M.E.N. Gobbler?
03-28-2009, 03:57 PM
#1
M.E.N. Gobbler?
I recently purchased a M.E.N. Gobbler, what's your take on this bird? The owner of MEN told me it was a fantastic F3 sailplane, I mostly like to thermal hunt, but the speed aspect is nice, when ballasted correctly for the windy days up here in the northeast. Anybody have one or seen one of these fly?
Thank Ray
Thank Ray
03-28-2009, 05:30 PM
#2
Senior Member
RE: M.E.N. Gobbler?
If it's the plane I'm thinking of I started building one back before I left the hobby 20 years ago. It never got finished and got crunched when in storage out in the garage. Is this the Gobbler with the ballast tubes in the wings?
03-28-2009, 07:01 PM
#3
RE: M.E.N. Gobbler?
Yup, jerry, the owner of MEN told me all about the kit before buying it, it looks very good, specially machined thicknesses on the sheeting, aluminum wing joiners that hold the winch pull and other various special mods done to make it a compitition machine.
03-28-2009, 07:02 PM
#4
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RE: M.E.N. Gobbler?
Yea, the Gobbler was Dwight Holly's '82 World Champ plane great flier, the kit's a ***** to build. Dick Sarpolus <[email protected]> did a magazine article on the kit, you might want to ask him any questions you have about it.
03-28-2009, 07:16 PM
#5
RE: M.E.N. Gobbler?
Yeah, I'm building it more for nostalgia, I'm a really good pilot so I'm not worried about damaging it, I just like old designs you really don't see any more. The trick is letting someone fly my nosen citabria when built, to tow me up to altitude.
03-28-2009, 07:56 PM
#7
RE: M.E.N. Gobbler?
The only pic is on the box I have, jerry told me that holly died about 3 years after designing it, due to cancer. Now I'm forced with a delima, do I build it or save it, so far it seems to be one of the last known kits left of it. So is it better left alone in the box or built and flown? I'm going to leave that up to most of you guy's, Trust me I have plenty of kits waiting to be done well before this one, so I appriciate your opinnion on building it.
03-28-2009, 08:09 PM
#8
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RE: M.E.N. Gobbler?
To me your dilemma falls into the “Can’t take it with you when you die” adage. But that’s just me. If you don’t respect it, then give it to someone who does. It seems to me like you do! Build it! Fly it! Live it! 
03-28-2009, 08:29 PM
#9
RE: M.E.N. Gobbler?
That's a good point, I own a few "not made anymore kits", it just seems that this one seems special, but I think your right,....this last of it's kind bird needs to fly, not be trapped in a box. Keep looking at this fourm, I might just do a build thread on it, maybe even send the plans to percisioncut kits to get a few spares made.
03-28-2009, 09:42 PM
#10
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RE: M.E.N. Gobbler?
I'd build it and fly.
I flew with Dwight, so I saw the real one, it was built a little different. Terry Luckenback also had one, but his had a balsa/lithoplate/foam wing and a 214 airfoil as opposed to Dwight's 205.
I flew with Dwight, so I saw the real one, it was built a little different. Terry Luckenback also had one, but his had a balsa/lithoplate/foam wing and a 214 airfoil as opposed to Dwight's 205.
