FlyPast – August 2018

IN THE LOGBOOKIN THE LOGBOOK

August 2018FLYPAST 125

I’d last flown this ‘Maggie’ (N3788
G-AKPF) back in 2004, when I
accompanied the then owner Peter
Holloway to
Woburn Abbey
for the de

Havilland Moth Club International

Rally – we were allowed in because

it has a de Havilland engine.

After such a long gap, I

anticipated that he might want to

jump in the back for a quick flip

round the patch, but he simply

said: “Get in and get on with it.”

When I reminded him that it’d

been eight years since I’d last

flown the Magister, he asked me

if I remembered what it flew like.

When I nodded, he simply said:

“Well, it hasn’t changed much.”

(Peter has now sold the aircraft

and since April 2017 it has been

registered to David Bramwell).

Walkaround

As I began the pre-flight checks

I thought how much more

modern looking the

Magister

is than its

contemporary the Tiger Moth.

Besides the obvious difference in

being a monoplane, it has brakes,

flaps and a tailwheel. One of the

few facets that the two types have

in common is that they are both

powered by the same engine – the

130hp (97kW) DH Gipsy Major I. It

is fed from a pair of tanks in the

centre-section with a combined

capacity of 95 litres, and turns a

two-blade fixed pitch wooden prop.

Large, pneumatically-actuated

split flaps cover about 40%

of the trailing edge.

As delivered

from the

factory,

the flaps

originally

consisted of five

segments, the fifth

being mounted under

the belly. Having flaps running

aileron-to-aileron was clearly too

much of a good thing – the drag

must’ve been eye-watering

• and most Maggies had the belly
  flap deleted.
  There is a trim tab on the port
  elevator and a length of cord
  doped on the rudder’s trailing
  edge. As befits a primary
  trainer, the Magister boasts a
  usefully wide wheel track. The
  Bendix drum brakes are of the
  infamously pernickety
  ‘fly-off’ type, and as
  their steel operating
  cables are mounted on
  a wooden airframe, the
  biting point is never consistent.
  They are affected by several
  variables including temperature
  and humidity – and for all I
  know barometric pressure,
  diurnal variation and possibly
  even the phases of the moon!
  I’m not a fan, particularly as
  the disproportionately large

“While still at a safe height I decided to investigate my options

in the event of a go-around. The fl aps extend to 60 degrees, and the

Maggie is quite reluctant to climb when they’re down”

Above left

Inside the Magister’s rear cockpit.

Above right

The front cockpit.

Left

About to get airborne.