MEN Trainer (oz4101)
About this Plan
M.E.N. Trainer. Radio control trainer, with undercambered wing.
Scanned plan for MEN trainer with additional 2nd sheet showing a twin-engined version of the model. The scan is missing a small section at the right hand side of sheet 1, so the tail control surface outlines are missing.
Direct submission to Outerzone.
Update 02/03/2020: Added kit review from RCM, June 1977, thanks to RFJ.
Quote: "RCM Product Test: MEN Trainer.
The MEN Trainer is manufactured by Model Engineering of Norwalk and is designed as a basic powered trainer. The kit is of conventional plywood, balsa, and spruce construction. The hardware kit is quite complete in that it includes the tail wheel bracket, landing gear clamps and screws, control horns and screws, nylon clevises, plastic pushrod keepers, pushrod wire, preformed landing gear and tail wheel wires, and threaded pushrod wires. With regards to building the kit, a 3/4 in piece of wood is needed to block up the trailing edge of the wing for building. The two piece landing gear has to be wire wrapped and soldered together.
Overall, the kit builds into a very sturdy airplane. No modifications are essential to this kit although we used 3 in wheels instead of 2-1/2 in diameter for better performance on grass fields. We also used a fixed tail skid instead of the rudder coupled tail wheel for the same reason. We substituted Pylon Brand Gold'N-Rods for the dowel push-rods supplied with the kit although this is simply a matter of builder preference. All 3 servos used with our Cox/Sanwa 8040 are mounted on a Cox servo tray. We used a Futaba FP-S6 servo for throttle, which is about 1/4 in shorter than the regular Cox servos, so the tray was modified by epoxying in a piece of spruce at one end of the cut-out in the tray. Both the modified tray and the Futaba servo has worked fine. The throttle was connected to the servo by a flexible cable.
We used metallic red Kwik Cote on the wing, silver Kwik Cote on the fuselage with silver and black Kwik Cote trim. We used a Top Flite 9/5 wood prop and a Sullivan Slant style tank.
With regards to flight performance, the MEN Trainer flies exactly as advertised - slow and stable. Other than take-offs, flying is done at half throttle or less. Take-offs are short and altitude is gained quickly. When properly trimmed, it definitely will recover, hands off, from any attitude with less than 100 ft of altitude loss. The Trainer flew right off the work bench with no adjustments necessary other than minor trim at the transmit
ter.
The plane had over 20 flights on it at the time of this review and still no adjustments have been made to it. Although certainly not necessary for a trainer, this aircraft will fly inverted with very little effort. We would have to rate this aircraft excellent in the flight performance category as an excellent trainer."
Supplementary file notes
Review.
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(oz4101)
MEN Trainer
from Model Engineering of Norwalk
1975
58in span
IC R/C Cabin Multi Trainer Kit
clean :)
all formers complete :)
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Submitted: 08/03/2013
Filesize: 540KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: JimScott
Downloads: 2982
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User comments
What is the dihedral of wing. no braces shown. thank youanon - 20/04/2014
Hi, Steve. I just looked and the previous comment is correct: there is no information regarding correct dihedral for this airplane. A good start would be six degrees/3.0 inches per panel, which works out to raising one panel six inches with the other one flat on the board. The airplane should have good yaw/roll coupling at this number.
Moeregaard - 27/04/2014
Steve, I have a plans built example of this model with literally 100's of flights on it. I just took a measurement of the wing with one panel flat on the bench. The other wing panel is raised 5 inches at the tip (though 6 inches would likely work fine). Be sure to take the measurement at the leading edge as the undercambered airfoil makes a measurement at the spar higher. Each wing panel has a washout or twist such that the with the leading edge and wing root flat on the bench, the outboard trailing edge will be 1/2 inch above the bench. I can affirm that the yaw/roll coupling is very good despite the fairly small rudder.
Kyle - 22/02/2015
Does anyone have any suggestions about this design? I started to build a kit years ago, but it was thrown out when my parents’ home was cleared out following their passing. I’m still fascinated by the undercambered wing. I have an older Saito .20 4-stroke I’d like to try on it. It just seems like a design that would just hang in the sky.
James Hickman - 20/02/2020
It can be built single or multiengined. Undercambered airfoil made it a slow flying speed. Some more info at: https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/golde...
pit - 20/02/2020
I had one way back in the late 70s. It was really slow, I learned flying on this plane.
michael - 29/02/2020
Built the kit and a Heathkit 3-channel RC system (Transmitter, receiver and 3 servos) to go with it in the mid-70's. Maiden flight in 1977 powered by an Enya .15 cu.in engine. Built a copy in 2018, scratch built from plans ( AMA plan service), powered by a .19 cu.in Enya (probably from the 80's, new in box when I got it). Brings back lots of memories and still great fun decades later.
Eric Mathisen - 09/06/2024
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- MEN Trainer (oz4101)
- Plan File Filesize: 540KB Filename: Trainer_MEN_58in_oz4101.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 1611KB Filename: Trainer_MEN_58in_oz4101_review.pdf
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Notes
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