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M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 12/29/2004 9:44 PM   
1/2alover


 

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From: trinity, NC, USA
Status: offline 		I know this is the 1/2a forum but I knew there were some veterans in here.Does anybody remember the M.E.N. Trainer,I learned to fly on one,that thing was great.I want build another one really bad but I cant find any plans

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 12/30/2004 12:38 AM   
BMatthews



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Status: offline 		Moved over to Vintage RC where there's more chance of a good answer.

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 12/30/2004 3:08 AM   
PilotFighter



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Status: offline 		Boy howdy. I had one back about 1980 or 81. Cool airplane ! they made a Cub also. My friend and I would do touch and goes in formation at all of 10 mph !!

I have seen the kit on Ebay a couple of times and was very tempted to bid on it. I wish I had now. I would suggest you check EBAY every couple of weeks or so. I have bought several planes there and I have had no problems.

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 12/31/2004 5:42 PM   
shellydog


 

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Status: offline 		Hello! I have a kit that I do not want to part with. However I will have the plans copied for you at a slight fee. My printer is just out side of town. I will make templates of those special under cambered wing ribs too. It should be an easy kit to scratch. Just remember the fuse sides are lite plywood. You should have a saw to cut them. I live near the original designer & kitter Jerry Jarvis <M.E.N.> Model Engineering Of Norwalk CT. He still runs a hobby shop but has no intentions of re-kitting his designs. Too bad! This plane is Awesome in calm to moderate wind conditions. I learned to fly R/C with this plane. Just let me know I will be glad to help! Shellydog

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 1/4/2005 1:01 AM   
dicknadine


 

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Status: offline 		would it be possible to post a photo of it? dick

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 1/4/2005 3:10 AM   
smallrc


 

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Status: offline 		I have posted a photo of mine on my SmallRC website:
http://www.geocities.com/iriscircle/images.html
It actually belongs to a good friend of mine, but I have
been the caretaker of it for many years.

Later...

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 1/4/2005 9:45 PM   
johnvb-RCU



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Status: offline 		Great pics! Thanks for putting them up.

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 1/5/2005 11:46 PM   
shellydog


 

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Status: offline 		I will try to upload a picture of The M.E.N. Trainer

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 1/5/2005 11:49 PM   
shellydog


 

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Status: offline 		Heres a Pic

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 2/11/2005 6:13 PM   
APope


 

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Status: offline 		I had one back in my early "training" days. I didn't realize how much the wing structure depended on the covering for rigidity. Mine was covered with WorldTex, which is the fabric-like material. It tended to warp. If I were to build it again, I would use webbing between the spars, and cover with a plastic film, such as Monocote. I still have the fuselage, hmmm.

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 2/11/2005 7:39 PM   
HighPlains


 

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Status: offline 		I flew on once when the elevator servo had quit. It was very nice with just rudder and throttle. I also built my own design where I used the MEN airfoil with more span.

BTW, if you want a smaller version of the same basic airplane, I would highly recommend the Showmaster (RCM plans) by Ken Willard and a throttle equiped 1/2A engine. I had one in 1970 with 3 KPS-12's and a 500 mA battery. It would fly circles around me so tight that I had to be careful not to swat it out of the air with the antenna. It was also pretty rugged, as I built about 3 or 4 fuselages for it over several years. The wing survives to today, as does the version of the MEN trainer wing that I built.

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 2/19/2005 7:27 PM   
Endeavour105



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Status: offline 		Iinteresting!! Finally found some others who learned on the M.E.N. Trainer! Way back when....late '80's, I ran across this airplane kit at the WRAM show in NY and took the plunge of finally getting into building/flying RC aircraft. This was my first venture into building R/C airplanes. I was and still am very pleased with this little plane. It's still flying after all this time. I later had a minor collision with a rather large bush and took the opportunity to reduce the wing dihederal and add ailerons during the wing repair process. Flight characteristics were much improved.

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 5/18/2005 10:25 PM   
RubiDan


 

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Status: offline 		I learned on an MEN Trainer and loved it. My good friend, Dennis, coached me and another friend on this plane (before the days of buddy boxes). We put a lot of hours on it. Trying to turn it around quickly one day to maximize flight time, we discovered that we could refill the tank and flip the prop and it would start with no battery on the glow plug. I eventually crashed it badly (don't remember how...). I often wanted to build another, but must have let the plans get away from me. Never could find them.

Dan

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 5/20/2005 7:22 AM   
kloz


 

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From: Huntertown, IN, USA
Status: offline 		Hi Guys! I bought a "kit" on the "bay" and it turned out to be stick wood and the fuse sides. Plans look nice thought, and I could make a copy at little or no charge if someone needs it....

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 12/27/2006 12:36 AM   
wreeve


 

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Status: offline 		I spoke with Jerry at Al's Hobby in Norwalk CT about the MEN Trainer 25. He built the original kit. He has several hundred sets of parts but nobody to pack them into kits. He said that he can't hire anyone to do it, but he said if someone would be willing to pack some kits together in return for one of them, he'd go that way. I'd love to get a few of these kits. I used to fly them on skis in the winter and wheels off grass in the summer.

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 2/20/2007 4:41 AM   
KitBuilder



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Status: offline 		I built one and learned on it as well in the late 70's.. The LHS at the time suggested I sheet the wing from the leading edge to the top spar which I did with 1/16" thick balsa sheet. Plane was very durable and flew great on the Enya .19 I had in it. I would switch from trike to taildragger and back and it flew great both ways.
Mike

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 2/22/2007 9:49 PM   
NM2K


 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: PilotFighter

Boy howdy. I had one back about 1980 or 81. Cool airplane ! they made a Cub also. My friend and I would do touch and goes in formation at all of 10 mph !!

