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Eduard Zlin Z-226 T / MS dual build

Started by Csaba · 30 ≡ · ↻ 2 years ago

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Csaba said 3 years ago:

Well. Let´s get started with the research, as usual. I will also try to dig into a bit into the history of Trener airplane family, since it is a less known type for many of you.
I made a quick review a few days ago, and I will continue here with more details of the kit, and my plans for the build. I plan to get started with this sometime in the first half of 2022. Until that is research time. 🙂

A little bit of Trenerology

So, why did Eduard release this tiny, humble trainer? Well, it was a very important part of aviation history (mainly on the "red side" of the Iron Curtain). It has been a workhorse, towing gliders all day long, a capable aerobatics plane, competing on World Championships, a beloved trainer for generations of military and commercial pilots - and many of these aging planes are still airworthy!

The story starts right after WW2. A new two seater basic training aircraft was requested by the military. The winning design was the Zlin Z-26 (military designation C-5), flown on October 20, 1947. It had a four cylinder Walter Minor 4-III engine, found a lot of other airplanes of the period.
A few years later, in 1953, an improved version was designed, the Zlin Z-126. The type had great success, and was exported to many countries, including Austria, Switzerland or even the USA. The military designation was C-105.

Zlin Z-126 from Wikipedia Serial number 791, flown as OK-IGG in the former Czechoslovakia, later in Germany as D-EJEW. Restored as fictive East German plane.

The initial design was modified again a few years later, this time the goal was to create a tow plane for gliders. Its new engine was significantly stronger, a 6 cylinder Walter Minor 6-III. This was the Z-226B. The front seat had no controls, since most of the Trener family members had to be flown from the rear seat for single pilot flights. This was caused by the center of gravity limitations. This tow plane was the base for the Z-2M26T trainer variation, which was also a capable aerobatics plane. The Moravan factory even created a single seater aerobatics version of the type, the Z-226A.
Further tweaking of the type resulted the Z-226M, retrofitted with an M-137A engine.

1959 was the birthday of a new variant, the Z-326. It got a partially retractable landing gear, new canopy (fewer frames). Just as the with the previous 226, the factory created a single seater aerobatics version, and an M-137 retrofit variant as well.

In 1965, the Zlin Z-526 took off, with a new fuel and oil system. It had a slightly modified layout, so it could be flown from the front seat as well when used for solo flight.
Instead of offering a retrofit, the M-137 engine variant, Z-526F, was produced by the factory in series.
The 526 was the base of a whole series of single seater aerobatics versions (A, AS, AF, AFS).
In 1973, the last variant, the 726 was ready for test flight. It got an M-137AZ engine among other modifications. After a small batch of 31 planes, the Trener production was closed 1974.
Csaba said 3 years ago:

The Trener kit actually, and surprisingly, has more parts and sprues than the Zero that is just about to be released. But, this is due to alternative and optional parts, to a large degree. There are an enormous number of parts that account for unique variations and alterations that the Trener has met within actual use. And we don't even include all of them. To account for all the changes would have greatly complicated the development of the kit and made the instructions a mess. Perhaps, someone will complain based on this fact, but I am sure that everything has a limit, and we reached a maximum point of coverage with this kit. Anyone who wants to take the kit further is more than welcome to do so by their own means.
Quote from Eduard´s info letter, November 2021

This quote above says a lot. As you have seen earlier, the Trener family had a lot of variants, different engine options, wings, propellers, canopies, instrument panels, landing gear configurations, special variants... Even Eduard admits that they are unable to cover everything. Keep this in your mind, and keep reading, I will tell you about my plans with this kit.

The HA-TRD

HA-TRD was born in 1959 as S/N 0350, and delivered to Hungary as part of a small batch of 5 brand new Zlin Z-226T trainers. It wore a sparkling silver/light blue livery. It was used for 15 years, when in 1974 the plane was grounded. According to some sources the central section of the wing had problems, and that (almost) ended its career.

