Hi John,

I see you are into flying a Mugin.

I am in a group preparing for the Outback Challenge. See  CanberraUAV.com  We were donated a Mugin by Cyber Technology in Perth. I think they obtained the plane before it was marketed as it is now, because they put a single cylinder DA50 on it.

It is a great aircraft for this purpose. It goes like the clappers and handles the weather really well.

The engine was purchased by Cyber Technology with the timing altered so that it runs in reverse. This means the full range of commercially available propellers can be used.

Vibration is a problem. A main wheel fell of on the first flight. The ailerons and elevons are held on by a 3mm aluminium shaft through a groove in the balsa of the flying surfaces, and either the hard balsa ribs or fibreglass sheet projections from the wing. With the vibration, after 4 a few hours airtime, the holes have doubled in size and the fibrglass has worn through. We are grounded at the moment while I do alot of surgery in order to rebuild the bearings and install brass sleeving on the shaft at every joint.

To balance the aircraft we had to put 4Kg of lead acid battery in the nose. This makes the aircraft heavy, so it flies fast and lands fast. Our nosewheel arrangement is just not up to it. After rebuilding the forward bulkhead we now attach the nosewheel shaft with nylon bolts.With the long nosewheel leg we break the bolts just about everytime it overruns the runway into the grass. Many of the aluminium parts on the nosewheel have been rebuilt at some stage.

We have just recently ordered through the supplier a number of replacement parts, especially the aluminium wingspar and booms because the material is, not to our knowledge, commercially available in Australia.

I'd love to hear how you get on.

Jack.