Magnum

At last, we have managed to get some shots of a Weston Magnum in Guernsey. The first Guernsey Magnum's turned up in 2001, when Paul Reynolds, Nick Vining and myself bought one each. Paul's lasted 2 30-second flights and was smashed, so he bought another. That one lasted 1 30-second flight. Nick's didn't fair to well either, smashed up after radio failure after 10 or so flights. Mine appeared to be jinxed from the start too. Powered on it's test flight by a Super Custom 53, with a tuned pipe turning a 10X6 prop, it didn't hang around. Until the second flight, when the conrod snapped, and munched on the piston and liner. 19000 rpm to nothing in less than a turn of the prop! That can't be good. So, a little used second hand Irvine 53 was purchased, fitted to the plane with said pipe and prop, and revved even higher! That motor really did sing. Once you get a 10" prop past a certain amount of rpm, the tips break the sound barrier, and make a really intriguing rattly sound. So, quite loud, quite fast, with a strange noise, all doing over 200 mph! For 15 flights, when on the planes 17th flight, its second motor died with similar consequences to the first.

Then that was it for over 6 months, when I forked out for a new motor...the superb WestTech 50 T1. A motor specially designed by Weston themselves, and built by Webra in Austria. Fitted with an 8X8 prop, and one of Weston's own tuned pipes, the Magnum was quicker than ever. For another 40 or so flights. One sunny Saturday afternoon, something strange happened (even to this day we don't know what) and it rolled onto its back, and entered a vertical dive at about 200 feet, flat out. Suffice to say, hitting concrete at full throttle would have made a mess, but water? Well, yes, I mean, if you were to headbutt the sea from 200 feet at well over 200 mph, there probably wouldn't be much left of you either!

Anyway, we managed the salvage the engine, so another plane was needed. But what? Well, it could only really have been another Magnum. And this is what you see here, my second Magnum.

Well done to Weston for producing a great aircraft which is fairly easy to fly, but is really really quick.

Update Jan 2005:

The Magnum you see in the pictures above has now had over 100 flights, and as such is getting tatty and bit tired.  After the major events over the summer, I decided to retire it from high speed flight, before it suffered some mid-flight catastrophe.  It is now used as an engine test bed and moderate speed plane.  It now makes do with an RMX 48, a budget engine from Russia and so far I've only been able to make it run with a Graupner 9x6 prop...oh dear.  Suffice to say, it was fun for a while, so easy to fly when it's not even going half the speed it used too. But eventually gets a bit boring.  Now when I want to go fast I use this:

It's the new MagnumR, a revised version of the old one, but now sleeker, meaner, lighter, built better, and faster!  It feels like a completely different plane, much crisper aileron response, and harder to land, because it just keeps on floating...and floating...until you run out of runway. 

I like everything about this plane except for one thing...the horrible black-and-white-chequered covering underneath in the same pattern as the Carbon on top.  I just think it looks naff, it should have just been left yellow.

If you want to go fast, this is one of the easiest ways to go about it.  Easy to build, fairly easy to fly, and easier to see in the air than a delta, with the West 50 up front with an 8x10 prop (very sharp...be careful) that turns above 20,000 rpm, it's just brilliant fun!!