The plane somehow ended up in a small village, Darnózseli (say after me, Dar-nó-zse-li. Nonono, try again, slower. Darn-oh-jelly. Much better, your Hungarian pronunciation is amazing!).
At this point, the story gets a bit blurry. "It was used as a jungle gym on the playground". "It was on the main square". "It was in the school yard" I asked a lot of people, everyone told me a different story. The common point was the village. I managed to find the contact details of the old school principal, who is enjoying his retirement years, and works as a local historian for fun. Hopefully he will be able to give me more information.
I am not sure why the plane ended up in that remote, tiny village, but a few years later it was moved into one of the hangars of the airfield near Győr. The plane was in very bad condition, but the old lead mechanic of our flying club was optimistic. "You guys will fly with this plane!". He was a respected member of the club, long time pilot, but nobody really believed him that the plane will ever fly.

Fast forward to 1996. HA-TRD was retrofitted with a new engine, got a new livery and returned to the club! It took some time to get the money, parts and energy to do it, but the plane was in airworthy condition again, after spending nearly 20 years on the ground. I just joined the club the year before, and was immediately amazed by the story.

Fast forward to 2021. I moved abroad long time ago, not flying anymore, the plane was sold to Slovakia, and operates there as OM-TRD. Eduard releases a fantastic, new tool, super detailed Zlin Trener family. My plan is to build the TRD with its original configuration (Z-226T, silver/blue livery) and after the restoration (Z-226MS, yellow/red livery).
Eduard provides parts for both variants in this double release, but here comes the twist. Do you remember what they wrote? They can´t cover all variants?
Well, take a look on the photos. The TRD is not a common 226MS. I posted a question about it to a local aviation research group, and a few old club members showed up. One of them pointed out something interesting - I did not notice it for decades. The canopy is not coming from a 226, it is a later, shorter variant, probably comes from a 526. The main difference are the length, and the missing frames. We can even see the additional parts needed to cover the gap between the fuselage and the shorter canopy. The other detail is that the engine cover is supposedly a 726 part, and that is not going to be released by Eduard. I think I will be able to use the kit parts to match the original plane, but I will need to go through a tons of photos and drawings to be sure.

The plane had at least three liveries during its lifetime. The original silver/blue above, this rather militant green/blue with large white registrations, and the final yellow/red version.

I will continue posting about the kit parts and more Trener stories later. I will also share my old photos of the TRD to show some interesting details.

Photos from the Avia-info.hu webpage.
Jay Mitchell said 3 years ago:

This will be a very interesting project to watch progress.
John vd Biggelaar said 3 years ago:

Very interesting, Csaba @pikofix
Amazing research done already.
Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years ago:

Wow, what an amazing introduction, my friend @pikofix!

The Zlin was a type a number of us knew little about; now all this amazing info emerged, and I am sure there's much more to come.

It is really great to discover all these details that accompany an aircraft type, its evolutions, variants etc.

The Zlin seems to be one of the aircraft that was evolved in many different aspects, all those differences accounting for a fantastic modeling subject.

Your chosen scheme is really appealing: looking forward to read more of your research results!
George R Blair Jr said 3 years ago:

You are really going the extra mile on this kit, Csaba (@pikofix). With all of the information you are gathering, I think I would be tempted to build several of these kits, each with a different paint scheme and configuration. I am the same way about the old T-6 Texan, which I want to build in several paint schemes. Looking forward to the eventually build.
Csaba said 3 years ago:

Thanks George @gblair, yes, it is one of my favorite planes, and many of the Treners had interesting stories.

