The Cri Cri is just fun to fly. It is not really a going places aeroplane and that’s normally what you do when you want to fly with other people.
The disadvantages of rhe Cri Cri are mainly, lack of range and secondly it is not for big people. Perhaps also you might consider it a disadvantage to have to start the engines with a piecebof string before you get in it.
It is highly manouvrable and did I say its great fun. Did you ever go down hill in your own soap cart when you were a child. You get the same exhileration when flying a Cri Cri.
Here in France the Cri Cri is flown on an SEP/A licence so I believe all those hours having fun can count in annual flying hours like any cerified SEP.
It comes under the homebuilt or experimental CDNR category. So you can build it, modify it,
bung different engines on it (with approval from OSAC) .
The jet version is the quickest but has much less range. To get most fun from this version you need to push it to the threshold.
The electric version is only a few kph slower but the range is better but you still wouldn’t want to go far from the circuit.
Most people now seem to be looking at snowmobile type engines as replacements. They are easy to change as they sit on posts on either side of the cockpit.
Did I mention they are fun?
There is someone now building one in carbon fibre but normally they are all metal.
Someone I know took off in one from the roof of a 4×4. Just got the 4×4 up to about 60 mph and then add power on the Cri Cri.
The wings come off (intentionally😃) for transportation and hangarage. Many are sold with their own trailers (a bit like the ones used to transport gliders). So after a bit of flying and a couple of jerry cans worth of flying, you can pack it up and take it home, stick it in the garage, so no hangar fees.
Insurance is not high, the hull value is not high. About the same as you would pay for a ULM of comparative value.
I do not know of any with parachute but as they are built from plans I don’t think there is any reason why one couldn’t be fitted.
They will climb (a little) OEI.
Fuel cost IIRC approx 10 to 15 litres 2 stroke per hour, total for the 2 engines, depending on engine.
Not suitable for people who don’t like being confined to small spaces, although the bubble canopy does give a feeling of not being in an aircraft at all. Also its a bit disconcerting the first few times you climb in and feel how close your bum is to the floor as you start the take off roll (a bit like 100mph go cart).
Not suitable for people who like going places IFR (damn shame that)
Not suitable for people who don’t enjoy just flying around having fun for an hour or so.
Note I have never flown the electric or jet versions, but a pilot I met flew the electric one across the English Channel or La Manche.
GO FOR IT IMO, if you have some spare cash but I don’t think it will ever be more than a super toy.
A few moons ago, I bought myself a “cheap” toy: A Rutan designed VariEze.
Nicknamed it my Plastic Toy.
Flew it a year and a half, then sold it. Why? It didn’t fit my mission profile. Claustrophobic seating, restricted vis, average performance, tandem seating, no luggage space but for a single toothbrush, low survival expectation in case of engine stoppage, restricted to hard runways, and wifey hated it. It also had terrible flight controls, e.g. over sensitive pitch, almost no aileron roll control below 90MPH, etc.
Yes, it was fun. Yes, I flew it all the way to the Black Sea with my foldable bicycle in lieu of a pax. Yes, it was easy to ground handle, pick-up the nose and push around. Yes, I had a custom trailer and could remove or install the wings and load or unload it in about 20 minutes time. Yes, it was fun and easy to land.
So it didn’t fit my mission profile. Buying any aircraft is a commitment, sentimental and financial. Buying an aircraft is easy, selling one with no financial loss more difficult. Hope all the above helps in your decision. Define your mission, weigh in the pros and cons, then decide.
Good luck, and let us know how it works out 
Just buy it. From what you posted, if someone can do this then you! Have fun!
gallois wrote:
The wings come off (intentionally😃) for transportation and hangarage. Many are sold with their own trailers (a bit like the ones used to transport gliders). So after a bit of flying and a couple of jerry cans worth of flying, you can pack it up and take it home, stick it in the garage, so no hangar fees.
That in combination with the tiny size of the plane has got to be a good thing.
To me the attraction of the plane, and trailering the plane, would depend a lot on where I could take it to fly. If you had access to large, flat areas (I’m thinking in terms of large dry lake beds and the like) and could fly it from there, I think it really would be a lot of fun for the money. On the other hand I remember being at a very different and confined airport as a kid with my dad when a guy took off in an Aerosport Rail, similarly powered by two non-aircraft 2-stroke engines on pylons, had some kind of engine problem and flew into a bridge on his upwind. That was the end of him.
The problem is everyone can quote horror stories and accidents about every aircraft. GA is not without risks. In club house gossip I have often been told how dangerous the Cri Cri is to fly, always bar once by pilots or even non pilots who have never flown one. The bar one is my great friend and much better and experienced pilot than me who tells the story of doing aerobatics in a Cri Cri. All went well until he looped and flew upside down for around 10 to 20 seconds when the engines cut.
On righting the aircraft and putting a bit of wind in the props, he couldn’t restart the engines and he had to land in a field which turned out to be full of fresh cow pats. Blooming dangerous he said, I could have ruined my shoes.
The Cri Cri has pretty good STOL characteristics and here you could trailer it off to some field (owner permitting) and go for a flight.
But in this area that is not really necessary as we are well blessed with a large number of airfields, large(for France at least) and small used by ULMs. All of which are suitable for a Cri Cri.
They are wonderful little planes to fly and fly cheaply if you are happy about its limitations.
The reason I brought up the trailer was a reference to avoiding hangar fees which I know in some areas can be expensive, if you can get one.
access to large, flat areas (I’m thinking in terms of large dry lake beds and the like)
Dream on… the OP is obviously in Germany, Europe. Overcrowded and tightly regulated environment.
The Colomban Cri-Cri was another craze in the experimental, as it was called then, category when the design came out. Quite a few were built and flown… for a short while. Where are they all now? Why don’t we see more of them?
The Aerosport Rail is an interesting design, though not sure about the tail surfaces being in the wakes produced by the pilot and powerhouse…
There are still many Cri Cri flying in France and being used regularly.
The designer went on to produce many more popular designs based in some ways on the information gleaned on the Cri Cri.
He even designed a larger twin the TwinR, based on an MCR4 which in turn evolved via some composite 2 seaters from the Cri Cri
At the moment Airbus are using a Cri Cri to learn more about electrically powered aircraft.
Several have become jet powered. And in the USA they have quite a good and growing little community, which is also leading to further experimentals based loosely on the design.
But as the designer only sold plans for the aircraft I doubt if he ever expected it to take over the market or provide a challenge to RV (I’m not sure RVs were around when the Cri Cri was born) or Cessna, Piper etc.
In the US, kits were sold on license. However there were some changes made, and the US versions sometimes aren’t safe. I don’t know how many of these aircraft made it to Europe. They were marketed as the Zenair Cricket.
@gallois
Thanks for all the info, interesting stuff. Colomban is indeed a prolific designer of light aircraft. Another example of his creativity is the MC-30 Luciole, sooo cute.
Re the Cri-Cri, we had 4 of them in CHE, each one flew for a couple of years and was then de-registered, and probably recycled. From what I heard, unreliable engines being the decisive factor.
I also remember an aerobatic show by 2 Cri-Cris, at a OUV fly-in in Germany, quite impressive
PS
Aluminum construction and both single seaters, similarities end here: First flight of the RV-3 was 1971, first flight of the Cri-Cri 1973.
gallois wrote:
Most people now seem to be looking at snowmobile type engines as replacements
A seriously doubt anyone use snowmobile engines on a Cri-Cri. Snowmobile engines are often 1000cc+ four stroke and typical 3 cylinder two stroke with 150+ hp. All are liquid cooled.
