Morane- Saulnier MS 500 'Criquet'

[Richard Harris]

I thought this may be of interest to you as I think its a fantastic model?

My club mate Derick Lane has been building this model on and off since I was knee high (he's 91 now), I always thought it was a Fieseler Storch but it is based on the French built Morane-Saulnier MS500 'Criquet'.

The exact fullsize it replicates is now on show in a Berlin museum and the model originated from a Svenson kit though only a few parts were ever used as he says it was not accurate to scale.

Power comes from a laser 120 Vee twin and has just enough to get it into the air, infact if anyone has any tips on the tuning of the motor I would be grateful as it needs it all?

I never ever thought I would see this model completed let alone be the one to maiden it but it has just had its second flight.

The first video is of Derick going over some of its scale detail in 2014, at this stage it was just about to be covered.

The next video is its second flight from last Sunday where we were exploring the flaps, unfortunately one of the retaining nuts on part of the UC came adrift when landing but there was no damage.

A few little tweaks need to be made and she will be out again, hopefully we will get a brighter day and capture better footage.

[Denis Watkins]

Powerful and appropriate rudder use, made the flight look scale

Beautiful model and good pilot

[paul d]

Absolutely marvellous, aeromodelling at its very best, superb model and a superb pilot, so nice to see a scale model flown in a scale fashion.

[Robin Mosedale 1]

Truly remarkable, from research, through replication, fabrication and the result is perfect. Derick, congratulations.

Robin