Magni M24?

rdalcanto

Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2017
Messages
98
Location
Salt Lake City
I have my private and have flown the Cavalon and Tercel. I really want a gyro with the power of the 915 for our high density altitude. I never considered Magni, and would like to know from owners the pluses and minuses? How is the rotor? Build quality?
Is there anyone near Salt Lake City that would allow me to see a M24?

Thanks,
Rick
 
Well I don't own a Magni but I train in one.

I have seen and touched many Gyroplane and I tell you that the Magni is a quality build unit.
The rotor blades have no vibration in the stick.
The thing that impressed me the most was the authority it took to the sky you felt it push you up and up.
you look at a Magni and you will compare it to a exotic Italian car.

If I had the budget I would buy a Magni even if it's rotax powered. { Love Hate Thing with rotax }
I recommend you get a discovery ride with stick time My first ride I got that and was 240$Cnd well worth it.
I'm on my 3rd ride now and this thing amazes me every time we go out..
if you let go the stick on a Magni it will level out and go in a straight line.

I could go on talking but it's time to stop it's getting to be a big post.
 
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Magni - over 1,100 gyros ( all types M14, M16, M18, M22, M24 etc ) built and delivered - the 1,100th press release is from March 2018 - Quality
 

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Contact Dayton Dabbs at LoneStarMagniGyro. He is currently in Italy building gyros. He is a full time gyro instructor and DPE. Chrisk on this forum has an M24 and may weigh in here as well. Ray
 
I have a Magni M24. I very much like it. The machine is well designed and is a dream to fly. It's completely predictable and can be flown hands off once trimmed. I've also flown several other gyros, and I would absolutely buy a Magni M24 again.

On the performance side. I weigh a little under 200 lbs. With full fuel and by myself, the M24 leaps off the ground. Early on I flight tested it in that configuration. I stopped the flight test when I hit 14,000 feet since I didn't have oxygen with me. This was also on a summer day where the temperature was in the upper 90s, field elevation 700ft. That said, when another 200 lb+ person is in the gyro and it is at gross, the take off performance and climb rate is substantially reduced.

I would also suggest a visit to Dayton Dabbs or me. We both instruct and we each have a M24. Plan a month out, and you can get a commercial flight from Salt Lake to Austin in the $200 to $300 range. Make it a mini vacation!
 
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I’m actually at the Magni factory right now, building an M-16 (with Dayton). The factory is incredibly impressive and MUCH bigger than I thought it would be. A total class act.

They debuted an M-24 with a 915 at Aero Friedrichshafen and it’s now back at the factory. Nice bird but they’re still trying to figure out the optimal propeller, I understand that although the 915 doesn’t NEED a constant speed prop it really likes it. Apparently there are some challenges preventing overspeeding with the standard Arplast prop. Just me but I’d let them work out the kinks with the 915 before getting one. Just me...

I visited Abid’s operation with Silverlight and was very impressed. I expected Magni to be maybe 50% bigger. It’s closer to 10x bigger in size. Don’t get me wrong: Abid is building an outstanding gyro. Although a bit dated in style compared with others, the Magni is rock solid and the factory and its people are superb.

BTW: Magni has switched from the Flydat EMS to a Kanardia Digi. Really cool. And they have electronic “steam gauges” in their “Indu” series as options (I’m going with a “Combi” for the ASI). Cool stuff!

Back closer to the OP, apparently M-24s are the most common birds to roll out of the factory. Depends on the objectives as to which one is better. I’m getting a gyro to go low and slow, which would be pretty hot in an enclosed one in central TX most of the year. With no disrespect intended (esp to Chris K) it’s kinda like choosing between a motorcycle and a Smart car. Both have their pros and cons, depending on the objectives. Appearance-wise the -24 is slick. But so is the (my!) -16...

/Ed L
 
Congrats......Have fun !
 
Thanks for the great report Ed! Congrats on the new gyro. I'm going to Texas in 10 days to test fly the Magni. I'm really excited. I'm planning on a variable pitch prop with the 915 regardless of which gyro I buy.
 
Magni factory is about 2100 sq. meters (22600 sq. ft), not 10 times but 3.8 times bigger than our shop (6200 sq. ft). Next year 2019 June anyway, AR-1 is going to a 12000 sq. ft building after current lease expires or go to own our own small airport with a building. Magni started in 1986 and in 2018 started production with serial number 1100. That is 34 units on average per year though currently they produce about 70-80 units or so a year. Last 12 months we have collected orders for 24 units for our 2nd year. So their size makes sense given their numbers compared to us. I am good with that and our growth is faster than actual business plan called for. Magni build a good gyroplane and their serial numbers are actually accountable and real and believable to me. Growing too fast is not always a sustainable long term strategy. There are always downturns out of your control that can take you down if you get too big for your own good in this niche market. I learned that in 2008 in other LSA business. A sustainable size is better so one can adapt better and quicker with tight control on overhead.

