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Slow we go! (Morane-Saulnier "Rallye", MS880B)

A true classic. I think a good MS880B will be a collectors aircraft in time to come. It’s such fun to hoon about in one.

Buying, Selling, Flying
EISG, Ireland

We do have one in the club, io360 engined I think, so 180cv but not really fast. I is used by passioned guys and also for mountain qualification.

LFMD, France

greg_mp wrote:

We do have one in the club, io360 engined I think, so 180cv but not really fast. I is used by passioned guys and also for mountain qualification.

Usually it’s the carburated O360 in the MS893. Speed depends on the prop, many are used for glider towing leaving them with a cruise speed of around 170 kp/h with a climb prop. Using a more coarse prop, you can accelerate the 893 to 110 kts @ 2500 RPM down low. (see the original Morane thread here: https://www.euroga.org/forums/aircraft/7180-morane-saulnier-rallye-series-morane-pilot-thread#post_132468)

RobertL18C wrote:

I believe they are also approved for gentle aerobatics

Not all airframes, you NEED to refer to the applicable AMM to that specific aircraft.

mh
Aufwind GmbH
EKPB, Germany

180 HP MS893 with O-360 carbureted Lycoming indicates about 108 knots on 38 liters/hour. Above 5-6,000 feet you can lean back to 34-35 l/hr at the same indicated speed.

Not fuel efficient.

It performs well at MTOW with UL of 854 lbs. in my case. No dramatic difference in handling as you get heavy.

Last Edited by WhiskeyPapa at 17 Jun 11:08
Tököl LHTL

Back in 1970/71 I used to ferry brand new Rallye aircraft from the factory at Tarbes (near Lourdes) to Biggin Hill for the UK importer Air Touring so have more than a few hours on the various derivatives. Bob Cleary, who ran Air Touring, was loathe to give the factory more Francs than absolutely essential so the aircraft were unpainted and had minimum instrumentation -only an ASI, compass, slip ball and non-sensitive altimeter and of course nothing in the way of radio or navigation equipment. The leg to Le Touquet was about 450nm and on the trips I did with the basic 0-200 engine model took between 4hours 35 mins and the longest of 6hours (must have been a headwind most of the way) of some of the most boring flying known to man. All the aircraft had long range tanks of about 90 litres each side. I did a couple of deliveries of the 150hp version powered I seem to remember by an O-300 engine and one trip in a Minerva which had the 220hp Franklin 6-cylinder which made the trip a more comfortable 3h 40m.

I can certainly vouch for the safety aspects of the dear old Rallye’s slow speed flying characteristics. On one collection in late December I just got into Le Touquet before a warm sector closed the airfield and threatened to hang around for a few days. As I had no intention of spending Christmas alone in Le Touquet I called Air Touring and told them I planned to leave the aircraft there and take a car ferry back to Blighty. Bob Cleary didn’t like that and suggested he would send a fully instrumented demonstrator flown by an instructor so I could fly formation with him to climb to VMC on top and continue to Biggin where the weather was forecast to clear. The instructor and aircraft duly appeared out of the murk and I did a very through brief on formation speeds, procedures etc as I soon learned he had no previous formation flying experience. To cut a long story short the lead aircraft was a Rallye with the 150HP engine and soon after take-off we entered cloud in tight formation until he started outclimbing me. At about 2000ft I totally lost visual contact was trying to fly on airspeed, ball and magnetic compass in full IMC until it all got a bit out of hand. Remembering an demonstration flight I once did with the factory test pilot at Tarbes I closed the throttle, selected full flap and sat there with the stick fully aft expecting to hit the sea and try out some winter sea survival! The Rallye did as advertised and descended like a parachute, at about 40kts with slats fully out and wings level, until about 300ft we popped out of cloud and I could see a very grey Channel with hardly any horizon. Recovering to level flight I headed NW at no more than 50ft until the Kent coast and somehow found and landed at Lydd, non-radio and with no flight plan in a brand new aeroplane that needed customs importation documentation and payment of duty etc. The initially suspicious duty customs officer fortunately took pity on me, and even gave me a lift to the railway station; but he did impound the Rallye.

Curiously I didn’t get asked to do any more ferry flights for Air Touring after that but will forever be grateful to the designer of that wonderful, if quirky, aeroplane!

What a brilliant post, Marchettiman. Thank you

I used to know a guy who ferried TBs from Tarbes to Air Touring and they were stripped of instruments, so no gyros…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

@marchettiman
Thanks for posting this. Takes one back to the 70‘s for a few minutes. Brilliant!

Last Edited by Snoopy at 04 Feb 08:39
always learning
LO__, Austria

I’ve heard of those kind of ‘get you through IMC formation flights’ elsewhere, too – I remember someone telling me about doing it in a Cub with only a turn coordinator for a gyro and losing sight of the lead aircraft, and having to use needle-ball-airspeed and the Cub’s benign handling to get out of trouble.

Andreas IOM

alioth wrote:

I’ve heard of those kind of ‘get you through IMC formation flights’ elsewhere, too

“cloud flying” does not need more than ASI & turn indication, it is “instrument flying” that is more involved: almost impossible to shoot precision approach or accurate navigation on partial panel with ASI & Turn only, but surviving a flight in cloud should be doable if one keep power low (or cut it) and forward stick!

Military tend to do lot of cloud/formation flying but they use air-to-air DME for sophisticated guys or just radio for the follower to keeps his heading higher than the leader before the next position fix

I don’t think formation in vintage works well, some tried but they end up with landing on DH at 100ft agl and RVR at 120m, luckily all the 3 had successful 3 forced landings formation VFR in IMC, the 3 pilots were instrument rated (PPL+IRr) but they were not equipped, but I think some of past cloud flying experience did also help (two did RAF cloud/formation flying and one flew vintage gliders in clouds/waves)

Last Edited by Ibra at 06 Feb 18:20
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

almost impossible to shoot precision approach or accurate navigation on partial panel with ASI & Turn only,

Before standby glass (AI/DG), the FAA ATPL checkride required a limited panel non precision, albeit T&B, compass, ASI, altimetre and VSI. If the DPE was so inclined it might be asymmetric. Typically an ILS to LOC only minima.

The Canadian IR in the 1970’s may have had a similar requirement.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom
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