This one for example, the HA-TRU, a Z-326 was stolen by two brothers from a flight school, and they escaped over the Iron Curtain to Austria. One of the brothers was taking flying lessons on gliders at the flying club of Hajdúszoboszló (say after me, Hi-doo-so-bos-low 🙂 ) In June 1964, together with his brother broke into the hangar during the night, filled up the plane with fuel, pushed to the corner of the airfield, and managed to get airborne. Without any practical night flying experience, they managed to fly ca. 200 nm over the country, landed on a field at dawn, and asked at a fuel station whether they are in Austria. They were told that the border is close, but they are still in Hungary. The brothers managed to get more fuel, got into the air again, continued flying for another 50nm, and crash landed on a small field. One of the brothers was badly wounded, but both of them survived the journey.
In the 1960s, most of the large flying schools were located in the eastern part of the country - it was not a secret, that the government wanted to prevent similar escapes. The brothers were not the first ones stealing an airplane for escape. Actually, there was a policy in place, requiring the airfield staff to remove the propeller or make the fuel system unusable after each day, and lock the planes into a hangar in that condition. However, it seems that the policy was not really enforced, since the brothers managed to find the plane in fully working condition.

The T-6 is also a great looking plane, it is a shame that there is no really good kit covering it (at least I am unaware of such a kit). Would be interesting to make one of those Reno racers, many of them have crazy schemes.
Csaba said 3 years ago:
1. The "updated" canopy. The original 226 canopy was an older, "birdcage" style version. This shorter variant came with the 326.
I took these photos around 2004, I think. You can see that their quality is not the best, I think I used a compact digital camera back then. TRD was undergoing a longer maintenance, just sitting in the corner of the hangar, collecting dust for a few weeks. The last two photos are from airport-data.com.

You can see the changed canopy, and the unique instrument panels. None of the Eduard options match the instrument panels, but I should be able to create an acceptable version. I plan to build the plane with closed canopy anyway.

Interesting to see the difference between the front and rear seats. There is no sign of use at all in the front cockpit, but the rear one is chipped, faded, dirty and well used. The 226 was operated from the rear set for solo flights. Since it was mainly a tow plane, the front seat was barely used after the restoration.
11 additional images. Click to enlarge.
1. Note the double registration. Still don´t know why it was made like this.

2. Barely visible antenna on the vertical stabilizer.

3. Rear view mirror. Essential for fighter planes. And tow planes. :)

4. Tow hook. Eduard provides multiple versions.
1. None of the Eduard instrument panels match this layout. As they wrote, there are simply too many variants.

2. I need to make this compass on my own

3. Barely any sign of usage in the front seat - solo flights are done from the rear seat.
1. Really crappy paintwork on the instrument panel. Again, none of the kit instrument panels match this layout.

2. One more compass to build

3. Well. This looks used...
1. The rear seat area is more used for sure
1. Challenging masking waiting for me
1. Elbow grease. :)

2. More sign of rear seat operation

3. Dark blue seat cushion.
1. Light blue seat cushion. No back cushion.

2. No sign of use here.
1. Note the many different inlets. Eduard provides 6 (six!) different versions of this part. Luckily, on of those is the same version.
1. I was told that the engine cover was taken from a 726. These two extra inlets seem to be one of the small differences.

2. Eduard provides 6 (six) different propellers. I need to be careful when finding the correct version.
George R Blair Jr said 3 years ago:

Great story, Csaba (@pikofix), and great picture. I am surprised anyone survived the landing. It is amazing what you can do when you are motivated. Your Hungarian lessons remind me of my visits to my grandparents who were from Prague. They migrated to west Texas before WW2. My grandparents, along with my mom and her sister would sit around, talking in Czechoslovakian, and then look at me like I understood what they had said. They would sound out words for me which I would promptly forget. I'm not sure, but I would suspect that Hungarian and Czechoslovakian are related linguistically.

As for the T-6, I like the 1/48 Monogram which can be built into a nice model. I also have one or two from Occidental and Italeri. The Italeri actually comes from Occidental molds. There are a bunch of T-6s in 1/72, but they are a little too small for my eyes right now. I also have a couple of the Kitty Hawk T-6 in 1/32, which is a really nice kit. I have built the Monogram kit a couple of times, but the Kitty Hawk is waiting in the queue.