My advise would be to trust Magni's timetable on the 915iS. IMO its not quite ready for prime time for a gyroplane application. AutoGyro also found the same thing in their 915iS experiment. Minimum 6 more months. I'll personally wait so Magni and AutoGyro can figure out the problems and I can get a good solution from Rotax once they have feedback. The market here is Sport Pilot for 90% of it so a constant speed prop is not suitable solution for them. 915iS becomes viable business wise only after they have it programmed correctly for a fixed pitch prop. Bleeding Edge is always well "bleeding". Designing a gyroplane is bleeding enough. Using a new to the field engine is hemorrhaging and that basically with a $38k engine and a $12k constant speed prop tastes a little bad.
 
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Rick:

Consider test flying an AR-1 while in TX, too: Larry Hauptrief and Mark Kincaid have set up a dealership at Burnet, KBMQ, which isn’t terribly far from Taylor, T74. It’s an open tandem but is excellent.

Abid:

No insult intended. Having seen both factories the Magni one is considerably bigger. Their “skunkworks” - an enclosed area off-limits to us mere mortals - sure looked to be about the same size as your working floor alone. Plus they produce their own rotors in house, have a good-sized CNC unit, a very large paint area - the place is just way bigger than I imagined. Again, im impressed by both companies.

/Ed
 
Rick has flown the AR-1 Ed. He liked it but he wants a side by side and with 915iS. I am not going to commit to something I cannot deliver in a known time frame. With AR-1 alone I am booked too far and have to work on increasing production velocity.
We do not do our own CNC in house. I see no point in owning two VF-6 that are not running 16 hours a day. There are probably 20 CNC shops that bid on our work and all with good QA systems. Plenty to select from with competitive pricing.
We also do not do our own blades right now. Averso supplies us reliably with good blades and their characteristics are really to our liking. May be some day. So those two areas would not be in our shop. I really doubt given the prices I can get for CNC, I'd bring it in house. There are too many CNC shops around to choose from to make it worth it here.
I am guessing you are building a M16 Ed?
 
I've been trying for a couple weeks to get seat time in the Taurus, which has a manually adjustable prop. It just hasn't worked out with my CFI yet to get checked out in the aircraft. But it has a manually adjustable variable pitch prop. I'm assuming that is much cheaper than a $12k constant speed prop, and should work just fine for me, but I guess I'll see. If I like the Magni, I will probably do the factory build in Italy. I can't do that until maybe July, but probably September because of work, so Magni will have more time to play with props before I arrive.... :)
 
rdalcanto;n1132909 said:
I've been trying for a couple weeks to get seat time in the Taurus, which has a manually adjustable prop. It just hasn't worked out with my CFI yet to get checked out in the aircraft. But it has a manually adjustable variable pitch prop. I'm assuming that is much cheaper than a $12k constant speed prop, and should work just fine for me, but I guess I'll see. If I like the Magni, I will probably do the factory build in Italy. I can't do that until maybe July, but probably September because of work, so Magni will have more time to play with props before I arrive.... :)

Take a look at http://www.rsaerotech.com/tl_files/d...nture_2017.pdf

The guy mainly doing the R&D and transmitting all the flight and engine monitoring data down (EMU..) to servers is the guy who came up with CANAerospace protocol/data standard format. What he is doing isn't yet available largely.

I am about to work on a similar conversion on a popular twin engine aircraft with gross weight increase through structural changes and then a conversion of current 912iS installation into 915iS (twin) with this MT prop with single lever operation. I get paid extra on the side to do all this while I learn all the ins and outs of 915iS and its systems. So I'll know by the time I have to do it in our gyro.
I do know that manually adjustable prop isn't the best match for 915iS.
 
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Well, as luck would have it, I was able to fly and get signed off on the Taurus today. Prop control was easy. With the cool temps, I had to either add a little pitch or go to only 90% throttle on TO to avoid over speeding. Not hard to do. Once in cruise, turn the handle about one full turn to drop the rpm a couple hundred and increase efficiency. I found the Taurus a pleasure to fly, and much easier than the Tercel when loaded with only one person. The Tercel is so wide, that with one person I think it is too far out of lateral balance and more difficult to fly coordinated than I would like. The Taurus (pilot in the middle) was great. I think it will come down to the Magni or the Taurus. The nice thing about the Taurus is that without the third seat, there is room for a folding bike, tent, and a bag.
 
Congratulations, way to make it happen!
 
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