

Don’t quote me on ANY of this, 🙂 but as far as I can remember and I can’t put dates to a lot of this, it goes like this Start: 37-39 Upper Orwell St, Ipswich. Next: Franklyn, Deymans Hill Tiverton. Then: A tie up Compete-A-PAC. Anglia Model Centre, buy Bowman’s & I think Complete-A-Pac and then continued to support the brands until they close. JoTiKa ltd (Caldercraft) buy Bowman’s brand among others from AMC (2019/2020) plan to relaunch the range at some point in the future (could be some time off yet!). If any one wants to correct or add to any of this Please feel free.. Silly me if I looked at the box art properly I would have seen it came from the Anglia Model centre.

That’s looks like a late kit, going by the address on the box art. I wonder if its from when they were sold to Complete-A-PACK. Any idea’s?

A little time back, there was a complete kit for sale and I contacted the seller, who kindly sent me copies of the instructions and pictures of the plan. Just in case they are any help to anyone else with a Bowman Magister, I leave what I have here. On top of this, there was also a copy of a feature on the Miles Magister from the Aeroplane Monthly March 1980 Vol 8 Num 3. BOWMAN KITS.pdf

Did a little more on the cowl yesterday, and we are almost there. I’ve added the last of the panel latches, and when painted I think they look better than I expected. Before applying the primmer, I laid in some panel lines with 0.75mm tape unfortunately you have to look closely to really see them, they are a bit too fine, compared to how large the gaps are on the real thing. Hopefully, if I add some weathering, it will make them stand out a lot more. The other item I wanted to add was an exhaust, and I did consider printing one, but after looking around the workshop I came across some aluminium tubing that is about the right size. So after some cutting and bending and shaping, we have an exhaust. It's all too clean and shiny for now, but that can be shorted later.

Progress on the Maggie has been coming along slowly. The new cowling were collected a few weeks ago, and I've been working on fitting one when I've had spar time in between other stuff, like holidays. It's tough being a pensioner, so many places to visit. The new cowl we've had made is much sturdier and weigh noticeably more than the original, with thicker layers of glass cloth. Unfortunately, this made it too snug a fit, and it has involved a lot of sanding of the inside of the cowl to get a good fit. Once that was out of the way, the cutting out was simple enough, following the line from the fist cowl. Two things I wanted to do with this cowl is (1) conceal the fixings to some degree by placing them where the latches would be, and by making dummy latches for the over locations. (2) add other details like the air intakes, panels and exhaust. Fire up the 3D printer, intakes and latches printed. Next step painting.

How’s the Maggie going, is it looking resplendent yet with it nice new cowl? Not quite finished fitting mine yet, had to do a lot of sanding on the inside as it was a very snug fit. Just about there now, just need to finish off making it look pretty.

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Yesterday couldn't have been any more perfect for fly. October sunshine, blue sky's and a gentle breeze all day long. Three more flights were added to the Magisters total today, all very gentle circuits for the most part, just getting more of a feel for her and building my confidence with the more forward CG and higher rates, more akin to Bowman's recommendations. I'm enjoying the low passes up & down the strip in the sunshine, just trying to find that scale looking speed. One thing I hadn't tried until now was the stall. Well, I can report with full up held in, it's very, very gentle with a gentle nose drop and slight drop of the right wing. It feels like you run out of elevator authority long before anything nasty happens. We tried the first couple proper roll's as well, they are not the fastest, but then you're not expecting them to be. However, they are reasonably axel, not requiring too much in the way of down elevator in the inverted. So happy with that. The landing have improved smoother with less pitching, partly in the knowledge of how much I can hold her off in the flare before the stall. But it does feel like it could do with a little more elevator movement, to hold the nose up at touch down. It's still very easy to let her tip over the second the wheels touch. I will confess that on the last landing of the day, the "I'll just have one more flight!" I did try and slow her down too much on finals and drop her in hard on her nose, breaking the prop. That had to happen at some time!

The latest addition to the fleet

The previous post should say the CG is not quoted in the instructions (The forum won’t let me edit it). Also the the video link to Essential RC has changed it’s on their YT site.

Martin I contacted the seller, very nice chap whose wife has calculated he will need to live to 140 to build all the kits he’s collected! So he’s started letting some go. Anyway he kindly sent me some pictures of the plan and instructions before he sold the kit to a chap in Denmark. Looking at what he has sent me, I can tell you the the instructions says the model can be completed under the 11lbs, Maximum weight limit. I think we’ve all blown that one for starters. Was that a scale comp limit in the past? Having printed some of the pictures and taken a scale measurement the CG would appear to be 92mm 3-5/8” it’s quoted in the instructions anywhere just a mark on the plan. Control throws are quoted as Rudder 1” Left & Right (widest point), Ailerons 1/2” both ways (at inner-most point) and Elevators 1/2” each way. The plans also show the engine thrust angle zero each way.

On the subject of which glue is best for butt joining balsa sheets, my recommendation is Deluxe Super Phatic! It’s thin, so wicks in easily and doesn’t leave a rig to Sand down, it also grabs faster than Aliphatic.

Been getting the Maggie ready for her next outing tomorrow. So I checked the CG as I was thinking of moving it forward a bit, and quite surprised how much aft it had moved since I’ve added all the final details, it was now 4 3/8 “ back 3/8” from where I started. I suppose I should have checked it before the last flight. It’s taken an additional 200g to bring the CG to 3 3/4”. After adding the extra lead I thought I should check the weight and see how much the detailings and balancing has added, well the total is 6.77Kg or 14.3 lbs. So it looks like I’ve caught up with yours Brian. I weighed the new cowls I collected from Martin at the weekend as I had the scales out. They are noticeably heavier than the original but that’s the price for the quality I suppose, and in the bigger picture just means I can take a chunk of lead out when I’m ready to fit them. Fingers crossed the wind plays ball tomorrow, looking forward to trying some proper trimming flights.

That’s one more thing tick off, my first time in Buckminster. On one hand very disappointed with the number of traders & visitors, on the other hand easy to get to the stands and pick up all I needed from the traders who were there. For me the best part of the day was the talk on glass covering, and meeting a few people I talk to on here, namely your good self Martin and John Diamond and his MB2.

Like Martin say, like the Irish scheme. All this time I’ve been looking for a set of plans & instructions, then out of nowhere a set turns up. Shame it’s in Portugal and to much more than I want to pay. How about any of you guys?

Thanks, Brian. I have a photo of the moment of the first landing Monday, the wheels are right back, almost touching the wing. The good thing about torque rod setup being they came straight back without breaking anything. Looking at the video when I did a touch and go, you can see the wheels going backwards and the nose going down. That was the point when that landing turned into a go around. Still, that explains all the scrapes on the underside of the cowl. I'm surprised yours is heaver, but at the same time, it makes me feel better. Looking at the vid I do need to work out how to slow it down on the approach without it dropping out of the sky. I have the c/g at 100mm, may move that back a bit and increase the elevator movement with greater expo. Would be nice to have the original instructions to see what they recommended. I did phone the people who own the Bowman rights this week, but they are still! along way away from shorting out all the drawings they have.

This is more like it, check out the slow mow for just how much the undercarriage legs flex!! The 13 1/4lbs AOW probable not helping.

Thanks, I thought that may happen. I see if I can a link from Dom.

Wonder if this link will work. https://www.facebook.com/dominic.mitchell.52/videos/281950328118976/?idorvanity=360637584273201