BOWMAN KITS - Dave Banham's Miles Magister 1 E-Convertion & Restoration

[martin collins 1]

Glad it all went well on the test flight, will post some pics of the new cowls after i pick them up tomorrow. 

[Roy Thompson]

After the success of the first flight, the focus is now on adding the finishing details.

Over the last few days, we have cut back the yellow paint on the fuselage to remove the marks from the frog tape, however this left the paint on parts of the left-hand side too thin. So the left-hand side ended up getting another and final blow over with the yellow paint.

With the painting finally out of the way, next up for the fuselage, adding the decals. These were all sourced beforehand from Pyramid Models, my go-to company for decals. I'll add the wing decals once I've finished with the fuselage.

Now the bit I've been wanting to get on with fitting out the cockpits with my 3D printed panels. Before the panels could go in, I needed two shelves for the type 8 compass, here we've gone back to old school with ply and balsa. A 1-inch thick 3D printed back piece was fixed to the panels, then a smear of epoxy run around the outline before positioning the panel assemblies in place, supported with a block of foam sponge until the epoxy set.

The two pilot were next. They were glued to their printed boosters and balsa blocks added inside the boosters to take fixing screws. The two pilots are then held in place with two screws from under the cockpit floor.

The last little detail for now is the two laches fitted to hold the stowage shut.

With all that done, next up will be fitting the two new windscreens and the rollover bar.

[martin collins 1]

Very impressive model, love the pilots and cockpit detail, puts mine to shame 🙄

[RottenRow]

49 minutes ago, martin collins 1 said:

Very impressive model, love the pilots and cockpit detail, puts mine to shame 🙄

Ha ha I was just going to write exactly the same comment, almost word for word!

 

Lovely model Roy and great to see an old model given a new lease of life.

 

Brian.

[Roy Thompson]

Following on from yesterday, the new front windscreen is on.

The rollover hoop, was made up from polystyrene tubes and given a coat of satin black paint before be stock in place with Foam 2 Foam. I did consider drilling holes in the decking to allow the tube to go through to the cockpit floor, but then decided this was good enough for sports scale.

The new back screen has also been added, and all that is left is adding the fairing strips along the bottom edge of the screens. For this, I'm planing on using Eze Epoxy Putty, I've not used it before so should be interesting.

[Roy Thompson]

You know when you're approaching the end of a toy aeroplane build, when you get to the part where you put the stickers on That was yesterday's job adding the last wing decals. To add a little more detail and reflecting back to how this model was originally, we also set about it with indelible ink pens, straight edges & rulers.

We not quite there yet, still some other little detail I'd like to add before we are done. The Venturi tubes I printed some time ago have been fitted after a lot of thought about which location to put them in. With the words from the Shuttleworth Engineer (you won't be wrong where ever you place them) as comfort, I've gone for the underside of the wing, between the legs. I'm hoping there is less chance of them getting damaged.

One last embellishment I've been playing with is a printed fuel panel, which will be the finishing touch for the wings.

[Roy Thompson]

Well, we had a fun afternoon up at the field today.

After a weekend of final bit's & bob's, she was ready for an outing and some pictures in the sunshine. The only outstanding thing is the new cowling, which I'll be picking up this Saturday from the BMFA Model Builders Show.

I was intending to get some pictures & video, and by luck Dom & Trever from Essential RC turned up, so that was the video, taken care of and my camera was taken by my friend.

We won't talk about the first couple of landings, I blame the camera's.

 

[Nightflyer]

Great job Roy. Not only on completing the model, and that it looks great, but also looks great in the air.

[Roy Thompson]

Wonder if this link will work. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/dominic.mitchell.52/videos/281950328118976/?idorvanity=360637584273201

 

 

[martin collins 1]

Says members only Roy............

[Roy Thompson]

2 hours ago, martin collins 1 said:

Says members only Roy............

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

 

[Roy Thompson]

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.

 

 

[RottenRow]

Good to see the Magister in the air. Yours appears to fly a bit faster than my 120 powered one, which is about 1lb heavier than yours, probably more with fuel.

 

I think the flexing of the u/c legs is inevitable, considering their design and construction. The only definite way to prevent it would be to fix the legs straight into the wing rather than by the torque rod arrangement as designed, but that would need a fair amount of wing surgery.

 

On mine, I have shortened the length of the torque rod part of the u/c as much as is practical, which has helped to a degree. Larger gauge piano wire would help too.

 

Very impressed with your scale details Roy.

 

Brian.

[Roy Thompson]

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.

 

[martin collins 1]

Your elevator seems a bit sensitive or too much movement Roy, mine comes in much smoother than that, will have to check my throws and send them to you.

[RottenRow]

Mine has a lump of lead bolted onto the engine mount to get the C of G right, the tail is presumably built heavily. I am away at the moment so can't check where the C of G is but 100mm sounds about right. It does 'feel heavy' in the air, if that makes any sense.

 

The elevator on mine is fine for flying but is sensitive for landings, it lands just like Roy's model. I do have some expo set up. I too would be interested to know your control throws please Martin.

 

I never had the instructions or plan for my model so it was set up by trial and error.

 

Brian.

[martin collins 1]

New Magister kit on Ebay Alert! Postage from Portugal though. 

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166348675421?hash=item26bb27595d:g:4mUAAOSw3kRlEdzu

 

 

[Outrunner]

40 minutes ago, martin collins 1 said:

New Magister kit on Ebay Alert! Postage from Portugal though. 

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166348675421?hash=item26bb27595d:g:4mUAAOSw3kRlEdzu

 

 

Looks like an expat selling a whole bunch of kits, pity they are in Portugal.

[RottenRow]

Interesting, the box lid label states the model weight as 10 1/4 lbs (might be 10 1/2, it’s a bit unclear), and engine size .61, which was the maximum size allowed in scale competitions back when the model was designed.

 

I think one would be doing very well to get one of these down to that weight.

 

Brian.

[Andy Gates]

Congratulations Roy, your final reaction to your flights really sums up why we still build our models.

I have been watching this as it developed for 2 reasons, Bowmans was one of the 3 model shops in Ipswich which I used to frequent as a teenager, the other reason is I built a Magister too.

 

Mine is a much modified build from a David Platt plan with me trying to loose quite a bit of its weight, being 78" in wingspan and just under 5lbs in weight. Flies quite sedately but quite aerobatic when opened up on its 4S 500mAH battery.

My landing do tend to a bit like your 3 pointers, 2 wheels & a nose and the UC on mine is way too springy

 

Link to my build is here.

 

 

[martin collins 1]

Very nice Andy, love the Irish scheme.

[Roy Thompson]

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?

[Andy Gates]

The plans I used were free, I downloaded them, put the files on a stick and too them to a local printer. I discussed with him how much I wanted them expanded by and then he printed them off at the size I wanted. My down load was from Aerofred.

 

[Roy Thompson]

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.

[Roy Thompson]

On 27/09/2023 at 20:17, martin collins 1 said:

New Magister kit on Ebay Alert! Postage from Portugal though. 

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166348675421?hash=item26bb27595d:g:4mUAAOSw3kRlEdzu

 

 

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.