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Technical description
Cri-Cri, Cricket, or.. what?!
Name of plane is MC-10 CRI-CRI. CRI-CRI is twin-engine single-place plane with all-metal construction. Very similar plane Was supplied also as kit for building, under MC-12 CRICKET name, by ZENAIR LTD. company in Canada. Production are no longer working. If you're interested in building or buying planes, you have to write to M.Colomban, who is designer of this nice plane, or to contact other people flying or building this baby:)
Fuselage
Fuselage is all-metal construction. Width is in widest point only 60 cm, height (without bathouse) only 35 cm. Whole fuselage weight is about 14 kilograms. In prototype were installed only tachometer and altimeter. Controlling of plane is classical by the stick and two pedals. Engines are installed on two pylons and are very close to each other - this compensates difference in thrust, f.e. during flight, when is only one motor working.
Wing
Wing is all-metal construction. With span 4,9 M, depth 48 cm, and slimness 8 it seems like wings of any RC model :-) There are used WORTMANN's laminar profile with low Reynolds number. There are ailerons throughout whole span of wings.
Elevator, Rudder
Elevator is floating "T". Elevator weight approx 2 kilograms! Profile is equal to the wings.
Rudder is classic construction and is in-flight adjustable.
Engines
Engines are used very different plane by plane. Common are engines from lawnmower, motor-cycles, and also from RC models. Also was installed jet power. Average prop size is about 70 cm, and power of each engines are between 9 and 20 PS. Nowadays, builders are using engines Valmet, JPX, Limbach, 3W, Rotax, Zenoah, Hirth, and I am glad to see, that are recommended also Czech ZDZ Model.
Landing gear, coloring, miscelanous,...
Landing gear is three-wheeled.
Coloring is 'a good Jack makes a good Jill'.
Flying with the Cri-Cri
Flying with CRI-CRI is by the pilots very pleasant. It's also very fast to prepare Cri-Cri for flying - you can come back from your work, and within three minutes you can take-off. Very big advantage of this plane is, that it can fly many aerobatics maneuvers, you you needn't fly only from 'A' to 'B' points:-)
Resumé
Building is not so easy, because there are no kits with semi-prepared parts. Only plans are available, in French and in English. There are also plans for Cricket, especially in American market, but they say, originall is originall and Michel worked very precise on it, so it's more fair, and also reliable, to buy original planes direcky from him.
Dimensions, speeds,...
MC-10 Cri-Cri | MC-12 Cricket | MC-15 Cri-Cri | |
Wing span | 5 m | 4,9 m | |
Lenght | 3,9 m | ||
Wing area | 3,1 m2 | ||
Weight | 63 kg | 75 kg | |
Weight at take-off | 170 kg | ||
Power of engines | 2x 9PS | 2x 15PS | |
G's | +9G, -4,5G | +9G, -4,5G | |
Max speed | 200 km/h | 250 km/h | |
VNE | 260 km/h | ||
Cruising speed | 170 km/h | 185 km/h | |
Climbing speed | 3 m/s | 6 m/s | |
Distance to take-off | 150 m | 120 m | |
Ceiling | --- | 5,5 km (1,2 km with one engine working) | |
Range of flight | 750 km | 500 km |