Cheers
Csaba said 3 years ago:

I took a quick look on Scalemates, and yes, that Monogram is actually not bad, despite being almost as old I am. The KittyHawk is also promising, but probably too big for my limited room. 1:72 was my preferred scale for long time, but I am also getting older...

Actually, the two languages are not connected to all, they are in completely different language families. We do not understand a single word from those languages, even after living next to each other for more than 1000 years. Europe is a strange place. 🙂
George R Blair Jr said 3 years ago:

1/72 T-6s are just a little small for me, Csaba (@pikofix), especially when it comes to masking the canopy sections. Bad news about the non-connection of the 2 languages, now I have to be illiterate in 2 languages. I am, however, really fluent in profanity. :o)
Csaba said 3 years ago:
Let´s dig into the archives

I have a handful of photos of the restored TRD, but it was more tricky to find usable reference material about the plane with its original configuration. What we know is that TRD was part of a small batch of 5 Treners arriving in late 1959 (TRD, -E, -F, -G, -H).I assume that all planes had the same configuration, at least based on the photos they looked exactly the same. So, if I can find photos of any of TRD´s siblings, I can use those as reference.
Luckily we live in the internet age, and there are plenty of resources. One great source of photo material is Fortepan, a non-profit organization saving old negatives, scanning and publishing them. Their tagging is system is great, and the collection is growing by every month.

Let´s what we find there.
1. Ex-military Po-2 with green/blue paint and red-white high visibility stripes on the wings

2. Light gray (?) color on top of the instrument panels

3. Black section at the exhaust pipes.

4. Wooden propeller, middle section is painted
Look, TRD is the second plane and it looks exactly as TRH. Good start! The photo was taken in 1961 in Dunakeszi. (Doo-nah-khe-si) Fortepan / MHSZ
1. Light beige color of seat harness. Eduard provides both the beige and black versions. After the restoration, TRD got black ones.

2. Those two small thingies on the top are the instrument panel lights. These are not there on the modernized TRD.

3. The original instrument panel is included in the kit. The updated one looks different, both the front and rear one.
Same event in early 1961, a close up of an unidentified 226. Fortepan / MHSZ
1. The original "birdcage" canopy, painted blue, base don the very few color photos.

2. If the lineup did not change, then this must the TRD.
TRH, again, same event in 1961, a close up of the cockpit. Fortepan / MHSZ
1. The original Walter Minor engine.

2. Painted wooden propeller.

3. L-200 Morava, a beautiful twin-engine plane. Used by the ambulance in 60s.
Unidentified 226 in 1966, maintenance work on Budaörs airfield, a large GA base (and former international airport) near Budapest. Fortepan / MHSZ

We are still in 1966, same location, Budaörs airfield. A lot of planes are visible. Li-2 (soviet license built DC-3), L-200 Moravas, a PZL-101. Fortepan / MHSZ

Trener, the movie star. In 1969, a short TV series was made in Hungary, telling a story of a few young guys, leaving high school, and ending up as fighter pilots in the air force. In the first episode, the air force delegation is viewing the candidates of a flying club, and the guys make their first step towards the air force. Of course the young pilots are getting trained in Treners, and you can see a few cool air-to-air shots. Péter Huszti is sitting in the plane, playing one of the main characters, standing next to her is Éva Almási, I believe she played his girlfriend. Fortepan / MHSZ
John vd Biggelaar said 3 years ago:

Amazing pictures, Csaba @pikofix
They will definitely be of great help for your build.
Csaba said 3 years ago:

George, @gblair my wife´s knowledge was mainly profanity until the kids came. Now she is learning the language together with them. 🙂
Spiros @fiveten I can´t wait to see whether someone sees business in releasing a book about the Trener family now. Would be fantastic!
Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years ago:

Very helpful pics indeed, my friend @pikofix!

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