IN THE LOGBOOKIN THE LOGBOOK
August 2018FLYPAST 125I’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 itscontemporary 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 thefactory,
the flaps
originally
consisted of five
segments, the fifth
being mounted underthe 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.