I have seen the kit on Ebay a couple of times and was very tempted to bid on it. I wish I had now. I would suggest you check EBAY every couple of weeks or so. I have bought several planes there and I have had no problems.



----------------


The same company also sold a stand way off scale version of the Aeronca C-3. It utilized the same type of undercambered wing.

I never did get to see an example of their 40 sized trainer. But there was five or six M.E.N. 20 sized trainers at our field. I built 2.5 of them.

Lots of folks were put-off by the thought of covering the underside of the wing with plastic film covering. Actually, it turned out to be easy to do, but many folks would give up on the model without even trying to apply the covering. I offered to cover them for them IF they would sit there and watch me do one wing panel and then cover the remaining wing panel themselves. I had no takers.


Ed Cregger



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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 2/23/2007 3:56 PM   
Glasair2


 

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Status: offline 		I have a NIB M.E.N Twin Trainer, 3 channels and flys on a pair of 10's. I also flew a Enya 15 powered one back in the early 70's, I remember it flew nice.

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 2/23/2007 4:12 PM   
NM2K


 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: KitBuilder

I built one and learned on it as well in the late 70's.. The LHS at the time suggested I sheet the wing from the leading edge to the top spar which I did with 1/16" thick balsa sheet. Plane was very durable and flew great on the Enya .19 I had in it. I would switch from trike to taildragger and back and it flew great both ways.
Mike



---------------


I flew two or three examples of this model and built and flew my own too. It did not need the extra sheeting. What the kit needed was a lighter fuselage. That lite ply fuselage was unnecessarily heavy.

The airfoil, while great for producing lots of lift at slow speed, resembled a displacement hull boat in that trying to fly it any faster than "enough" was an exercise in futility. Fortunately, I liked the model for its fine low speed performance.


Ed Cregger



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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 2/23/2007 4:17 PM   
NM2K


 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Glasair2

I have a NIB M.E.N Twin Trainer, 3 channels and flys on a pair of 10's. I also flew a Enya 15 powered one back in the early 70's, I remember it flew nice.



------------


Is that twin a factory configuration? Please pardon my ignorance. It does have a familiar feel (the concept). I'll bet that would be a lot of fun to fly.


Ed Cregger



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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 3/2/2007 3:50 AM   
KitBuilder



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Status: offline 		I recall the wing being a bit "twisty" prior to the sheeting but who knows.. way to long ago... The fuse was a bit heavy though even with no bottom from the wing TE back... I recall just a couple width wise spars to keep it square. Woiuld be fun to flatten the wing and put some ailerons on it. Yes it did fly slow with the undercambered wing.. hence. M.E.N "Trainer"
Mike

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 3/2/2007 11:43 PM   
Joe Nagy


 

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From: Glendale, AZ/Englewood, FL , AZ, USA
Status: offline 		Hi Everyone; & Special Attention to Ed Cregger;

Greetings from the sunny nd warm 'Valley of the Sun'.

I too like the MEN line of kits, and have a number of them: the Trainer, CUb, Big John.

Ed, you mentioned that MEN also produced an Aeronca C-3 type. I have never heard of this kit, and would just plane luv to get one, or a set of plans, [a copy of same would be just fine]. Do you, or anyone else out in the vast id of da'net know of a kit or plans for the MEN C-3.

I thank you in advance for any help you can render, best regards from Phoenix,

Joe Nagy. email: joshrl@hotmail.com

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 3/3/2007 7:17 AM   
NM2K


 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: KitBuilder

I recall the wing being a bit "twisty" prior to the sheeting but who knows.. way to long ago... The fuse was a bit heavy though even with no bottom from the wing TE back... I recall just a couple width wise spars to keep it square. Woiuld be fun to flatten the wing and put some ailerons on it. Yes it did fly slow with the undercambered wing.. hence. M.E.N "Trainer"
Mike



----------------


Just flying slow doesn't make a model a trainer. Remember the legion of folks that were going to learn to fly on a light Cub J-3? Most couldn't even get the model off the ground successfully. Not enough dihedral in a scale Cub to be of much help to a newbie.

The M.E.N. Trainer 25 (or whatever the proper name) had a wing that was adequate for its intended use. The Monokote did stiffen it up quite a bit.

I flew my original version with a Fox .19 plain bearing engine. Our club had just switched over to Red Max 5% with all synthetic oil. What a PITA it was running the Fox .19 on that fuel. I kept going through connecting rods (upper end - non bushed) as though they were popcorn in a movie theater. I got tired of that and replaced the Fox .19 with a Super Tigre G20/15 R/C. While not quite as powerful as the Fox .19, (neither would ROG the model off a grass field), it was adequate power after a good hand launch.

Ailerons would have been an interesting experiment. I thought about adding leading edge slats and flaperons at one point, just to see how slow it could fly. As it was, I got it to "back up" with a little bit of a breeze blowing.


Ed Cregger



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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 3/3/2007 9:25 PM   
buzzard bait


 

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Status: offline 		Someone in our club built one with extended wings and ailerons, and some dihedral. I flew it once and boy, did that thing teach you to use rudder! It had so much adverse yaw the controls were essentially reversed if you tried to get away with just aileron. Jim

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RE: M.E.N. Trainer plans or kit - 4/23/2007 4:09 AM   
puggie1821


 

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From: Kansas City, MO, USA
Status: offline 		a friend and i are Desperately seeking plains for a M.E.N. Trainer if you still have a set of plains or could copy me a set please e-mail me @ pugdog01@aol.com

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